A view over Castelfalfi Village
and its Tuscan countryside
Nestled in the Tuscan countryside, Castelfalfi Resort offers guests a unique escape. Castelfalfi resort invites guests to be immersed in its peaceful surroundings. Boasting a boundless estate with zero walls and gates, there are over 2,700 hectares of countryside, forests, vineyards and olive groves, meant to be explored. Although time seems to stand still here, the estate is moving and evolving, using the land in self-sufficient ways.
With over 62 acres of vineyards, Castelfalfi produces six wines and hosts resident honeybees, has a seasonal kitchen garden and irrigates its fields from purpose-built lakes that collect rainwater. It’s hard for visitors to get bored here thanks to the multitude of activities, from truffle foraging and beekeeping, to pizza-making and learning bushcraft.
Ideal for nature lovers, the resort offers guests special experiences designed to escape everyday life and foster a love and appreciation for the environment. Olive picking, fly fishing, survival experiences, axe throwing, hiking,g and cycling are among the many options. But there’s one activity in particular that is unique among the rest: falconry.
Schön! alive speaks with the Master of Falconry at Castelfalfi Adventure Park about his career, his falcon Thor, the resident hawk protector, and how mindfulness can be achieved simply by being at one with nature.
One of the bathrooms of Casa Medici, the
the villa nestled in the Castelfalfi Village.
What do you do and where are you from?
I have quite a large story. I’m British originally, but was born in Dubai, so I spent most of my life in the UAE. I’m a third-generation expat of Dubai, hence the falconry, so I learned that from the Bedouin, and my passion for the outdoors and nature just grew from there. I know the owners of Castelfalfi, and when they bought the place, they contacted me and said, “Hey, would you like to come over and check it out?” So, I came here and instantly fell in love.
It’s incredible.
Yes, it’s glorious, and it’s a completely different view to Dubai. I like the nature and the outdoors here. When I came, I spent a whole month where I literally put a rucksack on and hiked across the estate cataloguing animals and learned everything there is to do with nature in Castelfalfi.
And then from there, the activities were born. I created the falconry, the bushcraft, the survival, the fishing activities that we offer. With the adventure park, we wanted to create something where families could come and stay for a longer duration and fully immerse themselves in nature.
This is not only entertainment for kids, right?
For adults and kids, yes. A lot of families that stay in the hotel come here with their kids to experience nature and the adventure. I think people really underestimate what they call nature. It’s not just sitting in the garden or staying outside.
Here we teach bushcraft and survival, which is unique to most visitors because a lot of people have never made a fire properly or don’t know how to make one. I teach them from the raw materials in the forest exactly how to create fire, how to survive in a situation, key survival stages that you need to understand and know.
I also teach them how to use all five senses to engage themselves with the forest. The first thing I say they should do when people go into a hostile environment or a forestry area is to just sit for 30 minutes and take everything in: the sounds, the sights, feel the winds, touch the ground. It syncs your body rhythm with the earth, and all that information you take in is going to help you to survive
Archery time at Castelfalfi Adventure Park,
one of the many activities available.
And you instruct them, or can they roam freely?
With the adventure park, once they’ve had their instructor induction training, they can go on their own, but with all the activities, they’re with me the entire time. For me, it’s more the escape from reality we offer. A lot of people that come here have never seen a bird of prey before. It’s a unique animal. It varies: I have some clients that come fishing with me who have fished all around the world and some that have never even touched a fishing rod in their life.
What other activities are there?
We’ve got archery, survival and night safari. For the night safari, we go all over the estate and search for wild animals using night-vision. This year we’ve seen a lot of animals: deer, stag, wild boars, massive porcupines, badgers, foxes. We’ve had four sightings of the wolves, which is amazing because they run away so quickly. Recently, we saw two playing together in the fields through the night-vision and it was just incredible. We’re lucky enough to have 600 acres of wild national forest that’s untouched and left to nature.
I get a lot of feedback from clients that work and live in cities and, when they come here, they say it’s like being reborn. They can feel the stress coming down, and their energy levels coming up, and feel the peace almost immediately. I recently bought myself a piece of forest and have built a little hut-like cabin there. I spend most of my time there now and I get to know all the animals, how evil plants can be and often try to get rid of raccoons, which are really annoying!
The panoramic view from the terrace
of the medieval castle of Castelfalfi.
Thor.
The king of Castelfalfi Adventure
Park and protector of the estate
How long have you had Thor?
I’ve had Thor since he was three weeks old, so pretty much since he was a hatchling. He’s three years of age now.
What do you do with the guests? Is Thor allowed to fly off?
The guests have quite a unique experience. They get to understand and learn falconry from its history, learn how to train a bird, and they get to obviously hold Thor, stroke Thor, fly him (he will fly to them) and they learn everything about his biological make-up and how to train the bird. The bird is not like, for example, a dog, who would just be with you. He can go with others, because I train him to be comfortable with other people, and to fly.
Animals can sense things. He feels the most comfortable when I’m with him. It happens rarely, but there are times where he can get a little bit on edge with certain clients. It’s either because they have a very nervous energy or if they’re moving too quickly or suddenly shouting. But apart from that, he just squawks for food! I don’t let Thor fly too much hunting-wise purely because he can get injured. Normally you’d think a predator is the one that’s always going to be safe, but the prey can also strike back. The hares here are quite large and they have very big back legs and can kick back sometimes. If it scratches the eye, they can lose the eye, so I keep Thor for the falconry experience. In the future, I’ll probably get some falcons which I’ll use for hunting.
Are the birds here most of the time or do you take them with you?
The birds stay here all year round. I have instructed the adventure park how to feed the birds, to check in on them and make sure they’re okay, but I spend most of my time in Castelfalfi.
Occasionally I do have to travel to do other things like TV and movies where I do a bit of stunt work alongside animals, for example, in Dubai if they’re going to launch a new sports car and they want an eagle to fly next to it as it drives.
When it turns to the colder seasons, how do you motivate people to get out and do things?
I suppose it’s my passion for what I do. It’s my life. Even when I’m not working, I’m still doing it, and I think when people see the energy from you, they respond similarly. Even when it’s cold or raining, I take them out and there’s still adventure there; they still light up and sense my excitement and all of a sudden, they relax into it and before they know it, they’re immersed in everything. It’s incredible because people switch off automatically. They don’t look at their phones or check the time because they just are in the moment, which is what I try to create because nature is all about being in the moment.
The ever-changing Tuscan hills,
viewed from the heated pool of RAKxa Wellness Spa at Castelfalfi.
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interview. Raoul Keil
words. J. Bibi Cooper
images. Courtesy of Castelfalfi
