06/05/2026
Today, Terra Magica took us out of the studio and we spent the day painting en plein air at Cadenela, the extraordinary organic olive estate near Dignano in the heart of Istria, hosted by the Lupieri family with the kind of warmth that heart stays in your heart forever.
After a tour by the generous and dynamic Andrea Lupieri, we set up our easels along an ancient Roman road that cuts through the groves.
Cadenela’s certified organic orchards are nested among medieval churches and old stone walls , and contain some 10,000 trees. What the Lupieri family has built here is not just a farm, it is a philosophy, a commitment to clean soil, clean air, clean water, poured into every bottle. That philosophy had a luminous ambassador in 17-year-old Elena Lupieri, who guided us through the tasting with a depth of knowledge and genuine love for the land that was both moving and inspiring. She made you feel that olive oil, at its best, is not a product but a conversation between a family and their earth and truly medicinal.
Istria is renowned since Roman times for its exceptional olive oils, and Cadenela sits at the northernmost reach of the Adriatic, where the specific character of Istrian soil and climate produces oils considered among the finest in the world. Organically certified, hand picked and cold pressed, each variety tells its own story.
Pendolino
Rosignola
Buža di Dignano
Biannchera
Leccino
Frantoio
Now we can name more than five varieties of olive trees!
After painting all morning we sat down under a pergola of grapevines, in the afternoon breeze, gazing at the old olive trees we shared good bread, wine, food made with care, stories and laughter.
When you spend a day like that, painting in these groves, learning from people who understand their land down to its roots, sitting together afterward in the unhurried way that only honest hospitality allows, something shifts. You get a deeper sense of the place. And that enters your painting, it enters you.
That is the immersion Terra Magica is built on, and there is nothing quite like it.
Deep gratitude to the Lupieri family.
