A long history

The Antonelli family moved to San Rossore in 1824 to take care of the horses owned by Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany. He had brought them to the Estate to preserve their genetic integrity upon the arrival of Napoleon’s troops.

Poldo Antonelli was born in 1861 in Scaletta and worked as a fisherman until the 1940s in Bocca D’Arno, where the river mouth of river Arno is. 

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Queen Elena used to spend her summers in San Rossore, and she chose Poldo as her right-hand man when she was there. 

Poldo’s son Fernando and his wife Aristea, also known as Emma, started a small grocery store in the former monastery of San Lussorio. The shop soon became an emporium where people could eat and buy goods for every need. Moreover, San Lussorio is the Christian martyr from whom the San Rossore Estate takes its name.

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Shortly afterwards, Fernando was enlisted in the Royal Navy and died in the African war campaign. After his death, his son Poldino took over the business, along with his wife Maria Grazia and their sons Maurizio and Sandro. Together they created Ristorante Poldino, where the aromas and flavours of a pristine environment have been preserved to this day.

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Sandro and his wife Annalia are currently running the restaurant. They are heirs to a culinary culture strongly rooted in the use of local ingredients and linked to the finest Tuscan tradition.