Christiane Wassmann Q&A

DESIGN ANTHOLOGY UK: How did your family come to be olive oil producers in Umbria?

My parents bought their 400-year old and abandoned farmhouse, in the middle of an olive grove, in 1995. That same year, we started with our first harvest, even though the house wasn’t livable. We rented an apartment in the village until the house was done. I was living in Munich, at the time, and would come down on the train for the harvest season. We always gave our oil to friends and family every year and of course use it for my mother’s kitchen. She loves cooking and I think that is why we became so passionate about olive oil from the get-go.

D/A: What were some of the key values on the farm from the start? Tell us a little about your parents.

I would say that our values started out and continue to be centred on regenerative practices and sustainability. My parents were one of the first in the area to install solar panels. It was years before any government incentives were offered in Italy. They also installed a blackwater filtration system, where the water could later be used in the gardens. And my mother began planting her gardens since the very beginning. At one point, she had 5 different herb and vegetable gardens. She also had tons of chickens. Both of my parents began to slowly eat less meat and only focused on local products. You can easily live off of olive oil, veggies and eggs! They were really the ones who sparked my commitment to acting responsibly by respecting the earth, including reducing waste. “Respect” is the key word, the most important value of them all.

D/A: Describe the annual harvest – in your childhood but also now, with your own family and the community? How does it work and what does it mean to you?

Our annual olive harvest is the time when we all come together in the grove to make – in my eyes – the best and healthiest product in the world. We have different teams in the grove and everyone leans towards what interests them the most, but everyone helps one another as well. There is the team that moves and lays down the nets under the trees that we are going to pick next. There is the team that collects the olives and cleans out branches and leaves. There is the schlepper (that is usually my job), who takes the filled crates to our loading area and when we are ready, takes the olives to the mill to be quickly pressed. Finally, there are the pickers! This is the favorite team and the one that needs the most amount of people.

Everyone gathers around a tree and rakes the olives onto the nets. They are careful to not step on olives and they enjoy quiet conversations with the rhythm of the raking. Finally, lunch is called and everyone walks to the farmhouse, sits at the long table, set and ready under the olive trees, and we enjoy a long lunch all together. When we taste the olio nuovo (newly-pressed EVOO) together, we feel an incredible sense of camaraderie and community, knowing that we created this oil together. This is how we have always done our harvests and we haven’t changed a thing since we have had Rastrello guests join us. The hotel guests, just become part of the team and we treat them the same as we treat the friends and family, who have been harvesting with us for decades.

D/A:  Why did you decide to expand from OVOO production to open a hotel – Rastrello – in the village of Panicale?

Opening Rastrello as a hotel was a very natural step from making EVOO. There was a gorgeous abandoned villa inside the village walls that was left as an afterthought. Roof tiles started to fall on the street below and locals worried about how dangerous it was. My husband and I have been in the F&B side of hospitality for more than 25 years and thought that this could be a beautiful intimate hotel. We wanted to keep the brand the same as our EVOO, to highlight both the importance of olive oil in our Lago Trasimeno area and because, like during the harvest, a hotel is a place where people come together to enjoy both collectiveness and camaraderie.

D/A: What does Rastrello offer travellers that is unique?

Our unique offering is based on having our guests be able to experience and feel what a typical Italian village is. While we love it when a guest wants to lounge and relax in our hotel garden, we encourage them to go to the piazza and practice “dolce far niente”, which is the “sweetness of doing nothing” but to sit in the piazza (with a cappuccino or spritz) and watch people and life go by. It’s that simple and that perfect.

It doesn’t hurt that beautiful, little Panicale also has an astounding amount of history, art and culture to offer. It’s just presented in a more informal and discreet way than Italy’s bigger, more popular destinations.