It was in this way that Wolfgang Goethe, the German author and traveller, described the Plain of Paestum and his morning trip to admire the classic beauty of its temples, elegant and silent witnesses of that which was one of the most flourishing colonies of Magna Grecia. It was the year 1787 and the area was covered by swamps and muddy ground, the uncontested reign of the buffalo. With its tar-black coat, its sharp horns and its high, flat hooves, this mysterious bovine lived majestically in the still waters,...
Recent restoration of the house has tried to respect the characteristic features of the area, such as Pompeiian red, on the outside, as well as when restoring the inside of the buildings, where the classic terracotta, the ceramics from Vietri and, in some rooms, Travertine marble have been used.
Two large rooms have been made from the salons of the ground floor, where nowadays cultural meetings and art and book exhibitions are held.
The same care has been taken in the arrangement of the barns, lofts and stables: floors made of Tufo, boundary walls made from local stone, avenues decorated with rose-beds and lemon trees. Then, of course, the great enclosures where the animals reign supreme.
The Palmieri Farm and the Vannulo Dairy offer the possibility to discover in person both the ancient and modern science of breeding these animals, close relatives of Indian and North American Buffaloes, and which are present in only a few areas of Italy.
But a visit to the Vannulo Dairy enables one to discover too the art, so refined in its simplicity, of transforming milk into a tasty food, one of the symbols of Italy abroad and a precious item of the culture of this Country.