Culture

The metaphor of the drop of oil

The workshop devoted to building the “nests” that won the Nidificare i Paduli (i.e. Nesting in the Paduli park) contest was a truly unforgettable experience. Enclosed is a gallery of the pictures taken during those days.

Laboratorio Urbano Aperto

Oil makes us more pleasant

Exactly: a spoonful a day makes us more pleasant, but only if it is olive oil. Trust Nobuo Nishimura, Japanese author and editor. Back in 1964, when it was still virtually unknown outside our country, he organized a course on Italian cuisine for Japanese chefs and teachers.

Felice Modica


The various meaning of the word territory

The word territory derives from terrae torus, literally ‘bed made of land’, and it originally indicated the land that ancient peoples took possession and delimited. The Romans were the first to apply a legal framework to a community of people taking possession of areas of land with regere fines or “drawing the borders”. Throughout the ages technical and experimental knowlwdge was passed down the generations and slowly agriculture was born

Alfonso Pascale


Wine deserves our respect

According to poet Maurizio Cucchi, the excess of philologism that we are currently witnessing, in the long run becomes deceitful; after all, we eat and drink because otherwise we would not survive. Wine cannot be trivialised by passing fads. It entails a certain initiation

Olio Officina


Olive juice

A guide to olive oils, from their production to their wise use. A polyphonic volume featuring multiple voices and opinions. Here you will find everything you need to know, explained in a simple, yet rigorously scientific language

Carlotta Baltini Roversi


Bactrocera oleae

You cannot judge a book by its cover. Proof of love proves something. Did you have the chance of admiring the work of biologist, engraver and art editor Luciano Ragozzino at the Olio Officina Food Festival? As for what they are up to... Nature and the farmers know only too well

Nicola Dal Falco


Oil and the female body

An unpublished work by poet Guido Oldani, an autographed copy of which is now available with the Olio Officina almanac, celebrates olives, oil and women. The public attending the festival had the opportunity of listening to the poet reading a sonnet of great fascination and candour

Olio Officina


Atlas of Italian oils

This book, the latest by Luigi Caricato, is printed by Mondadori, the most important publishing house in Italy. This illustrated volume analyzes Italy region by region, and also contains a chapter devoted to the 100 most representative oils of our country. The atlas was first launched at the 2015 Olio Officina Food Festival in Milan and will be released on February 1st

Olio Officina


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A special postal marking for oil

Poste Italiane will be present at the fourth Olio Officina Food Festival. All stamp collectors can have their mail cancelled with a special postal marking devoted to the culture of olive oil. Whoever is unable to attend this event can request the cancellation at the Post Office’s philatelic bureau during the following sixty days.

Olio Officina


Oil on four screens

At the Olio Officina Food Festival in Milan there will be a sensory room where one can experience the vivid emotions that arise when visiting an olive grove and mill.

Olio Officina


Sommariva’s hundredth birthday

100 is a large number. One hundred are the years that have passed since Domenico Sommariva established in 1915 his famous olive farm and mill in the plain of Albenga. Quality and culture are the key elements recurring throughout its history, a century devoted to olive oil.

Olio Officina


Olivolo

In every corner of Italy there are towns and villages whose names evoke olive trees and oil. Then again in a country where, from North to South, olive oil has played a leading role in our history for over two millenniums, it couldn’t be otherwise. A small Venice island also pays tribute to this plant.

Olio Officina


The suspended olive tree

It is not a museum like most others. In Tuscany, Italy, a new, futuristic concept of a museum has seen the light. A plant sinks its roots into an ancient cistern, taking up the nutrients in an unusual manner. The signals of its “nervous” activity are constantly monitored and recorded. The visitor can even perceive the plant's most intimate emotions.

Luigi Caricato


The vineyards in Copertino castle

Countless Negroamaro grapevines line the terraces and bastions of the Angevin castle in Copertino. The authors of this little miracle are oenologist Pizzolante Leuzzi and the president of the local wine cooperative. Ancient documents indicate that in the past, the walls and trenches of the castle were used as roof gardens, and were the home of olive groves and vineyards.

Rita de Bernart