Fabrizio Iuli & Summer Wolff

Fabrizio is a farmer, born into a family of farmers. His mother ran a small farm to table restaurant in their village for 50 years. He has been working the family's organic vineyards for as long as he can remember; climbing onto the tractor for the first time at 12 years old, it remains his vehicle of choice today. Food and wine, foraging and hunting in his own back yard; a simple, largely forgotten pace of life is deeply embedded in his Monferrato roots.

Summer grew up on the south shore of Long Island, raised by a mother who was before her time. Organic eating, respect for the environment, natural birth, and homemade everything were key elements of the home. This ethos never left Summer and she found her passion in food and natural wine. After studying Psychology and Italian at the University of Colorado, she travelled from Boulder to SC, back to NY and finally to Italy, working in various roles in the wine world. After meeting Fabrizio she founded a wine import company in 2009.

Together Fabrizio and Summer have 2 sons, both born at home in their 500 year old cascina. Giving their boys an upbringing rich in nature, organic living, and a sense of community not just on a local level but globally, is what has brought them together with the other founding families. Beyond the hard work of balancing parenting, the farm, the small import company… playtime for the Iuli Family is a long meal surrounded by friends and family whilst their children run and laugh and play together, speaking many languages and bringing different cultures together seamlessly as only children can. Sharing their long Cascina table with like minded parents from the area and around the globe is a dream come true, a vision they have shared since they met.

Lucie & Ronan McCullough

Lucie, who grew up outside London, met Dubliner Ronan while they were both working in London. Over nearly twenty years since, they have travelled in six continents of the world together, and worked in three. Several years in London were followed by a decade in Asia, and 6 years near Boston, Massachusetts, where they added two children to the pair born in Hong Kong.

Ronan has worked in financial services around the world, while trying to keep up with Lucie's unrelentingly entrepreneurial and adventurous spirit. With a background in the fashion industry, with stints at Valentino, Ralph Lauren and Vogue Magazine in Rome, Milan and London, Lucie shifted to interior design, specializing in high-end design, health and wellness. A Bau Biologie (or Building Biology) practitioner, she goes beyond familiar ‘green’ or ‘eco’ labels, instead focusing on natural non-toxic design and construction. And in so doing, caring for the health both of people and of the planet.

This latest adventure, building a school and a community in the Monferrato, gives life to a common vision they have long held for their children, of an upbringing insulated from the constant bombardment - by chemicals and toxins, by the pulsing and buzzing of mobile telephone masts and WiFi routers - of their bodies and minds that is a constant of 'conventional' existence. A life lived immersed in nature, and in a thriving community that is diverse, sophisticated, cosmopolitan and open-minded.