Podere Collebrado
+39 0578 000 000

Agriturismo biologico · Val d'Orcia · dal 1994

Colle brado

An organic hill farm with a wood-fired kitchen, a cheese dairy and a small campsite under the cypresses.

Explore the farm

Today on the hill

In Italy it's
Sunrise
≈ 07:35
Sunset
≈ 18:20
Now
Weather unavailable right now
This month on the farm
Saffron at dawn. Saffron flowers at dawn; the olive harvest begins; truffle hunts start.

The promise

“Everything on the table grew, grazed or was made on this hill.”

Colle means hill. Brado means free-roaming, which is how the animals live here.

Four ways onto the hill

Agriturismo biologico · Val d'Orcia

Pasture to plate

Five steps, about three hundred metres, and anywhere from a morning to three months.

  1. The flock grazing a hill pasture in golden evening light below the farmhouse

    The meadow

    Out by eight, back by dusk. The flock works the hill for wild thyme, chicory and clover, and moves on before the grass is gone.

  2. Sheep lined up at the wooden milking stand in the old stone stable, a steel pail on the straw

    Milking

    Twice a day, in the old stable, 140 sheep and 25 goats. The morning milk goes straight to the dairy, still warm.

  3. Freshly cut curd floating in whey in a steel cheese vat

    The dairy

    Raw milk, natural rennet, salt. Nothing is pasteurised and nothing is added. Elia cuts the curd by hand; the whey becomes this morning's ricotta.

  4. Rows of pecorino wheels ageing on old wooden planks

    The ageing room and the pit

    Weeks, months, or three months underground in a straw-lined pit. Every wheel is turned by hand, and every wheel comes out a little different.

  5. A board of five sheep's cheeses from fresh to pit-aged, with fig mostarda and farm bread

    The table

    Twenty steps from the dairy door to the kitchen. The cheese that aged all summer meets bread from this morning's oven.

The sheep graze meadows full of wild herbs on poor clay. Hungry soil makes stubborn, aromatic herbs, and aromatic herbs make better milk. The milk changes with the seasons, so the cheese does too.

Aerial view of the farm: house, vineyard, olive grove and the cypress-lined track
Ancient olive trees in evening light, the farmhouse beyond
An old farmhouse door in a stone wall, with rosemary and a pot of geraniums
A shepherd and the flock on the ridge above the farm at golden hour
A glass of red wine and a bottle on a stone wall above the valley at sunset
Soft morning light over layered hills, a farmhouse and a line of cypresses
  • 60hectares · of pasture, wheat, vines, olives and woods
  • 140 + 25sheep and goats · milked every day
  • 3ingredients · in our cheese: milk, rennet, salt
  • 0km · from field to plate, almost always

This month on the hill

OctoberSaffron at dawn

Saffron flowers at dawn; the olive harvest begins; truffle hunts start.

Ancient olive trees in evening light, the farmhouse beyond

Esperienze

Classes and tours on a working farm. Every one starts with a walk from the stables to the dairy.

  • Rows of pecorino wheels ageing on old wooden planks

    Farm & dairy tour with tasting

    Duration
    1 h 30
    Group
    From 2

    The stables, the dairy, the ageing room, then cheese and wine at the table.

    from €35
  • Hand-rolled pici, flour and a rolling pin on a pasta board, seen from above

    Pasta class

    Duration
    About 5 h
    Group
    From 2

    Three fresh pastas and their sauces, then lunch or dinner with what you made.

    from €140
  • Warm ricotta steaming in three small woven baskets on a wooden board

    Cheese-making morning

    Duration
    2 h 30
    Group
    2–8

    Watch and help Elia make caprino and pecorino. Breakfast is warm ricotta.

    from €75

Colophon

How it started

In 1994 Nora Lindahl, a radio producer from Copenhagen, and Paolo Vitale, a stage carpenter from Genoa, bought a stone podere that had stood empty for thirty years. It was three hundred years old, it sat on a hill of pale clay, and it had no roof worth the name. They wanted to live on what their own land could give. Everyone told them it was a lovely idea.

  1. 1994

    Nora and Paolo buy the podere. First vines, olive trees, wheat, hens and a vegetable garden; they start making their own pasta.

  2. 1995

    First sheep, goats and pigs. Friends help restore the farmhouse; a wood-fired oven is built.

  3. 1996

    Selling at the weekly markets in nearby villages.

  4. 1997

    Certified organic.

  5. 1999

    The farm opens to campers and becomes an agriturismo; school groups start visiting as a fattoria didattica.

  6. 2004

    The Val d'Orcia joins the UNESCO World Heritage List.

  7. 2005

    The dairy opens: raw-milk pecorino, caprino and ricotta.

  8. 2009

    First cooking classes in the farm kitchen.

  9. 2012

    The restaurant moves into the old stables.

  10. 2018

    First wedding on the terrace; first truffle hunts with guests; a cut-flower garden is planted.

  11. 2019

    First saffron harvest.

  12. 2020

    Beehives return to the hill.

  13. 2021

    First pit-aged pecorino; the Saturday farm market begins.

  14. 2022

    Stone-ground flour from our own heritage durum wheat, Senatore Cappelli.

  15. 2025

    Solar panels make the farm's energy as home-grown as its food.

Some years the hail takes the grapes; some nights a wolf takes a hen. That's farming.

La Bottega

Pit-aged pecorino

€13 / €26

New olive oil

€16 / €65

Wildflower & chestnut honey

€9 / €10

The "Il Colle" box

€75

Cheese, oil, honey and pasta from the hill, in the farm shop and shipped within the EU.

Farm market every Saturday, 10:00–18:00.

Guest notes

“We booked lunch and stayed until the sheep came home. The ricotta alone is worth the drive.”

Hanne, Oslo

Sample notes for this demo

Finding us

You need a car. The last 1.5 km is gravel: fine for normal cars, too narrow for coaches. Free parking. Sat-navs get confused on the white roads, so use the map link below.

  • Pienza15 min
  • Montepulciano20 min
  • Monticchiello15 min
  • Bagno Vignoni25 min
  • Montalcino40 min
  • Chiusi-Chianciano Terme (FS)40 min
  • Siena1 h
Open in Maps (approximate)
Illustrated map of the Val d'Orcia with Podere CollebradoMonte AmiataPienza15 minMontepulciano20 minMonticchiello15 minBagno Vignoni25 minMontalcino40 minPodere Collebrado
Illustrated map, not to scale. The farm's position is fictional.

Letters from the hill

Four letters a year: the new oil, the first ricotta, the pit cheese, and whatever else happened.

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Mourra StudioDesign concept by Mourra Studio · fictional business

This is a demo

Podere Collebrado is a fictional farm, designed by Mourra Studio to show what we build. In a real site this would call the farm.