Merlin Cocai, who gave his name to the complex, was the pseudonym of Teofilo Folengo, the inventor of goliardic Macaronic Latin. He seems to have been born in Mantua in about 1491 and joined the Benedictine Order.

The farm grows vegetables, cereals, fruit, pumpkins, currants, blackberries, walnuts and white raspberries and rears hens, chickens and ducks. Seasonal cuisine. Traditional local cuisine with seasonal produce. Open all year in the evening, Thursdays to Sundays.