When we first discovered the stunning landscapes, Mediterranean climate and the matchless setting of the Cinque Terre, it was love at first sight. We decided to stay, determined to rise to its challenges. "La nostra è una terra avara" (Ours is a grudging land) , goes an old saying in the Cinque Terre. This land commands abiding love and loyalty, but for centuries it often rewarded perseverance with hardship and adversity. Steep coastal cliffs, inaccessible to modern machinery, now as then, exact a high price in human toil.

We named our farm BURANCO after the small valley and the stream which runs through a 500-year-old tunnel beneath our lemon grove. This choice of name pledges our commitment to the Cinque Terre and its ancient peasant culture, which we continue to honour through the preservation and rebuilding of our terraces, our dry stone walls and the high quality of our produce, obtained by farming methods that protect the ancient ecosystem of the BURANCO valley.