Born in Milan, family in Puglia and living in the Netherlands since 2011, I have always felt the need to connect all these "worlds." In 2015, driven by a desire to help friends, I started importing authentic olive oil and wine from Trinitapoli, a small town in southern Italy where traditional producers' amazing products wouldn't easily reach international markets.

What began as a simple webshop quickly evolved into something more meaningful. Through video stories and vlogs, I shared the authentic stories of our producers, their craft, and traditions. The highlight was our olive tree adoption program, which allowed customers to know exactly where their oil came from while directly supporting small-scale producers.

In 2016, we started organizing tours to Trinitapoli with the help of a local tourism association. In three years, we took 80 people from the Netherlands to Puglia to meet the producers, experience the harvest, and even enjoy limoncello at my grandmother's house. This initiative sparked unexpected enthusiasm in the town, catching the attention of local press and even the mayor. More importantly, it showed the potential for creating sustainable connections between The Netherlands and Trinitapoli's artisanal producers.

This experience laid the foundation for Terra Collective, proving that direct relationships between conscious consumers and authentic producers can create value for everyone involved. My dream is to build more "bridges" to connect authentic corners of Italy with food lovers in the Netherlands and Europe. This means growing the collective and developing meaningful partnerships with more producers from various parts of Italy.