The training farm at Cevoli San Marco near Pisa in Tuscany was opened in May 1947. In February 1948 the farm trained forty students who were recruited almost exclusively from the Italian Hechalutz movement.

ORT students spent seven hours a day learning various branches of farming, including vegetable gardening, field irrigation, butter and cheese production, milking cows and caring for beehives. They also attended theoretical classes in botany, horticulture and the economy of agriculture. The main aim of their training was preparation for settling in Palestine.

Joseph Baskin- vice-president of the Central Board of the World ORT Union, recalled visiting Cevoli San Marco in 1948: ‘When I got there, there was nobody on hand but the manager. I said I had heard there were 25 students there learning how to farm and asked where they could be. They were all in Rome, I was told, obtaining visas to leave for Israel. They had completed their course, but 25 more potential farmers would take their places the next day.'[1]

 The farm was closed down in 1950.

[1] World ORT Archive: ORT Bulletin vol. II no.1 (September 1948) p.7