The Real Olive Oil Story

The olive tree is surely the richest gift of Heaven,” Aldous Huxley wrote.”

This article is dedicated to a friend, Paolo, who prefers to keep his last name anonymous due to the magnitude of organized crime in Italy.

His passion for olive oil, strong as ever, has been passed from generation to generation from his family. Cultivated with care, processed with tradition, the best olive oil in Liguria, Italy, from trees over two hundred years old, is only sold to old family friends or presented as gifts to the most cherished friends.

Relationships forged through the decades, honored at the present. An old time heritage, practiced in Italy as part of the honor, humility, and a custom refined through the”old” country traditions. A sons commitment to carry on his honorary responsibility as a badge to his forefathers.

His modern day mission is to spread the truth about, “The Real Olive Oil Story”.

This is his story as told to me.

One of Italy’s smallest regions, Liguria stretches west in a narrow ribbon along the coast from France. Mountains separate it from Piedmont to the north, Emilia Romagna to the east and Tuscany to the south. Even if you’ve never been there, you’ve probably seen its northeastern border in all those movies where glamorous jet setters hop into their sports cars and motor from Monte Carlo to Rome: the quaint customs booths any foreign film lover knows well are outside Ventimiglia.

Like so much of Italy, Liguria is a land of contrasts, home to belle époque seaside resort towns in the style of Cannes and Monaco; dozens and dozens of sandy strands, rocky coves and pebbly beaches; the country’s largest commercial port and largest naval port; some of its most desolate stretches of coast, where lush forests of lemon trees, herbs, flowers, almonds and pines send forth heady sweet-smelling breezes; terraced hillsides that produce an olive oil considered more delicate than those grown in Tuscany. Whether you travel by train or by car, the spectacular journey along the Ligurian coast goes through tunnel after tunnel, always bursting forth from darkness into warm sunlight, the aquamarine sea glimmering at your side.

Olive Oil dates back centuries and legend says that, before dying, Adam asked God for the Oil of Mercy, and after he was buried, a cedar, a cypress and an olive tree grew from the three seeds that were put into his mouth.