Manfredi Rizzuto
Owner of Susafa
A little bit about Manfredi…
My name is Manfredi and I am the second born of four children. Giulia is the oldest, Tommaso and Sara the youngest, and we are descendants of Gioacchino Saeli, the fifth generation of Saelis.
After our great great grandfather Gioacchino, the great grandfather Manfredo and grandpa Gino, with their respective wives, all decided to move back here eventually, my mother Maria Grazia and my father Mario decided to do the same, to go back to their origins. Us kids, we were still very young and, after I finished my studies, I had an obvious thirst for adventure, and the need to explore the world. I moved to Canada, where I met my wife, then we moved to Belgium and it was right there, while living in a less contaminated reality than the city one we were used to, that I re-evaluated our past and the opportunity for inner growth, which could be achieved only by managing a place as magical as Susafa.
At Susafa we have chosen to retrace the past. At a certain point in time, the minute hands of our watch began to tick in reverse to ultimately lead us to the discovery of our identity. We learned that Susafa has roots dating back 800 years. It started with a small community of farmers who adopted an autonomous and self-sufficient way of life, while serving a group of knights to whom the lands were entrusted by the Church. They cultivated wheat for centuries and, after the unification of Italy, the lands became the "granary of Italy".
We believe that telling and rebuilding this story is enough to offer a unique experience. For this reason we have chosen to retrace our history starting from the cultivation of wheat and its processing. Today at Susafa you can retrace the entire path of wheat cultivation and finish with the preparation of bread. It is in the wheat that we find our strongest identity and traditions.
In a hyper-technological world that forgets its origins, we have chosen to live following the rhythm of the seasons, letting them have a calming effect on our lifestyle, starting from the way we eat and ending with our relationship with nature. In light of this, we hope to be able to preserve and transmit a piece of our culture, while allowing our guests to take part in this knowledge, if desired.