The story begins with Antonio Palmieri and Maria Di Benedetto: in 1907 they took over a farm and breeding farm in the area around Paestum, which at the time was a difficult area for farming and of little economic value. They specialised in breeding buffalo, animals that had lived and grazed on the Pestum plain for centuries. They were followed in their work by their son, Nicola Palmieri.

In 1970, Antonio Palmieri, his grandson who was 20 years old at the time, decided to continue the business and, in 1988, founded the Caseificio Vannulo on that same farm, after having experimented with mechanical milking of buffaloes and having been the first to introduce technical and cultural innovations at production, management and strategic levels. And every step in the company’s growth has been a family affair, with the support of a new generation ready to commit to the rigid agricultural ethic that is at the heart of Tenuta Vannulo’s work. A place where there is not only agriculture, but culture too, because the Palmieri family has always been interested in the arts: witness to this, for example, is the creation of the Museo della civiltà contadina (Museum of Farming Culture) on the estate and the cultural events – such as exhibitions and book presentations – that are periodically organised on site.

Today, the original farmhouse is still standing, bearing witness to the long history of the Vannulo Estate and its present, lived in and cared for every day by Antonio with his wife Caterina and their children Teresa, Nicola and Annalisa, respectively an economist, agronomist and engineer working on the estate.

Antonio Palmieri is the first ‘Cavaliere del lavoro’ appointed in Capaccio Paestum.