Vegan Living in Tuscany | Sabrina Valeria Ronco

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In today’s episode of the World Vegan Travel Podcast, we’re excited to welcome Sabrina, the co-founder of Podere Sole, a vegan bed and breakfast nestled in the stunning countryside of Tuscany. Sabrina brings a fascinating mix of multicultural experiences and a deep passion for sustainability to everything she does.

We’ll explore how she made the leap from her previous career to creating a unique retreat in Tuscany. Along the way, we’ll touch on the inspiration behind Podere Sole, its connection to the land and Tuscan traditions, and what makes this place a must-visit for vegan travelers. Stay tuned for an engaging conversation about sustainable living, cultural heritage, and the magic of Tuscany!

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Transcript

Brighde: Welcome to the World Vegan Travel Podcast Sabrina.



Sabrina: Thank you so much, Brighde, I'm very happy to be here.



Brighde: So today you're going to be sharing your beautiful property in Tuscany and talking all about that. But, how you've got to this point is really very interesting. So before we talk about Podere Sole, would you mind sharing your story up until this point?



Sabrina: Sure,It's actually quite a long story, but to make it a bit shorter. I'm half Chilean, half Italian. I was born and raised in Germany though, so, I feel connected to all cultures, but also feel quite German in some ways. I lived in Germany most of my life. I studied abroad, in the Netherlands, in the UK, in the US, then came back to Germany, and followed a career in sustainable development, development corporation. I worked for the German council for sustainable development in Berlin. So quite, yeah, impactful, but high stress. Then my parents who were living in the U.S. at the time, my stepdad and my mom, they came back to Europe. They wanted to be closer to my sister and me, mainly to family, and they were searching a small property in the beginning, but then they found this place. A lot of factors came together and they found a place that really had a lot of potential to be developed.I was ready for a next step, for something different, and I used the opportunity to sort of go and help them for a year. But now I'm in my second year and I really enjoy it. And it's starting to become a dream, a shared dream.



Brighde: So tell us about Podere Sole.



Sabrina: Like I said in the beginning, I was supposed to help out and to start up this place with my parents, and go back to my real career. But I found a place that was so beautiful, so amazing, so inspiring,that I didn't really think before that I would find something like that. Like a shared dream, like I said before. We have six hectares of vineyard. A hectare of olive grove, 30 hectares of fields, and this old farmhouse that dates back to 1600s. At least in Tuscany, it's very common that a lot of houses generationally came together and made a bigger house. We started to cultivate the land first off, but as we're a vegan family and we're very connected to our vegan principles, we thought we could share this with others and make a vegan B&B. This has become the core of the project now. So that's where we are at right now.



Brighde: Wow. Tell us more about this bed and breakfast, because this type of accommodation is very popular in Italy, in Tuscany, and I know there are quite strict rules about whether it can be called agriturismo or not, but tell us a little bit about like the accommodation, like how big it is, like the price point, what people can expect when they stay there.



Sabrina: Okay. So that's exactly right. To be an agiturismo, you have to be mainly an agricultural company. So you have to be a farming company. You have to be a farm. It depends on what kind of farming you do. Depends on how many rooms you can have. So the labor intensity of what you do decides how many rooms you're allowed to have.



Brighde: Oh, really?



With the labor intensity of a vineyard, we could have, I think, up to 60 rooms or something. We have 110 hectares in total, 63 acres of woods also. But we only have three rooms for now. Quite small. Three guest rooms, all double bedrooms, all have their unique character. One of them we're planning to make into a guest apartment. And the price point right now is 140 for a night without breakfast. And then if you want the vegan breakfast, it goes up to 170, depending on how many people there are. I love it. 



Sabrina: Yeah, exactly. So that's where we are right now. And obviously, when you come to stay with us, you come to stay with a family. I think that's also the traditional way of an agriturismo. A lot of people actually now use the agriturismo license to almost have hotels or something like that. But, the original traditional way of an agriturismo, especially in Tuscany is, you come to a farm. You come to an active farm and usually a family lived there. We go back to the roots in that way.



Brighde: Yeah. If I understand well, and I would love it if you could correct me if I'm wrong, Sabrina, but I feel like this scheme of having agritourismos, one of the benefits is, that it ensures that the farmers stay on the land, and continue with the more traditional ways. Because they're actually able to supplement their income by having people stay on the property. That's always what I've assumed. Is that correct?



Sabrina: That's a hundred percent correct. Especially when you do it in the traditional way. It's a way of doing the agricultural activity that can bring an income. But also, I'm not sure if the founders of this concept saw it that way, but I think it's a way of sharing the agricultural life which is the base of society in a lot of ways, and of food production in the country. At least to share it with the wider public and to make that accessible, to really have a connection between the land, the agricultural production, and the people who might have a more urban life.



Right. Fantastic.



Brighde: I think Podere Sole only opened in like the past year or two, is that correct? So you've been learning about the tourism industry and hospitality as well as the complicated science of viney culture, right?



Sabrina: Yes, exactly right. All three of us. My stepdad has some farming background, but more, that was his family, at home, so in his youth. My mom is actually a translator and has a cultural and language background, and now does a lot of administration. And I have a project management background. It sounds very different, but actually applied to what we're doing right now. It's not that different. I do a lot of project management. My mom does a lot of language and communications administrative work. 



 So, what I find really interesting, talking with you, Sabrina, and listening to your family background, is that you really are a very multicultural family. And obviously that brings different worldviews, and language, and cultural stuff into the equation, into doing this. Are you thinking of trying to bring those aspects into Podero Sole, or do you want to keep it like just very traditional Tuscan, and the experience that people will have, and the wine that will be made and the other agricultural products?



Sabrina: I think that's an interesting question because, I guess it will be, I think the multicultural background that we have, enables us to arrive, at least for me, is that way. I think my parents are similar. We arrived in a place and we are open to the culture that we find there. I've been in Tuscany not for very long, but I feel at home. If somebody would call me a Tuscan, I wouldn't disagree. I wouldn't say something. I think that's what multiculturalism brings to you. Inspires you to listen to others. It makes you curious and it makes you feel at home in a different context. It makes you adaptable in that way. I think that's what inspires us to see this kind of Tuscan culture. So I think the multicultural background in one way, helps us to find roots, but it also helps us to find ways to play with that a little bit, and to know that in every culture you can find something new to learn from, and adapt it in ways. But for the guests that come to our agiturismo, I think we really want to find a way to, let them experience the real Tuscan experience. I've now learned, a lot of people have lived in it. We've met the family actually that lived in Podere Sole before it was abandoned. They lived in there until the fifties. 



Brighde: Oh wow, so it was abandoned for 50



Sabrina: years.



There was a family then between us that renovated it. And now we are the new stewards of the land, but that's exactly how we see it. We are just the stewards for the next generation of Podere Sole, hopefully. And we met the family that was living there for generations, actually. So they were farmers that did sharecropping with the villa of the area. So there was a farmhouse that was contributing to this areas, as a day system. And when they talk about how they live their life, that's exactly what we brought. So it was a family that lived in Podere Sole. They were connected to the agricultural traditions and daily routines. I think this kind of slow-living culture that they taught us, is something that we want to share with our guests. And so I think it's a real Tuscan experience, but maybe not in the way that a lot of people think of Tuscan experience in the world.



Brighde: I see. Are you referring to the vegan aspect of it?



Sabrina: Yes.



Yeah, tell us, can you tell us then what is it that vegan travelers would expect or maybe people who are not vegan, who happened to cross your agroturismo, like how would the experience be unique or different? Yeah. I think a lot of people would think of Tuscany nowadays. They think of, also the meat culture. So Chianina and the Valichiana. And I think a lot of Italians would think of that. But if you really listen to people, this older generations who've lived the real Tuscan experience in agricultural zonesdecades ago, they would not talk about Tuscany in that way. They would talk about the slow-living aspects of Tuscany, the connection to the land in all its aspects, this kind of crop diversity, and having a vineyard combined, with next to it, an olive grove and grain fields next to them. So the original Tuscan experience for me, it's not far off from maybe exactly what we're doing. What we're trying to do in Podere Sole, trying to connect, and also vegan experience for me, is not only going to a vegan B&B and eating a vegan breakfast and then that's it, but actually the vegan that would be plant-based I guess. I don't know, but the vegan experience for me is more than that. A vegan experience would mean really trying to find a way of being more sustainable, lessening your impact on the environment, learning about plants and cultures, mushrooms, et cetera. Nurturing the kind of local environment and biodiversity that is there. So I think when people come to our place, they won't only experience a vegan B& B in the way of, they have a delicious vegan breakfast in the morning, but they will, if they're interested, learn about what the Tuscan countryside is about, what the Tuscan agriculture is about. Yeah. And living in harmony and finding that slow-living pace.



Brighde: I love it. Fantastic. Could you tell us where in Tuscany Podere Sole is located?



Sabrina: Yeah. So it's in Triquanda.A lot of people would probably know. It's one hour south ofSiena. So a beautiful, protected area of Tuscany. So we are right at the border between the Val d'Orcia region, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the Crete Senesi. It's a medieval village in a medieval area, in the middle of Tuscany, you could say.



Brighde: I have been to Traquanda before. It's very small. Yes. There's actually a couple of vegan restaurants there.



Sabrina: Exactly. Yes, that's true.



Brighde: Yeah! And on our first trip that we did to Tuscany, we had lunch at one of them. The really lovely one that's opposite the church. Yes. Unfortunately, as much as that was such a lovely lunch experience, our itinerary for the trip has changed, so that now having lunch in Traquanda doesn't make much sense, which is unfortunate. But it is a very cute, sleepy little village.For Tuscany, quite remote, I would say. There's not a lot of big towns nearby. Siena isn't even a really, very big town, and that's did you say an hour away?



Yes, about an hour. Yeah.



Sabrina: That's true. But it's interesting. There's new restaurants opening. There's the castle that maybe you saw in Trequanda, also on that square with the church.



It's also going to be developed into a cultural center. So it's quite an up and coming place. And going back to the family that we met, the three siblings that are still alive are in their eighties. They have a lot of memories of a completely different Trequanda. The Trequanda that they knew as children or as teenagers,had three bars, three restaurants, a cinema, all the churches were active. There was a real community and a lot of sort of a bustling town almost at that time. 



Brighde: So I think that's also one of the things that really excites me to be part of a new generation of young Italians that are trying to make the countryside, yeah,to give new life to these beautiful historic paths and towns.



Yeah, that is fantastic and it is lovely to see because we so often hear about Italian villages just becoming deserted because people have to move to the cities to get jobs. And the fact that there's some work going on to revitalize them is such great news. When people stay in Trequanda, or at Podere Sole, what are some of the activities that they're usually doing close by?



Sabrina: There's so many, but to name just a few, on Podere Sole itself, you can do a vineyard tour with us where we explain the five varieties that we have, and how we try to make our vineyard more sustainable. You could take a walk in our olive grove. You can also walk from Podere Sole, it takes about an hour to Trequanda itself, a beautiful hiking trail around the property. Depending on the seasons, we also have a truffle area where you can do truffle hunting.



Brighde: So we're trying to establish a little mushroom farm at the bottom. And so you can really do a lot of nature activities in and around Podere Sole, but then obviously, what a lot of our guests do, is explore the area. We're in one of the, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful places in Italy, maybe in the world. The Val d'Orcia is an incredible, renaissance, manicured landscape that is unique in the world. There's thermal places all around. There's beautiful medieval villages, all with their unique charm. And, yeah, it's really worth a visit, our area.



I love it. Yeah,it's just such a a fantastic destination to go to. There's all of the hilltop towns, and if you're interested in the slow food movement, if you're interested in wine, it just feels, you can't beat it for sure. It's just so picturesque as well. What are your long term goals for Podere Sole? And are you thinking about expanding the number of rooms that you have? Or maybe you've got some interesting projects coming up?



Yes, there's so many projects. It's a really long list, but I guess the most interesting ones, maybe, for our listeners, are that we're planning to have our own wine cellar. We started to make our first wine last year now,so 2024. And, we focused on two varieties, on Sangiovese and Foglia Tonda. So really, traditional varieties, but we're producing in a neighboring wine cellar. So the project is to have our own wine cellar, and really be able to produce more wine, and do it on our own property.I am sure that takes a lot of learning.



Sabrina: Oh, yes. Everything we did took a lot of learning, really. There's so many families around us that shared the experience, but, sometimes I think, wow, that's so nice that they've had generations of people doing this; the same thing, and being able to learn from their fathers and grandfathers, and grandmothers, and mothers, I have to say. That's so beautiful that a lot of people have this, but I think, what gives us the edge and what makes us unique, thatwe come from such different backgrounds, and that we really can learn everything from new. So I think it gives us a kind of an innovation and definitely also sustainability edge because we don't do things the way they're always done, but we search for the best solutions, especially the most sustainable solutions. So another project we also have, is that we want to,that's the main project, I would say. We want to definitely focus on more climate adaptation measures, rain systems, irrigation systems, and so on. But especially also in the vineyards.The reality is, we got a place that is with six hectares of vineyard as a monoculture. And the first thing we did is, apply for organic certification, which takes three years in Italy. They have very strict rules. But just having the organic certification, and being organic, is not enough in my opinion. I think we have to step by step learn how to really focus on soil health, to choose cover crops that give back to the earth. To use traditional Tuscan agricultural methods, but, tweak them in a modern, sustainable way. And we have to deal with, obviously, also land that doesn't have a lot of water. Irrigation is not something that is done in Tuscany. Maybe in the future, to see what climate change brings, but for now, we have to learn how to retain moisture in the earth. With cover crops also. There's nitrogen binding, legumes, cover crops, but there's also cover crops that bring biodiversity and natural pest controls, like ladybugs population to the vineyard. And so I hope that the big project or the big vision for me in terms of our agriculture is, to really get to a point where we give more to the land than we're taking from it. So that would be the ideal version of this. So I hope it's going to be a learning journey until then.



Brighde: That's a noble goal. I'm sure it's not easy, but I think with all of you together, you're going to get there. It might take you a while, but I'm sure you will.



Sabrina: Thank you.



Brighde: So a question I have is, and I'm asking this, I'm not a huge wine person, but I'm friends and a partner of somebody that does enjoy wine. What are the wine varieties that you are working on at the moment and looking to integrate into Podere Sole?



Sabrina: Okay, so we have five wine varieties in total. We have Pinot Nero, Cabernet Sauvignon, Foglia Tonda, which is an ancient Sangiovese grape, Sangiovese, and Merlot. So we have a quite a variety. So in that way, it's also not mono culture, but these are a few varieties that we have in our vineyard. And what we're focusing on right now, and the first wines that we make in 2024, are Sangiovese, the classic Tuscan red wine grape. We want to have our own unique version of it. It's definitely with a sustainability focus. And, the other wine that we make is the Foglia Tonda, which is one of the rarest varieties of grapes in the world. Yes.



I 



Brighde: never heard of it.



Sabrina: Yeah, there's only about 60 hectares in the world. They're all in Tuscany, and we have half a hectare of it, and it's a variety that was lost for centuries, supposedly. It's not really lost, of course, because the traditional way of winemaking is maybe, a grandpa has his vineyard and has a few plants of Foglia Tonda still in his vineyard. But it was lost in the official statistics. And it's a grape that's very interesting, very tannic, very strong. Also harder to manage,as a wine, but also as a plant than Sangiovese. But in my opinion, very interesting. And so I'm very excited about going on this journey and developing this wine which we don't know when they will be released yet because we have a very sort of process oriented approach. Right now, they did their fermentation, they're in the malolactic fermentation process right now. We'll see where we go with it. I'm very interested in wood aging, but let's see if we get there at some point. Yeah.



Brighde: So interesting. Alright, I am sure a stay in Tuscany in an agriturismo is on many people's bucket list. So would you mind sharing with listeners how they can learn more about the project and perhaps even book a stay?



Sabrina: Yes, of course. So our Instagram is probably the best way to look at what we're doing. That's Podere dot Sole, and our website is also a good place. That's Podere Sole, all written together. com. Feel free to reach out. We're very happy to connect with people, and to plan a stay with them. Looking forward to seeing you in Tuscany, and to welcome you to Podere Sole.



Brighde: I love it. That's so fantastic. Thank you, Sabrina, so much, for taking the time to be on the podcast. It was so informative and I can't wait for our listeners to hear all about it. 



Sabrina: Thank you so much for having me.