Silva Plantarium

I arrive at 11 o’clock in the morning with a sky with a pale sun that makes room in the clouds. Mario, a tall man, with a lean body, an elegant face and an intellectual goatee of the Risorgimento, has nothing of the imagination of the peasant already in his appearance.

He welcomes me at the entrance of his estate, beginning to tell me about his life, without even waiting for my questions, because to understand the present we must start from the past…

He tells me about his studies at the agricultural institute of Salerno, his return home to the family farm, his clashes with his father who cultivates vineyards, olive trees like his ancestors and that if I sent a son to study does not mean that he can do what he wants in the countryside, and then what idea to make the nursery of wooded trees…

The will and the stubbornness of the youth lead him to the realization of his first dream, a small nursery that Mario carries on for several years, which becomes increasingly large and profitable.

But when life makes its first turning point and we realize that we are more and more like our parents, we feel a need never felt in the whirlwind of youth: a return to the roots. And to Mario roots are in those abandoned lands since his father, because of the passing of the years, could no longer care for his vineyards, which have been lost.

Since that day his goal has been to restore the old vineyard and the ancient vines.