The Rise of Cycling in Italian Olive Groves

Cycling is boom­ing glob­ally, and Italy is no excep­tion. 

According to a report from the National Institute for Tourism Research (Isnart) and the envi­ron­men­tal asso­ci­a­tion Legambiente, the num­ber of trav­el­ers who have cho­sen the coun­try as a bik­ing des­ti­na­tion more than dou­bled from 2019 to 2022, ris­ing from almost 4.5 mil­lion to more than nine mil­lion.

Encouraged by the recent growth in ser­vices related to oleo­tourism, cycling enthu­si­asts are vis­it­ing olive-grow­ing regions. As many opt for e‑bikes, which make it eas­ier to ven­ture into hilly land­scapes and dirt roads, olive groves are prov­ing to be an ideal place to ride safely for expe­ri­enced cyclists and new­com­ers to the sport. 

Besides clean air, unspoiled nature and cul­tural attrac­tions, the high­light remains the oppor­tu­nity to sam­ple fresh olive prod­ucts after exer­cis­ing – regain­ing energy while delight­ing the senses.

In Umbria, Castello Monte Vibiano Vecchio orga­nizes e‑bike tours through­out the vast estate. Nestled in the rolling hills south of Perugia, the com­pany pro­duces extra vir­gin olive oils and wines from autochtho­nous vari­eties.

“We started propos­ing eco-tours with elec­tric vehi­cles to our guests as early as 2003, and that was a ground­break­ing ini­tia­tive,” Lorenzo Fasola Bologna, the com­pa­ny’s co-owner, told Olive Oil Times. 

“Afterwards, it was only nat­ural for us to intro­duce e‑bikes and offer a sus­tain­able and healthy way of expe­ri­enc­ing the farm’s nature,” he added. ​“The prop­erty is a great place for this activ­ity with its suited routes and breath­tak­ing land­scape.”

Guests can choose from three itin­er­aries of vary­ing dif­fi­culty, which run through olive groves, vines and woods. Since the com­pa­ny’s found­ing, more than 10,000 trees of dif­fer­ent species have been planted to improve the local bio­di­ver­sity.

The heart of the estate is a his­toric olive grove with cen­turies-old olive trees belong­ing to sev­eral autochtho­nous vari­eties, includ­ing Borgiona, Rosciola di Panicale, Rosciola Umbra, Limona, San Felice, Pocciolo, Nostrale di Rigali and Capolga Umbra. 

Frantoio, Moraiolo, Dolce Agogia and Leccino olives are the most wide­spread in the estate, with around 13,000 trees. There is a project to expand the olive grove with 150,000 new trees in a few years.

“Some ask for a bik­ing guide, while oth­ers pre­fer to ride on their own, as the tour is cus­tomiz­able,” Fasola Bologna said. ​“However, all those who par­tic­i­pate in the expe­ri­ence say that at the end, they feel regen­er­ated, recharged by the ener­giz­ing com­bi­na­tion of the two wheels and the grove. And even those unac­cus­tomed to cycling end up want­ing to con­tinue.”

“We pro­pose a final tast­ing of our extra vir­gin olive oil and wines, dur­ing which our guests can also enjoy a bruschetta as a per­fect end­ing to this expe­ri­ence in a very healthy envi­ron­ment,” he added. ​“Indeed, we believe that pre­serv­ing the health of the land where we live and work is the first step to obtain­ing high-qual­ity and healthy prod­ucts.”

In Lazio, the Maremoto Outdoor Sports Association has designed a cus­tomiz­able olive grove tour­ing itin­er­ary for e‑bikes as part of their sus­tain­able tourism project, Aurunci Experience. 

The trail leads cyclists through­out the olive groves and mills of Itri, located between the regional parks of the Aurunci Mountains and the Ulysses Riviera in the south­ern­most cor­ner of the region.

“The tour takes place over half a day and con­cludes with a tast­ing of high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil and olives of the autochtho­nous Itrana vari­ety from two com­pa­nies in the area,” said Maria Letizia Grella, the association’s pres­i­dent, who is also a cycling guide of the Italian National Mountain Bike Academy. 

“A bruschetta or lunch is included at the guests’ request,” she added. ​“Our project was cre­ated in col­lab­o­ra­tion with a group of food oper­a­tors in the area that offers archae­ol­ogy, his­tory, nature, superb land­scapes and great food prod­ucts.”

The cus­tomiz­able tour ranked with an easy dif­fi­culty level, winds through roads with lit­tle traf­fic, moun­tain paths and olive groves. It is suit­able for peo­ple who can ride a bicy­cle on acces­si­ble dirt roads.

“The e‑bike gives you the advan­tage of enjoy­ing the ride with­out much effort since you can choose the level of ped­al­ing assis­tance,” Grella said. ​“If you are not very trained, you can opt for higher assis­tance, while those who pre­fer a more intense work­out can use basic assis­tance or turn it off.” 

“In short, it is very ver­sa­tile and makes it easy to ride through­out the olive groves, which are mainly located on hilly and moun­tain­ous ter­rain,” she added.

The olive tast­ing included in the itin­er­ary takes place at the head­quar­ters of Unagri, a 300-mem­ber coop­er­a­tive.

“Our coop­er­a­tive was founded in 1950 as a social olive oil mill and is one of the old­est in Italy,” said Francesco Meschino, Unagri’s pres­i­dent. ​“Starting from the 1980s, we focused mainly on table olives, to which today we ded­i­cate three-quar­ters of the fruit pro­vided by our grow­ers.”

“We can say that Itrana has a triple apti­tude,” he added. ​“It can be used to pro­duce extra vir­gin oil with excel­lent organolep­tic prop­er­ties and can also be processed accord­ing to the ​‘Itrana’ method to obtain two types of table olives.” 

“We aim to spread aware­ness about this tra­di­tional pro­cess­ing method, based on water and sea salt, which is entirely hand­crafted and allows us to obtain high-qual­ity prod­ucts with excel­lent nutri­tional prop­er­ties,” Meschino con­tin­ued.

The olives are har­vested early, in November, and processed to become the ​‘white olive,’ widely appre­ci­ated for its firm and crunchy pulp. Some of the olives are left on the trees to be col­lected in March — they are des­tined to become Oliva di Gaeta PDO, with a soft pulp and a winey, tangy fla­vor, more suit­able for cook­ing.

“The tra­di­tional method allows the devel­op­ment of unique fla­vors and aro­mas within the brines,” Meschino said. ​“Without pre­serv­ing agents or sta­bi­liz­ers, our prod­uct has a shelf life of 18 months, which is a very long time com­pared to prod­ucts with preser­v­a­tives.”

He added that bike tour par­tic­i­pants are always grate­ful to fin­ish the tour with a tasty and healthy snack that pro­motes tra­di­tional prod­ucts. 

“Combining our val­oriza­tion pro­gram with a sports activ­ity like bik­ing has proved suc­cess­ful,” Meschino said. ​“Enjoying our olives after cycling through the groves, often in won­der­ful set­tings over­look­ing the sea, is a pure treat.”

Popular walk­ing and cycling paths pass through the ter­ri­tory of Itri, includ­ing the Francigena and San Philip routes. Some of them run along the organic farm Masseria Raino, where the Aurunci Experience bike tour par­tic­i­pants stop to enjoy an extra vir­gin olive oil tast­ing and lunch.

“My fam­ily founded this com­pany about 80 years ago,” said co-owner Loredana Ciccarelli. ​“My great-grand­fa­ther already pro­duced olives and olive oil, and then my grand­fa­ther estab­lished the masse­ria, the farm­house at the heart of the estate. From them, we have inher­ited the love for this land and the olive trees.”

Their groves are bor­dered by a his­toric route that has been used by pil­grims since Saint Philip Neri first took it in the 1500s. The path reaches the top of Fusco Mountain, where the shrine of Our Lady of Civita stands. It houses a Byzantine icon from the 8^th cen­tury.

“Today, the route is used for var­i­ous pur­poses by those who look for a spir­i­tual place as well as by sports­peo­ple, hik­ers and bik­ers, who often stop by at the farm,” Ciccarelli said. ​“Our estate stretches over 15 hectares and includes some trails eas­ily cov­ered even by untrained peo­ple. The well-exposed ter­rain lends itself greatly to hik­ing and moun­tain bik­ing.”

The prop­er­ty’s paths are flanked by dry stone walled ter­races, where olive trees thrive over­look­ing the sea at an alti­tude between 400 and 600 meters.

“We cur­rently man­age about 2,500 Itrana trees, most of which are cen­turies old,” Ciccarelli said. ​“They are inter­spersed with a few plants of ancient native vari­eties used as pol­li­na­tors. Over the years, we have recov­ered some flat­ter lands pre­vi­ously used for dif­fer­ent pur­poses, and now and then, we add new trees to these plots.”

Characterized by an inten­sive aroma of green tomato leaf, the Itrana mono­va­ri­etal takes cen­ter stage dur­ing the tast­ing that con­cludes the bike tour at Masseria Raino.

“We pro­duce our extra vir­gin olive oil with the utmost care for the envi­ron­ment,” Ciccarelli said. ​“By prop­erly and respect­fully man­ag­ing our groves, we want to con­tribute to the health of this beau­ti­ful, pre­cious ecosys­tem.”