It is always difficult to put down on paper the emotions one feels during farm visits. We recently returned from Piedmont where we visited theGallesio Sandro farm in the Alta Langa area, the producers and some of the companies of Rete Agricola Biellese, the tourist agency specializing in cycling tourism Sapori d'Italia in Stresa, and theBocciolo hotel in Orta San Giulio in the Novara area.
These are all companies participating in Upskill Piemonte, a project supported by the CRT Development and Growth Foundation with Upskill 4.0, to revitalize four companies belonging to the Tourism and Agribusiness sectors.
With us were Francesco, Elena, Lucia, and Valentino, students fromITS Tourism and Cultural Activities, and Agnese, Davide, Ronald, and Davide fromITS Agribusiness for Piedmont, all from Piedmont to further amplify the impact of the initiative in the local area and encourage the meeting between young people and businesses.
Accompanying them were our project managers Sofia Ressia and Tiziana Obici from Upkill 4.0 and Anna Rabbia from Fondazione Sviluppo e Crescita CRT.
We were supposed to visit companies, interview entrepreneurs, collect video materials for prototyping, but company visits are always so much more: they allow us to get to know the students, and the students have the opportunity to talk directly with the entrepreneurs, to learn about the care they put into making their products. At the same time, entrepreneurs have the opportunity to talk to young people about their work and perhaps realize, as Sandro Gallesio told us, who with his daughters Giorgia and Lorenza exclusively produces Nocciola Piemonte Igp, that their project can be realized.
As well as for the students, it was wonderful to meet Manuel Poli and Daniela Manfredelli, the two bakers who in Valdilana, at the foot of the Biellese mountains, have opened their "Forno Controcorrente," which brings healthy, organically grown bread to everyone in the village, and who are part of Rete Agricola Biellese. From their visit to Roberto Mercandini's La Torre Farm and Andrea Finco's Ca' D'Andrei Farm, they take home a new awareness of dairy products produced artisanally and with respect for the entire supply chain, because here all raw materials come from other producers in the network. Teritori is the first organic farming network in the Biella region not is a simple union of companies, but has become a kind of community of producers who are very attentive to the product and its use.
For Francesco, Elena, Lucia, and Valentino of ITS Tourism and Cultural Activities, staying at the Bocciolo hotel was an important opportunity to learn about the quality of the facility's services, such as the hotel's famous breakfast, but especially to talk to Alberto Pullano, director of the hotel. Together with Alberto, the students also visited the small vineyard, the vegetable garden, and the beehives from which many of the raw materials used in the hotel's kitchen are obtained.
