The main activity of Abgrialbergo Capalbio, which was founded in 1994, is agrotourism: small buildings spread around a rural area house 30 rooms, which are available from March to September to a large number of both Italians and foreigners.
Being placed in these pleasant surroundings, both the sea and the natural wonders of this part of southern Tuscany are within reach, while many other coastal places have been ruined by concrete.
Moreover, the natural beauty of Maremma is complemented by a rich variety of archaeological remains from pre-history, the Etruscans and the Romans.
Situated at the base of rolling hills typical of Maremma on a fertile plain, which the Romans called «the Golden valley» due to its huge productivity of agricultural produce and the sandy coast of Maremma: walls; towers, terraces, porches, which formed parts of Roman villas; Roman estates were built on top of the hills both to house the Roman nobility and to control the peasants who were cultivating the land and looking after domestic animals like cattle, sheep and pigs, both of which were the base of the economy; there were building to house peasants, artisans, slaves and lords. Nowadays, Romans still have second homes in this area, but they are also joined by northern Europeans together with tourists from other rich countries. There is also Lago di Burano which is a lake famous for its birdlife,
Anyway, we went to this place in order to see how this agrotourism also cultivate the land, growing cereals close by and pomegranate trees next to some of the houses. Although pomegranates don’t reach maturity in late October, the ones which were growing next to the house had somehow become ripe early and the owners showed us how they picked the fruits by cutting the stems by means of a pair of pliers.
Walking around the farm, the owner showed us a large solar cell array for generating current and another one for heating water. He also told us that the olive trees growing on the hills overlooking this place belonged to this farm.
In another field located a short drive away, there was a one hectare field of pomegranate trees, which had been planted only 3 years ago, but had already started producing almost fully-grown pomegranates. The reason for this apparent quick growth is probably due to that he had bought saplings and not seeds from a nursery in Pistoia.
After having harvested the pomegranates, they are sold both wholesale and directly to consumers and to factories where the pomegranates are turned into juice.. Pomegranate juice is highly regarded and much sought after and many people consider it as a natural remedy against various diseases.
There was also a field of blueberries and raspberries near the field of pomegranate trees, but they didn’t produce any berries yet because they had been planted recently.
