The Farm

The Farm “Eredi Carlo Naldini” is located on the slopes of the Pisan hills, around the medieval village of Montemagno of Calci, near Pisa, and in front of the fortress of Verruca, designed by Leonardo da Vinci. The first documented traces of the village date back to the Middle Age, around 800 AD.

The cultivation of olive trees began around 1770, when, following a visit to the territory of Calci, the Grand Duke of Tuscany abolished the obligation of planting pine and chestnut trees, used for the construction of masts of ships, and granted the right to cultivate the land with olive trees by building terraces with stone walls. The Benedictines, who occupied the Abbey alongside the Mount Verruca, played an important part in this reconstruction.

The field “Le Grotte” is the oldest property and belonged to the lawyer Salvatore Naldini until the second half of 1700, as testified by the initials N. S. and the date 1779 engraved on a small stone building, called “Seccatoio”, situated not far from the main house.

Later the estates of “St. Alessandra” and “Colle della Galera” were added to the property together with an oil-mill called Frullino, probably dating from the eighteenth century which remained active until early 1900.
The estate passed to Salvatore Naldini’s son Fausto and then to his nephew Giorgio who expanded the property with the purchase of other parcels and the house located in Via Eugenio III. In the 1880’s, at Giorgio’s death, the ownership of Montemagno passed to his eldest son Carlo, who added the “Frantoio Pisticci”, which remained active until 1978. Now the property is shared between Carlo’s grandchildren, the children of his daughter Luciana: Francesca and Giacomo Bretzel, and the activity is run by Francesca.