Umbria Blazes the Trail of Year-Round Oleotourism

Umbria offers tourists a rich cal­en­dar of events and expe­ri­ences cen­tered around the world of extra vir­gin olive oil.

Often referred to as ​‘the green heart of Italy’ for its posi­tion in the coun­try and nat­ural wealth, the cen­tral Italian region is a melt­ing pot of art, his­tory and olive her­itage, pro­vid­ing an ideal set­ting for oleo­tourism.

“Umbria can be defined as a trail­blazer in the field of oleo­tourism, as this year, the land­mark event Frantoi Aperti (Open Mills), namely the open days at the region’s milling facil­i­ties, reached its 27^th edi­tion,” said Daniela Tabarrini, direc­tor of the Strada dell’Olio DOP Umbria (Umbria PDO Olive Oil Road).

“Today, it is a con­sol­i­dated event appre­ci­ated by olive oil lovers, which was made pos­si­ble thanks to a sta­ble and effi­cient net­work of oper­a­tors who work in great syn­ergy,” she added.

“Under the umbrella of the Umbria PDO Olive Oil Road, sev­eral ini­tia­tives are being car­ried out through­out the year in which pro­duc­ers are not just farm­ers but also hosts of expe­ri­ences,” she told Olive Oil Times. ​“Thereby, the olive oil com­pa­nies are in the spot­light even out­side the har­vest­ing sea­son, and the vis­i­tors can get to know the region through its great extra vir­gin olive oils all year round.”

As part of the cir­cuit of Italy’s olive oil roads, the Umbria PDO Olive Oil Road is a non-profit orga­ni­za­tion pro­mot­ing the region’s olive land­scapes and oil pro­duc­tion. It has about 90 mem­bers and brings pub­lic bod­ies and com­pa­nies together, includ­ing mills, farms and hos­pi­tal­ity struc­tures. This year, it cel­e­brates 20 years of oper­a­tion.

“Oleotourism is now an expand­ing sec­tor with great devel­op­ment poten­tial, but when we started two decades ago, it rep­re­sented a chal­lenge since it was a mar­ginal issue or not taken into account by the olive oil oper­a­tors,” said Paolo Morbidoni, pres­i­dent of the Umbria PDO Olive Oil Road.

“At that time and until quite recently, mills were only open for a few months a year dur­ing har­vest,” he added. ​“With the devel­op­ment of oleo­tourism, this time has been extended, and there is more room for improv­ing the prof­itabil­ity of the com­pa­nies.”

“Now, we can say that our pro­posal to open them to vis­i­tors and work on a qual­i­fied hos­pi­tal­ity was a for­ward-think­ing con­cept, and over time, it gen­er­ated the results we have achieved today,” Morbidoni con­tin­ued. ​“All our ini­tia­tives indeed attract many vis­i­tors in every sea­son.”

The asso­ci­a­tion’s next events are sched­uled for August 10^th and September 7^th. Concerts will take place in evoca­tive venues such as cen­turies-old olive groves and places of spir­i­tu­al­ity as part of the fes­ti­val ​“Music among the Olive Trees and Abbeys.”

Then, Frantoi Aperti will launch the har­vest, cap­tur­ing the momen­tum for Olio Nuovo, the freshly pressed extra vir­gin olive oil, with ini­tia­tives in the mills in numer­ous Umbrian vil­lages. Art, music and food events for adults and chil­dren will be held every week­end from October 19^th to November 16^th dur­ing the next edi­tion.

“After har­vest­ing, the farm­ers need some time to obtain the var­i­ous cer­ti­fi­ca­tions and to cre­ate some blends, which allows us to pro­long and desea­son­al­ize the com­mu­ni­ca­tion of the extra vir­gin olive oil,” Tabarrini said. ​“The agri-food tech­no­log­i­cal park of Umbria 3A is in charge of cer­ti­fy­ing the Protected Designations of Origin (PDO).”

“After that, the extra vir­gin olive oils are ready to par­tic­i­pate in the Green Gold of Umbria award, which con­sti­tutes the regional selec­tion for the Ercole Olivario national com­pe­ti­tion,” she added. ​“With these events, the extra vir­gin olive oil is the star for sev­eral months in a row.”

Tabarrini attrib­uted the network’s suc­cess to the syn­ergy between pri­vate and pub­lic insti­tu­tions, par­tic­u­larly the Chamber of Commerce of Umbria, which is not as com­mon in other regions.

“Moreover, the spe­cial agency Promocamera pro­motes the afore­men­tioned regional and national com­pe­ti­tions, which are show­cases for the best Umbrian and national extra vir­gin olive oils,” she added.

Strada dell’Olio’s com­mu­ni­ca­tion pro­fes­sion­als also cre­ated an event to offi­cially launch the olive oil cam­paign: the Anteprima Olio Extravergine di Oliva DOP Umbria (Umbria PDO Extra Virgin Olive Oil Preview).

The third edi­tion took place on February 19^th and 20^th, when some of the best prod­ucts of the cur­rent har­vest were pre­sented to jour­nal­ists and experts.

The par­tic­i­pants in the Preview took part in var­i­ous activ­i­ties, includ­ing an olive oil tast­ing in the town museum of Bettona.

Surrounded by mas­ter­pieces cre­ated by artists of the past, includ­ing Perugino and El Greco, they were guided by the panel lead­ers of the Umbria Green Gold com­pe­ti­tion in the sen­sory analy­sis of extra vir­gin olive oils rep­re­sent­ing the five sub­zones of the Umbria PDO – Colli Amerini, Colli Orvietani, Colli Martani, Colli del Trasimeno and Colli Assisi-Spoleto.

The atten­dees also vis­ited three mills in the area: Frantoio Decimi, Frantoio Giulio Mannelli and Frantoio Ercolanetti.

“The Preview was also an oppor­tu­nity to launch Evo & Art Experience, con­sist­ing of two oleo­tourism itin­er­aries, the Dolce Agogia Tour and the Moraiolo Tour, which run through two PDO areas, the Lake Trasimeno hills and the Assisi-Spoleto hills,” Tabarrini said.

“They lead to the dis­cov­ery of the land­scapes and his­tor­i­cal and artis­tic her­itage, includ­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties to enjoy the food and wine of the ter­ri­tory,” she added. ​“We con­ceived the itin­er­aries to meet the expec­ta­tions of pro­fes­sion­als and enthu­si­asts.”

The Dolce Agogia Tour, named after the typ­i­cal olive vari­ety of the Lake Trasimeno, has a par­tic­u­lar focus on the areas of painter Perugino.

It cov­ers the vil­lages of Panicale, with the Church of Saint Sebastian fres­coed with the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian and San Feliciano, a ham­let of Magione. Here, vis­i­tors can enjoy a fish­ing expe­ri­ence with the Fishermen’s Cooperative of the Lake, a boat trip to the island Polvese and a tour of its cen­turies-old olive grove, fol­lowed by lunch at the Fishermen’s hostelry.

The tour par­tic­i­pants are invited to visit the mills in the area: Frantoio Centumbrie in Agello, Oleificio Cooperativo Pozzuolese in Castiglione del Lago and Frantoio Luca Palombaro in Magione.

The Moraiolo Tour, named after the olive vari­ety spread in the area of the Assisi-Spoleto hills, encom­passes this dis­trict and some UNESCO her­itage sites like the Tempietto del Clitunno in Campello sul Clitunno and the Basilica di San Salvatore in Spoleto.

Besides, the itin­er­ary includes Spello and its Church of Santa Maria Maggiore; Trevi, its Museum of the Olive Civilization and the Church of Santa Maria delle Lacrime; and the trail of the Roman aque­duct through the olive belt between Assisi and Spoleto.

The mills of the area that the par­tic­i­pants can visit are Frantoio di Spello in Spello; Frantoio Clarici, Antico Frantoio Petesse and Frantoio Luigi Tega in Foligno; Frantoio Olio Trevi and Frantoio Gaudenzi in Trevi; Frantoio Marfuga and Frantoio Gradassi in Campello sul Clitunno and Frantoio del Poggiolo Monini in Spoleto.

All the ini­tia­tives by the Umbria PDO Olive Oil Road are orga­nized in col­lab­o­ra­tion with more than 30 restau­rant mem­bers of the asso­ci­a­tion, des­ig­nated as EvooAmbassadors. These are mid- to high-end eater­ies com­mit­ted to using and pro­mot­ing the extra vir­gin olive oils of the mem­ber com­pa­nies and those par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Green Gold of Umbria com­pe­ti­tion.

“Restaurants can be seen as the region’s ​‘infor­ma­tion offices.’ Lunch and din­ner are ideal moments to high­light extra vir­gin olive oil and broaden the audi­ence of pre­mium prod­uct users,” said Morbidoni, an EvooAmbassador.

Together with chef Giancarlo Polito, he is the patron of Locanda del Capitano and Tipico Osteria dei Sensi, Michelin BIB Gourmand and Slow Food Snail restau­rants in the ham­let of Montone.

“The EvooAmbassador restau­ra­teurs include at least three extra vir­gin olive oils of the mem­ber com­pa­nies in their menu,” he explained. ​“Consumers can truly per­ceive the dif­fer­ence that high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oils can make in a meal and are stim­u­lated to deepen their knowl­edge by the EvooAmbassador, who gives them infor­ma­tion about the prod­uct and the pro­ducer.”

The pres­i­dent of the Umbria PDO Olive Oil Road added that to set this all up, it was cru­cial to believe in the value of net­work­ing from the begin­ning, and this has pushed all the part­ners to work cohe­sively.

“Everything took shape from the shared idea of join­ing forces not only to have more eco­nomic strength but also to sup­port each other,” he said. ​“Then, we brought together the best com­pa­nies and kept rais­ing the bar. Indeed, our region has a small pro­duc­tion, amount­ing to less than three per­cent of the national out­put, yet it has earned a great rep­u­ta­tion for the qual­ity of its oils.”

“Today, we can pow­er­fully com­mu­ni­cate the Umbria of extra vir­gin olive oil almost all year round,” Morbidoni added. ​“And this is pos­si­ble thanks to the joint qual­ity work done by com­pa­nies and pub­lic bod­ies. One of the great­est val­ues the Umbria PDO Olive Oil Road has car­ried for­ward for 20 years is the impor­tance of work­ing together to ben­e­fit all.”