The former frontman of The Police and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels producer Trudie moved to Tuscany in 1997 and own an estate called Il Palagio.
The estate’s luxurious villa sits at the top of a hill and overlooks a fantastic vista of the Tuscan countryside, as well as the nearby medieval town of Figline Valdarno. The town was once known as “Florence’s barn” because of the huge quantities of corn the farmers living in the area surrounding it supplied.
Sting and Trudie have embraced the area’s heritage as an agricultural stronghold of Tuscany and extended Il Palagio’s history of producing fantastic food by continuing to grow crops on the estate. Historically the estate grew grains, wine, oil, sugar beets, peaches, apricots and cherries over its 350 hectares, and it continues to grow several of those crops today.
Nowadays the estate mainly produces organic olive oil and honey under the guidance of the celebrity couple, and the produce is exported as far as the USA.
The luxurious estate is where Sting and Trudie spend the end of each summer, surrounded by panoramic views of the Tuscan countryside, the estate’s five-acre kitchen garden and 80 families of bees.
Sting and his wife Trudie Styler are two of the most famous expats to live in Tuscany – and they’re embracing the lifestyle of the area by producing their own olive oil! Have you tried their produce? Visitors to villas in Florence can’t visit the estate as it’s closed to the public, but it is possible to get a taste of the produce it turns out.
In fact, buy a bottle of Il Palagio olive oil and you could even be consuming something made by Sting’s own hand.
The estate’s olive groves are one of his favourite places to relax and during the last harvest he even lent a hand. “I’d never picked an olive before,” he said, “but I saw the pickers working and thought I’d join in.
“I got a basket, started picking and before I knew it I’d filled it. I found it really very therapeutic, although perhaps I wouldn’t if I did it all day for a week!”
The estate is also set to start selling its own wine soon. Sting has just bottled the first vintage of an Il Palagio Chianti, although it will be aged for three years before being released.
So why not keep an eye out for some of Sting’s produce when you visit Tuscany!