Tourism Awards in Italy Promote Industry Innovators

Hundreds of olive-related com­pa­nies and enti­ties in Italy have taken part in the lat­est edi­tion of an oleo­tourism com­pe­ti­tion in Italy.

Farmhouses, olive oil pro­duc­ers, millers, chefs and local tour oper­a­tors have been rec­og­nized by the competition’s panel of judges.

The com­pe­ti­tion was spon­sored by the Ministry of Agriculture and orga­nized by Città dell’Olio, an asso­ci­a­tion that includes more than 400 olive-grow­ing munic­i­pal­i­ties in Italy.

It began two years ago after the Italian par­lia­ment gave the final go-ahead to the national law pro­mot­ing oleo­tourism, which is now fuel­ing new ini­tia­tives across the coun­try.

“We had the chance to reach those who really believe in the olive oil tourism and work daily to build best prac­tices des­tined to become an exam­ple for all,” said Roberta Garibaldi, a pro­fes­sor at the University of Bergamo, pres­i­dent of the jury and sci­en­tific direc­tor of the con­test.

“Oleotourism is the future of food tourism,” she added. ​“We have the duty to reward those who want to be in it, who want to grow and be part of it and to invest more in edu­ca­tion.”

Unaprol, the Italian olive oil pro­duc­ers’ asso­ci­a­tion and one of the initiative’s part­ners, has already con­firmed that the win­ning com­pa­nies will also be offered free courses meant to explore and enhance oleo­tourism oppor­tu­ni­ties start­ing next year.

Among this year’s win­ners was Strada dell’Olio DOP Umbria, an asso­ci­a­tion behind the Frantoi Aperti (open oil mills, in Italian) ini­tia­tive, which cel­e­brated its 25^th edi­tion of the event this year and is con­sid­ered a pio­neer in oleo­tourism.

Frantoi Aperti allows tourists, con­sumers and olive oil enthu­si­asts to take guided tours of the many mills in the cen­tral Italian region of Umbria and par­tic­i­pate in tast­ings.

Tourists are also directed to other local des­ti­na­tions from the mill to dis­cover the cul­ture behind olive oil pro­duc­tion fur­ther.

Paolo Morbidoni, pres­i­dent of the asso­ci­a­tion, told Olive Oil Times how the open mills ini­tia­tive is viewed as the ​“cus­to­dian of a thou­sand-year-old tra­di­tion that makes the mill a place of pro­duc­tion and a com­mu­nal space.”

He added: ​“Where the moder­nity of the spaces, the tech­no­log­i­cal evo­lu­tion, does not affect the social rit­ual, the tast­ing of new oil on bread, the shar­ing of wine, the spread of a col­lec­tive cul­ture that is the her­itage of these rural areas, in which almost every fam­ily has its small olive grove and takes home its own olive oil.”

According to Morbidoni, the ini­tia­tive ​“has trans­formed an agri­cul­tural event into a phe­nom­e­non of cul­ture and plea­sure” over time, which is ​“inti­mately con­nected, to the point of cre­at­ing a lifestyle [where] there is a grow­ing con­scious­ness toward food which is not only good but also healthy and gen­uine both for our bod­ies and envi­ron­ment.”

In the restau­rant cat­e­gory, another award went to the Il Frantoio in Assisi, Umbria. Chef Lorenzo Cantoni told Olive Oil Times that ​“extra vir­gin olive oil is the source of my cui­sine.”

“Every year, I taste between 150 and 180 dif­fer­ent extra vir­gin olive oils pro­duced in our coun­try, and my dishes come out of those dis­cov­er­ies,” he added. ​“Extra vir­gin olive oil is not only an ingre­di­ent of my cui­sine. It is its orig­i­nal source.”

Cantoni explained how one of the din­ing rooms of the Assisi restau­rant is con­ceived ​“to let the vis­i­tor feel as if they are walk­ing among the olive trees in an olive grove. The design of the walls and tables was cre­ated with that goal in mind.”

Hanging on the walls are works of famous pho­tog­ra­phers that depict the olive trees where it is believed that Saint Francis of Assisi used to rest.

The com­pe­ti­tion’s jury specif­i­cally paid trib­ute to the restau­ran­t’s expe­ri­ence bap­tized as ​“olive oil and its con­sis­ten­cies.”

“A dec­li­na­tion of extra vir­gin olive oil which, thanks to the tech­nique of Chef Cantoni, assumes new shapes and con­sis­ten­cies,” the judges wrote. ​“A cook­ing lab­o­ra­tory for olive oil, for its use, for it being an ingre­di­ent and not just sea­son­ing.”

Meanwhile, Frantoio Pruneti, from Tuscany, won in the oleoteche (olive oil shop) cat­e­gory, with its Extra Gallery Cocktail Experience.

Conceived as a tast­ing expe­ri­ence, it allowed the judges to exper­i­ment with cock­tails using extra vir­gin olive oil as the main ingre­di­ent.

The extra vir­gin olive oil mono­va­ri­etals used by the Pruneti mixol­o­gists included Leccino, Moraiolo and Frantoio, all native to Tuscany.

The olive oil spritz, Blooily Mary and the cock­tail oliveto were pre­sented by the Pruneti experts to the judg­ing panel, accom­pa­nied by appe­tiz­ers and pick­les from a col­lec­tion of gourmet spe­cial­ties made with the company’s olive oil.

“One of the rea­sons behind expe­ri­ences such as our gallery is to pro­mote olive oil cul­ture,” Katy Lapini, Pruneti’s brand man­ager, told Olive Oil Times.

“Many con­sumers are not con­scious about the olive oil they con­sume,” she added. ​“We found that by propos­ing this expe­ri­ence, we are help­ing many in the younger gen­er­a­tions explore high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil and how it dif­fers from the prod­uct that one can find in a super­mar­ket.”

The judges rec­og­nized the depth and rel­e­vance of olive oil cul­ture and his­tory in oleo­tourism with an award assigned to the Museum of Olive Oil (MOOM) in Matera, in the south­ern Basilicata region.

The judges awarded the museum for its ​“Olive oil in the Sassi di Matera: tech­nol­ogy, qual­ity and daily life in an under­ground olive mill” expe­ri­ence, which included an unusual and evoca­tive recon­struc­tion of an ancient under­ground olive mill.

“Here, the visit begins with the descrip­tion of the neigh­bor­hood, the works of recov­ery of the fac­tory and the main fea­tures of an under­ground oil mill,” the judges wrote.

“It all merges with the his­tory of life in the oil mills and the legacy of the Materan artist Peppino Mitarotonda,” they added. ​“The ceram­ics specif­i­cally cre­ated for the museum depict the dif­fer­ent stages of olive oil pro­duc­tion.”

Palazzo di Varignana, an olive oil pro­ducer and farm­house oper­a­tor near Bologna who earned three Gold Awards at the 2022 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, was also among the win­ners.

The jury rewarded Palazzo di Varignana for a wide range of olive-related offer­ings, includ­ing in-house spa treat­ments using olive oil-based prod­ucts and an extra vir­gin olive oil tast­ing guided by som­me­liers.

The panel espe­cially appre­ci­ated the olive oil treat­ment, ​“in which the oil is brushed all over the body with slow and relax­ing move­ments, fol­lowed by a mas­sage with the mois­tur­iz­ing emul­sion olive oil.”

Commenting on the awards, Undersecretary of Agriculture Francesco Battistoni said, ​“these kinds of ini­tia­tives are cru­cial to give value to extra vir­gin olive oil, the heart of the Mediterranean diet, pro­tect it from the attack that comes from Nutri-Score and com­bat the aban­don­ment of the farm­ing lands.”

• Città dell’Olio