After Extrascape, the first international contest for extra virgin olive oils and olive-growing landscapes, and in the wake of the 2011 edition of the Forum Dieta Mediterranea held in La Spezia, Liguria — where the the nomination of the olive-growing landscape for UNESCO World Heritage list was announced – this year edition of Girolio d’Italia, too, will have olive landscape as a main theme.
Girolio started from Otranto, an enchanting small town deep down in Apulia – Italy’s main olive oil producer. All the regional stopovers are connected thanks to the common value of an olive-growing landscape, in a symbolic changeover.
“We chose to consecrate the 2012 edition of Girolio d’Italia to the olive-growing landscape as it is an invaluable heritage to be preserved,” said Enrico Lupi, National Association of Oil Cities chairman, “for the essential contribution it gives to Italian agriculture and its thousand-year-old culture. The progressive abandonment of the olive-growing areas in Italy, and its well-known consequences for the lansdscape and the hydrogeological system plan, highlight the need of a prompt intervention to preserve, promote and improve it,” both for extra virgin oil producers and for the tourism incomes of the “Oil Cities.”
After Otranto, Girolio will stop in the following regions and cities during eleven weeks, covering much more than the 1,000 kilometers that separate Apulia from Trentino, where the tour will end on December 22, in the lovely mountain village of Tenno:
Falerone (Marche)
Montecchio (Umbria)
Muggia (Friuli Venezia Giulia)
Marone (Lombardia)
Sestri Levante (Liguria)
Brisighella and
Imola (Emilia Romagna)
Oliena (Sardegna)
Cerreto Sannita (Campania)
Arquà Petrarca (Veneto)
Seggiano (Toscana)
Ficarra and
Sant’Angelo di Brolo (Sicily)
Matera (Basilicata)
Vallefiorita (Calabria)
Larino (Molise)
Pescara (Abruzzo)
then the final stop in Tenno
Every location will host tastings of the new extra virgin olive oil, olive oil-themed cooking classes, workshops about olive-growing landscapes and folklore performances. Young people will be involved through the presentation of an olive tree to a local school, a gift from the former stop.
Anyone can follow the event thanks to a dedicated app launched by the National Association of Oil Cities to discover Italy’s heritage of century-old olive trees, olive oil-related itineraries and olive oil producers and restaurants throughout the country.
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