Our farm is named Sambucaro. Sambuca is a flowering plant commonly referred to as elderflower. Sambucaro means the place of the elderflower.

Sambucaro olive oil was established when Samuel and his father Michael sought to move to this region and away from the busy urban lifestyle. Samuel arrived here with his family, Trina and their daughter, Alix, at the end of 2018.

Until that point, Samuel and Trina had led a very international life; a good fortune and experience that they continue to treasure deeply. Their background encouraged them to see the benefits that can arise from the mixing of cultures, the exchange of ideas, and sharing of experiences. It revealed to them that everywhere has something positive to be enjoyed and nurtured, respected and encouraged to flourish. 

Italy is meaningful for everyone in the family. Trina loves art and the interplay of the traditional and contemporary. She especially admires places and people who have been able to pursue this exchange between past and present with great and repeated success. Before arriving to live here, Trina would visit Italy every year to study classical painting techniques.

For Samuel the country and the culture has touched him in almost every aspect of his life. Samuel’s earliest memories are of Rome, where his father worked at the time, and of the farms near Orvieto where his mother completed her journey to becoming a first-rate cook. One of his brothers later ran an Italian restaurant in Australia. Even later, another brother was named Cosimo, partly in recognition that he came into the world on the six hundredth anniversary of the birth of Cosimo de’ Medici.

Samuel and Trina got married to the music of Vivaldi; meaning that, also in this sense, Italy became the soundtrack for their life together. And their daughter, Alix, was baptized in Rome at the Oratory of San Francesco Saverio del Caravita. She then pursued her schooling at Montessori establishments.

Samuel grew up watching Italian films like La Dolce Vita and reading Italian books like The Leopard and The Name of the Rose, among others. And he still remembers well the evening he saw Pavarotti singing the opera, Tosca, in Rome. 

More recently Trina and Samuel have attended the University for Foreigners in Perugia, which helped them to better understand, in a more profound way, all the influences Italy has had on their lives. The University also helped them to discover new treasures existing in Italy and along the way it made them love even more this amazing country.

At the university, they became interested in the Divine Comedy of Dante for the first time, something that Samuel would have thought impossible beforehand. They discovered the vast array of excellent Italian films. And they experienced the joys of translation, which became – at least for Samuel – his favourite class. The university offered them tantalising glimpses into the various ways Italians see and approach their world.

Thanks to the university, Trina and Samuel managed to dive into Italian life. At least they managed to haggle better at the antique markets where Trina buys old Italian picture frames and Samuel buys Italian books.