2011 Olive harvest

Deborah and I have just completed the 2011 olive harvest, with the help of Anna Gregor who came all the way from Edinburgh, and head gardener Roberto Ballini. 2011 has been an exceptionally hot and dry year, and most people have made less than half the amount of oil they made in 2010; we made about two-thirds of last year's quantity ( 200 litres instead of 300), so we are pretty pleased. We used a mechanical shaker for the first time, and it made a huge difference to how fast we could work - we did the whole job in 4 days, collecting 1158 Kg of olives in 56 crates, which our friendly builder Marcello delivered to the Frantoio ( olive press) for us. Four hours later we had our oil, and the good news is that the quality is exceptional - it tastes just wonderful !

We have cracked Broadband at last !

For the last few years there has been only one fly in the ointment at Ripertoli - the unreliable broadband internet connection supplied by Telecom Italia, which worked for about two-thirds of the time at best, and slowly at that.

Our indefatigable IT consultant Alessio Civai has been hard at work researching alternative WiFi solutions, and even installed one at his own home to test it out. He was satisfied with the results, and in July 2011 we signed a contract with " T & T Tecnologie & Telecomunicazioni srl" for a 3 Mps service. So far it has proved 100% reliable, and much faster than the old service.

Right now the internal wireless network covers only the main house, but we will extend it to the capanne shortly.

Ripertoli 2011 season off to a great start !

8 bedrooms with 8 en-suite bathrooms at last ! Deborah & I feel that we have finally achieved our aim with the construction programme we put through in the winter of 2010 - 11, and our clients so far this year certainly seem to agree - we have had some lovely thank-you letters, some of which are now comments on this blog. The whole place looked an absolute picture when we left on July 23, and we can't wait to go back in October, and again in November for the olive harvest. Nigel Tully.