If you do things with love you are happy, but if you also do them well you can get far.
And this is how we have been happy since we started cultivating abandoned lands between Paliano and Gavignano, sowing ancient grains.
But when we tasted the transformation of these seeds of happiness into grains and then pasta we were struck by their scent, so much so that we launched the concept of new wheat pasta and wheat terroir.
Then we decided that we had to share not only pasta, but the experience of these grains with others and for a year we worked on the project we called 'Una Domenica Italiana - An Italian Sunday', because pasta represents Italy!
And thinking of all the abandoned fields around us, of the efforts of the farmers who sow ancient grains in inaccessible areas (at least the most inconvenient ones), and who compete with the wild boars who eat half the harvest, we couldn't stay and just enjoy our pasta.
I will tell you about some collaboration projects with other small producers in another article, in the meantime allow me to be proud because our pasta was chosen in the gala evening organized by the Lazio Region to promote the candidacy of Italian cuisine as a UNESCO world intangible heritage.
The event was held in one of the magical places of Rome: Castel Sant'Angelo. A visit to the castle introduced us to the press conference where the Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida, the Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano, the President of the Lazio Region Francesco Rocca and the Councilor for Agriculture of the Lazio Region Giancarlo Righini were waiting for us.
One of the most attended conferences of recent years because the theme of Italian cuisine touches us closely, just as it touches closely the 250,000 Italian restaurants abroad and the 120 million (even 150 million if we consider the fourth and fifth generations) of Italian descendants abroad.
If the lion's share was given by Francesco Lollobrigida, who is a true showman and made all the journalists fall in love with his story of the emotional nuances of Italian cuisine and the role of Italians abroad in their promotion, a great round of applause went to him had Gennaro Sangiuliano when he announced that Italian opera singing had just been recognized as a UNESCO heritage site by acclamation.
President Francesco Rocca instead shifted his attention to Lazio even if the funniest story was when he recounted a small but significant diplomatic incident involving Italian cuisine. When he was president of the Red Cross they intervened in Haiti after the earthquake by setting up a field canteen for all the rescuers right next to the Denmark canteen. The first few days the rescuers were divided between the two canteens, then everyone wanted to go to the Italian one while the Danish one was deserted.
Let's say that Italian cuisine is already a world heritage recognized by the whole world and the best ambassador of our country. In fact, in the film Love, Eat and Pray with Giulia Roberts the section dedicated to food was filmed in Italy.
Councilor Giancarlo Righini closed the speeches by giving us the news that the region had passed a law to support the Italian candidacy and to promote the role of our businesses. Among other things, and I didn't know it either, Lazio has established the first LAG concerning the sea and our region has 14% of companies that work organically (including ours, Donna Vittori).
At the end of the press conference, the President of the Senate Ignazio La Russa joined us for the awards ceremony to emeritus people from the region. Among the winners was Enrico Colavita, knight of labor and in the board of NIAF (his nephew), who I then had the pleasure of having next to me during dinner.
A Molise native with overflowing energy who was one of the architects of the cultural transformation of pasta in the USA. Thanks to his work, pasta has become a gourmet dish and Italian 'pasta eaters' have become 'Italian pasta connoisseurs'.
The evening was a real success and ended with some souvenir selfies with friends like the one with Luca Sbardella and his lovely wife (Luca is a Cesanese wine producer and is involved both in the Wine Route and in the Consortium and the Cantina Sociale ) and with Annibale Conti who has now been adopted by Paliano.
A toast on the terrace of Castel Sant’Angelo (famous for Tosca opera), which dominates St. Peter's and overlooks the whole of Rome, with the excellent Kius by Marco Carpineti (unmissable on the table of all my parties) and the preparations of the chefs Marco Bottega, Sandro Serva and Alessandro Circiello will be forever in my memories.
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