In 1910, great-grandpa Vincenzo set off for Naples in his dogcart, on his way to finalize negotiations for the purchase of a plot of about twenty hectares of land, set around a lookout tower. The land was in Abruzzo and he was buying it from the Zambra family, who had given their name to the tower, which was called ‘Torre Zambra’. Great-grandpa Vincenzo planted the first Montepulciano and Trebbiano vines in the region and tended them for almost thirty years, until the Second World War swept through the area and destroyed them, leaving the family penniless.