The Olive Harvest of the Marchesa of Bonaparte-Gabrielli at Prossedi Castle
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Overview
Ninety minutes south of Rome, in the Monti Lepini hills of Lazio, the medieval borgo of Prossedi keeps its secrets in plain sight: in the silver-green canopy of its ancient olive groves, in the rock-carved cellars beneath its baronial palace, in the hidden rooms of a family that has held this land for centuries. This day begins outside, among the olive trees, where a master olive grower places a basket in your hands and teaches you to harvest by touch. The olives you pick are carried to the Castle mill and pressed while you watch. The oil that results, still warm, still fragrant with the particular character of this soil and this morning, is the oil you taste on bread in the cellars, the oil that will travel home with you in a personalised bottle bearing your name and the date of the day it was made. Between the harvest and the oil, a Marchesa of the Bonaparte-Gabrielli family receives you in a frescoed hall closed for centuries and only recently reopened. The Mayor of Prossedi, Angelo Pincivero, opens a deconsecrated church that belongs to no tourist itinerary and tells you what he knows about it. The borgo reveals itself in a final walk through streets that have not changed their character since the Middle Ages. Everything here is connected: the land, the oil, the family, the history, the stones. Seven hours. One thread running through all of it.
Included Privileges
- Private round-trip transfer from Rome (Canova Bar, Piazza del Popolo) to Prossedi and return.
- Private guide for the full day.
- Guided olive harvest in the historic Castle groves with a master olive grower, including baskets, nets, and traditional harvesting tools.
- Visit to the Castle mill to witness cold pressing, malaxation, and olive oil extraction from start to finish.
- Tasting of the freshly pressed new olive oil, still warm, served on local bread at the mill.
- Visit to the ancient rock-carved cellars beneath the Baronale Palace.
- Aperitif in the cellars with bruschette topped with new olive oil, warm local bread, cured meats, cheeses, olives, and estate wines.
- Exclusive access to the 18th-century frescoed hall of the Baronale Palace, recently reopened after centuries.
- Personal welcome by the Marchesa of the Bonaparte-Gabrielli family, including private storytelling and a glass of wine.
- Exclusive access to the deconsecrated church, opened only for your group, accompanied personally by the Mayor of Prossedi, Angelo Pincivero.
- Guided walk through the medieval historic centre of Prossedi.
- Final toast with the olive oil produced from your own harvest.
- A personalised bottle of extra virgin olive oil from your harvest, labelled with the Castle name and the date of the experience.
Itinerary
- Private pick-up at Canova Bar, Piazza del Popolo, Rome.
- Private transfer to Prossedi, approximately 90 minutes.
- Welcome by your private guide at the Castle grounds.
- Introduction to the day, the land, and the olive harvest ahead.
- Guided harvest in the historic olive groves of the Castle, among the Monti Lepini hills.
- Baskets, nets, and traditional tools provided. Guided hand by hand by the master olive grower.
- Learn to recognise the native varieties and judge the degree of ripeness by touch.
- A tactile, outdoor, fully sensory experience far from mass tourism.
- The harvest is carried directly to the Castle mill.
- Guests witness cold pressing, malaxation, and the separation of the oil from start to finish.
- The freshly pressed new oil is tasted still warm on a slice of local bread: an unrepeatable moment.
- Descent into the ancient cellars carved into the rock beneath the Baronale Palace.
- The history of the cellars and their role in the life of the palazzo.
- Aperitif in the cellars with bruschette topped with the new olive oil from this morning's harvest, warm local bread, cured meats, cheeses, olives, and estate wines.
- Every element on the table is connected to the land you worked that morning.
- Exclusive access to the 18th-century frescoed hall of the Baronale Palace, recently reopened after centuries.
- A personal welcome from the Marchesa of the Bonaparte-Gabrielli family.
- A glass of wine accompanied by a private account of the family's history, the Bonaparte connection, the history of the palazzo, and the stories preserved within its walls.
- Access through a hidden passage in the palace to an ancient secret room containing the noble family's stories and mysteries.
- The Mayor of Prossedi, Angelo Pincivero, opens the deconsecrated church, normally closed to the public, exclusively for your group.
- A private account of the church's history, the relationship between religious and civil power in Prossedi, and the community's vision for its future.
- Guided walk through the medieval streets of Prossedi.
- Stops at the principal churches and panoramic viewpoints overlooking the Monti Lepini plain.
- Insights into the medieval and papal history of the borgo, enriched by everything experienced throughout the day.
- A closing toast celebrating the olive oil produced from your own harvest.
- Each guest receives a personalised bottle of extra virgin olive oil from their harvest, labelled with the name of the Castle and the date of the experience.
- A lasting keepsake of the day.
- Private transfer back to Rome.
- Arrival at Piazza del Popolo at approximately 6:45 PM.
The Experience
The olive groves of the Castle sit among the Monti Lepini hills, old enough that no one alive planted them. The master olive grower walks you into them and begins not with instruction but with attention: he asks you to look at the fruit, to feel the difference between an olive ready to pick and one that needs another week, to understand that this i...
Why Guests Love It
“I picked the olives in the morning and tasted the oil they became by lunch. I have never understood land the way I understood it that day. The bottle is on my kitchen shelf and every time I open it I am back in those hills.” — Caroline and James B., Australia
Meet the Expert
The Castle, the Bonaparte-Gabrielli Family, Angelo Pincivero and the Master Olive Grower
The olive groves of the Castle at Prossedi are old in the way that only trees in this part of Lazio can be old: their root systems predate the families that tend them, their varieties are native to the Monti Lepini hills, and the oil they produce carries a character that is inseparable from this specific soil and this specific elevation. The master olive grower who guides your harvest has spent his working life among these trees. He knows each variety by name and by touch, knows the difference between an olive harvested at the right moment and one taken a week early, and knows how the choices made in the grove are carried all the way through to the flavour in the bottle. What he teaches during the harvest is not technique alone. It is a way of reading a landscape.
The Castle mill is a working mill, not a museum piece. Cold pressing here is not a marketing term. It is a temperature maintained with precision across the entire process because the master knows that heat destroys what the tree spent a year building. The oil that comes out of this mill on the morning of your harvest is as close to the source as oil can be: it carries the particular fragrance of olives pressed within hours of leaving the branch, a quality that disappears within days and cannot be replicated in any commercially produced bottle.
The Bonaparte-Gabrielli family has been part of the history of Prossedi for generations. The Marchesa who receives you in the frescoed hall is not a custodian hired for the occasion. She is a member of the family that built this palazzo, that connected the Bonaparte name to this corner of Lazio, that kept these rooms through the centuries during which they were closed. The frescoes on the walls of the hall she opens for you were commissioned by ancestors whose names and stories she carries personally. The glass of wine she shares with you, and the account she gives of her family's history, are not a performance. They are a private act of confidence extended to very few people.
Angelo Pincivero is the Mayor of Prossedi and a man who has spent his life inside the history of this borgo. He leads you through the deconsecrated church that is not on any public itinerary. His presence inside them transforms what could be a simple architectural visit into a conversation with someone who understands these spaces as a civic inheritance, held in trust for a community that has never stopped caring about what it has. The stories he tells in that church cannot be found in any guidebook because they have never been written down.