Self-published · 2015
Cuore satellite
Pierpaolo Mandetta's first novel, self-published before his work with Rizzoli.
Discover the book on Amazon ↗
The people of the Podere
Pierpaolo Mandettaand Podere Cafasso
Writer, social media author, farmer. A story made of words, relationships and a return to the land that became everyday life.
Pierpaolo Mandetta is a writer published by Rizzoli and for many years he has used books and social media to tell stories about relationships, identity and everyday life.
Today an important part of that life takes place at Podere Cafasso, in Capaccio Paestum, the place where he lives and which he runs together with Massimo and Federico, among hospitality, countryside, animals, gardens and the tangible rhythm of the seasons.
But the connection between Pierpaolo and the Podere did not begin as a communication project, nor from a desire to associate a public figure with a hospitality business.
It began much earlier.
Writing
Discover Pierpaolo on Rizzoli ↗
From words to stories
Writing has always been one of the ways Pierpaolo tells stories about people: families, love, contradictions, differences and the often complicated search for one's place in the world.
In 2015 he self-published Cuore satellite, his first novel.
In 2017 Rizzoli published Dillo tu a mammà, a story set between Milan and Cilento, where family, love, identity and a return to Southern Italy continually intertwine.
In 2019, again with Rizzoli, came Il club delle pecore nere, which revisits some of those characters and returns to relationships, vulnerability, change and lives that do not easily fit into predefined categories.
Alongside the novels, his storytelling on social media has also grown over the years: a more immediate, personal and often ironic space through which Pierpaolo has built an everyday relationship with a community that continues to follow his stories, thoughts and changes.
The story of the Podere
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A personal story that also became a place
Podere Cafasso also grew out of the shared story of Pierpaolo and Massimo.
From their relationship, the life they built together and, at a certain point, the desire to imagine a different future.
To gradually make room for the countryside. To restore a farmhouse. To bring life back to land that had long been almost abandoned. To try to build a place where everyday life could have different rhythms and meanings.
When Pierpaolo and Massimo began this adventure, Podere Cafasso was not yet the place it is today.
There was the farmhouse, the land and, above all, a project still entirely to be built.
Years of work followed: trees planted, spaces restored, animals arriving at the Podere, gardens slowly growing, mistakes, second thoughts and new ideas.
What began as a deeply personal choice gradually became something larger.
Today that story is shared with Federico, and Podere Cafasso has also become a place of hospitality.
A new everyday life
The return to the land
For Pierpaolo, returning to the countryside did not mean leaving behind what came before.
The writing remained. The books remained. Social media remained.
What changed was the point from which he observed and told those stories.
A part of life that for years passed mainly through words, book events, cities and encounters now also passes through very tangible gestures: planting something, caring for an animal, growing a garden, preparing a room, welcoming a person.
Pierpaolo does not simply lend his name to the Podere.
He lives here.He works here.He grows things here.He writes here.
Podere Cafasso was not built around one person's public profile. It was born from relationships, choices and shared lives.
Pierpaolo is part of it together with Massimo and Federico, with a public story that here inevitably intertwines with a much more personal one.
The way Podere Cafasso welcomes people also comes from this story.
The attention given to LGBTQ+ guests was not added later as a marketing label, nor does it simply come from joining an inclusion programme.
It is part of the identity of this place and of the experience of the people who built it.
Pierpaolo and Massimo's relationship is part of the story of the Podere. And precisely for this reason, some things that elsewhere may require declarations, explanations or reassurance have always simply felt natural here.
A couple should not have to wonder whether they will be looked at differently.
No one should have to work out in advance how much of themselves they can safely share.
No one should feel they have to change a word, avoid a gesture or explain who they are in order to feel welcome.
The idea is very simple:
to be yourself even when you are away from home.
Podere Cafasso also participates in Booking.com's Travel Proud programme, but the formal recognition came later.
An open welcome, respectful of differences and free from judgement came first, from the personal story of the people who live here.
Discover our approach to welcoming guests →
Today
A life at the Podere
Today the Podere is at once a home, countryside and a place of hospitality.
Not everything that happens here becomes a post, and not everything shared on social media belongs to the Podere.
But inevitably the two worlds meet.
Those who have followed Pierpaolo for years have gradually seen trees, animals, work, the vegetable garden, the gardens and small fragments of this life appear in his storytelling.
Those who discover Pierpaolo through Podere Cafasso instead meet one of the people who imagined, lived in and built this place.
This is perhaps where the two parts of his story come together most naturally: continuing to tell stories about people and their differences, while doing so from a real place where those differences can coexist naturally.
Publishing journey
Books
Three different stages of the same journey: from self-publishing to Rizzoli.
Rizzoli · 2017
Dillo tu a mammà
A story of family, love, identity and a return to Southern Italy, set between Milan and Cilento.
Discover the book on Rizzoli ↗
Rizzoli · 2019
Il club delle pecore nere
A story of relationships, vulnerability, change and people searching for their place without necessarily conforming to what others imagined for them.
Discover the book on Rizzoli ↗Beyond the Podere
Pierpaolo online
The story continues beyond the books as well.
The people of the Podere
Podere Cafasso is, first of all, a story made by people.
Massimo, Pierpaolo and Federico take part in the life of this place every day, bringing different experiences, personalities, paths and sensibilities.
Three different stories that today share the same Podere.
MassimoPierpaoloFederico
Meet the people of the Podere →
