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Lifestyle
24 September 2014
CASALE AL COLLE: AN AUTUMN PROMENADE
Autumn is finally here, the season of all little surprises, of new beginnings and of good resolutions. This is really the perfect season to talk about Consuelo and her Casale al Colle, al little green oasis on the hills of Colli Euganei.

Hi Consuelo, where are you writing us from and what can you see around you?

I’m writing you surrounded by the hills of Colli Euganei, where I built my home, where my dream took shape. Around me there’s a wonderful green, olive trees and vineyards stretch up to the horizon, farm animals can live free in suitable spaces and loads of chestnut trees frame this beautiful picture. We are in a corner of paradise, without any noises or traffic bur at the same time we are very close to the centre of Montegrotto Terme.


Your green day starts and ends with…

My day starts at 7 o’clock with a glass of warm water and lemon, a good breakfast with home-made bread and jam (home-made as well), a cup of American coffee sweetened by some honey of our own production and so I get all the energy I need to do my 45 minutes of running or cycling. I come back from work at 6 pm and the first thing I do it to get changed into some comfortable clothes. Then I get on my little tractor and go check my vegetable garden and my animals. Before going to bad I have one of my warm infusions and, if the weather allows me to do that, I spend some time under the porch of my house, listening to the silent noises of nature that help me relax.


If you were an animal, what would you be and why?

I think I would be hawk, free and independent, flying high up in the sky, where I could observe everything below me. But I wouldn’t eat any living prey…I’m vegetarian, after all!


How did you develop the project of Casale al Colle?

Since I was a little girl I have had this childhood dream of living in a farm, surrounded by animals. My associate Alessandra had the same dream so we ventured into this wonderful experience together. A year ago we heard by chance that they sold a plot with a rustic building that was to renovate completely, it fell to pieces really, there were only the outside walls covered in briers and plants. Among those ruins we visualised our desire, which took shape in an incredibly little time, giving us the possibility of starting immediately as didactic farm and farming business.


What do you like the most in your job and who are your favourite guests?

What I like the most is to be able of breeding my animals with 100% natural feeding, of keeping them in the most suitable habitat possible, nearly in the wild, of looking at their everyday moves, at their behaviours. My favourite guests are adults and children that accept our philosophy, that understand how important it is to respect nature and animals and that find in Casale a real restoration and an occasion to learn something new about this wonderful world that, I assure you, never stops being amazing!


Let’s imagine an autumn promenade in your Casale: where will you take us? What colours and scents will we find? Will you introduce us to your animals?

I will take you to the horse corrals, to enjoy their pride and if we are lucky they will want to greet us by challenging each other to a great gallop, showing off what they can do. We will then rich the hill of the chestnut trees, which will be full chestnuts of course, and we will find our little donkeys, which bray and ask for carrots and caresses but also offer enormous smiles. We will then go on to the vegetable garden, where we will have the possibility of picking up pumpkins, the latest courgettes, aubergines and officinal herbs. Our last stop will be on the little plateau, where chickens from Padua share their realm with cocks from Livorno, gooses, Muscovy ducks, and mallards that splash around in their pond. We will hear the pigs grunt while they eat chestnuts, acorns and pressed corn flakes completely free in the wood. As soon as they hear someone coming they come closer and say hi with their noisy language. In order to keep the hill clean we have put some goats and sheep here and there, because they are natural lawnmowers. Every animal has its own role in our business, according to the seasons we move them around so as for everything to be in tune with nature.

www.ilcasalealcolle.it

And after this virtual promenade through Consuelo’s words and the pictures of her wonderful casale we feel more excited and inspired, ready to face autumn at the top of our energy.

DD
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