Agribella

Big farms in the hills of Lucca began to spring up at the start of the 16th century, when rich silk merchants invested their money in large estates. Amongst these, the Bernardini's bought a cluster of lands located in Segromigno in Monte, to the north of Lucca, in a hilly area that was particularly suitable for cultivating olives and grapes. Big enlargement works were done and wooded areas were cleared for the new vines and olive groves. From then on, the estate played a central part in the family’s wealth, thanks largely to Count Federico Bernardini, a spirited entrepreneur who in the early 19th Century purchased the nearby Buonvisi estate. 

The last Bernardini heiress, Antonietta, married Raffaello Mansi at the end of the 19th Century. Part of her dowry was the Segromigno in Monte estate, which consequently became the Fattoria Mansi Bernardini. In the 1950s, a change from sharecroppers to direct farming ushered in a period of crisis which lasted until the early 1980s when the current owner, great-grandson of Antonietta Bernardini and Raffaello Mansi, began to renovate the buildings and transform the estate from an agricultural to an “agritourist” one. 

Today, Fattoria Mansi Bernardini has five holiday farmhouses, each one with its own swimming pool, and a high quality bed and breakfast service. The agricultural side of the holiday estate has concentrated on the production of extra virgin olive oil, with 2500 young olive trees planted in the last 20 years, bringing the total to 5000.