Farm holidays Testalepre
Testalepre was born from the desire to combine rural life – its rhythm and the richness of its products – with research and educational practices. We put an effort into cultivating vegetables and fruit, producing extra virgin olive oil and promoting agricultural work through tourism and educational collaboration with schools and local communities.
The staff
Martina and Andrea’s history
Martina and Andrea met in Bologna, where they attended the university: Martina studied history, Andrea philosophy. Martina is from Florence, Andrea from Cremona. They met during the student movement called “anomalous wave”, in which they were actively involved. Both – together with other comrades – were committed to the creation of a social centre called Bartleby, that existed in Bologna from 2009 to 2013.
In September 2011 Andrea and Martina moved to Leicester and started their PhD there. Martina did a research on the oral history of Eritrean people in Milan, Andrea on politics and technoscience. Meanwhile they travelled and visited different places. One day, while having a drink at the bar El Federal in Buenos Aires, they made a plan: “we’ll move to Testalepre, we’ll produce organic olive oil and vegetables, we’ll welcome tourists and make of that place a space for organising occasions of research and education capable to combine everyday practices with knowledge coming from books”.
In 2015, Martina being pregnant, they moved to Testalepre. At the beginning of 2016 Olivia was born, a true “Testalepriana”.
