Terranova di Pollino, dating from 1595, is a tiny mountain town of 1,500 residents located in the Province of Basilicata in Southern Italy, birthplace of Terra Nova Venture's founder's father, Frank Tufaro who immigrated to the United States in 1909. Situated at an elevation of 3,000 feet in the Parco Nazionale del Pollino, one of the largest natural reserves in Europe, Terranova is not easily accessible. Its rugged terrain, challenging to both agriculture and industry, produced the immigrants who became known for their ancestral roots, and living in harmony with nature. And the inhabitants of Terranova over the centuries have survived by overcoming the natural obstacles of their environment. Today, descendants of early residents have adapted to the recent tourist trade by opening restaurants and hotels, while preserving their traditions and ways of living, including making hand-made pasta, collecting edible variations of mushrooms from among the hundreds of fungi that grow in the Pollino, making home-cured prosciutto, preparing dried figs in a variety of ways, and still washing clothes at an outdoor trough. Terranova - the "new land" - is steeped in tradition and a respect for the land and nature.