Sustainability
Our Commitment to a
Greener Future
Honoring and protecting the nature that surrounds us is an integral part of our way of life at Rastrello. By working closely with the local community and integrating farming techniques that have been practiced for centuries, we aim to leave this piece of Earth behind as healthy and fruitful as we found it.
Rastrello is set inside the renovated remains of a 500-year-old palazzo and is loved and celebrated by the local community surrounding it. All of our staff are local, the furthest living a 20-minute drive from the hotel.
We constantly strive to foster a sense of community for our team. We host a monthly Spaghettata evening on the last Sunday of each month and invite guests, locals, our team, and their families to join—a tradition that inspired a cookbook of hyper-local recipes from Panicale's older generation. Our sustainable kitchen philosophy and efforts to reduce waste are further steps to inspire both our staff and guests through authentically living close to nature and tending to it.
In the management and farming of our lands we emphasize a holistic approach and care for our olive trees as naturally as possible: by hand-raking for olives while we harvest (the Italian word for this rake is “rastrello”, hence our hotel’s name), using as little irrigation as possible, and not tilling the soil. We also reuse waste as much as possible, such as reusing cardboard for composting hay and reusing olive waste from oil production for artistic purposes.
Art from
olive oil waste
We host an artist residency program which allows artists to be inspired by our luscious and peaceful surroundings. Local industrial designer and researcher Anna Perugini has found a unique way of turning the waste created after olive oil is pressed into sculptural pieces. Discover more about her process and its connection to our land here.
