Agriturismo Spirdo nel Salento

How many times have we said: "ENOUGH! Now I change my life! " How many times have we imagined it, dreamed of it? But how many of us have the courage to do it for real? Turn the page, start from scratch. Home, work, friends, all new, everything to experience, to try. A REAL BET! To do so, you should have at the same time the enthusiasm of a child and the wisdom of an old man, the one who had "L'ENRI", as his wife Maria Luisa still calls him softly. That courage that led them to change their lives in 2003, after years and years of administrative and financial work in the heart of the trendy and mitteleuropean Milan and to take root in a fascinating land, but previously unknown: the SALENTO. Here they buy two "paiare", (typical stone constructions), 13 hectares of land on the Ruffano greenhouses with 540 ancient olive trees immersed in a marvelous Mediterranean vegetation between the two seas, from where it is possible to see, in the fresh and breezy days of the north wind to the east, distant profiles of oriental sunrises or to admire to the west enchanting breathtaking sunsets. Here, after a careful design, they realize their "paradise": an AGRITURISMO where to welcome guests and produce a "GOOD OIL" like that of the past, according to the best criteria of organic agriculture. Enrico Gussoni ("l'Enri") and Maria Luisa Giorgetti ("Lolò '") decided to call both the agriturismo and their SPIRDO oil, inheriting and preserving the name of that agro. SPIRDO is a word that belongs to the Ruffano dialect, archaic like the ancient olive trees that populate this land. Spirdo, or rather spirdu in the local dialect, indicates the decrease, the loss of volume, of weight, of a substance, by dehydration, by evaporation, by drying. Etymologically it could be a variant of spritu, the scrap, the part of material that is lost during the processing phase. But the interpretation of the name becomes more intriguing if it is associated with the word spirit, as it happens in other Salento dialects in which the verb to lose means to be spirited, to be possessed. So why not see in spirdu an alchemical and mysterious process that turns food and drinks, especially oil and wine, when they evaporate slightly losing part of their physicality, with the idea that even things have a their "spirit" that abandons them over time? Or you could think of the mocking action of some spiritello, u moniceddru, the brat goddess who makes the humans angry! In any case SPIRDO, for these connotations so suggestively evocative, it seems a more than appropriate name to indicate these places, more than ever now that the dear "Enri" has just had time to see his dream realized, saying goodbye to always.

Now it is "Lolò" to carry on this dream, as if it were a mission, his own. Never tired, always with new ideas, a lot of determination and great courage, she continues to take care of the company, flanked by Valentina who courageously, after several years of work in marketing in London, has also left the metropolis, to fit into the 'agriturismo and bring their experience into a predominantly female team. The Azienda Agricola Spirdo produces the homonymous extra virgin olive oil of high quality organic olive, the result of cold pressing of Ogliarola olives, bacchiate to not complete maturation of drupes, features that enhance the typical characteristics and allow you to keep longer the organoleptic properties. The property has 12 beds in Mediterranean style rooms with a simple but refined taste, and a restaurant that offers delicacies and specialties of Salento. Because of its extraordinary geographical position and the passion of Maria Luisa, this place is increasingly defining its vocation as an active protagonist in the promotion of organic agriculture, proposing moments of deepening on the knowledge of the territory and organic extra virgin olive oil, through conferences, presentation of books, workshops, events. SPIRDO is the ideal place for an unforgettable stay in Salento, where the traveler is still welcomed as a "sacred" guest where to relive ancient suggestions and walks walking among ancient olive trees, dry stone walls, pajare up to a 'mirror', heap of stones placed on top of the "greenhouse" in the highest area of ​​the property, which in ancient times acted, according to some scholars, as a point of sight of the Saracen raids.