Italy (Puglia): Roman Olive Groves and Farewell

The variety of olive trees that grow in Puglia are immortal.  At least in human terms.  Trees that stand in perfect rows thirty meters apart were planted by the ancient Romans.  Many of the trees at the olive oil producer that we visited today are well over 2,000 years old and still bearing fruit.  Part of how they've lasted for so long is that the Romans knew that 30 meters is the appropriate spacing in order for the trees to avoid competing with each other for nutrients.  Additionally, since the older trees have widespread and deep roots they can tolerate drought better than younger ones.  Modern oil producers in Spain have become known for getting away with much closer plantings because of irrigation techniques and fertilizers.  Ironically, as I'm writing this blog post Spain happens to be in the middle of a drought and it's driving up olive oil prices worldwide.

Masseria Brancati is one of few farms that have worked to preserve the history of oil production so that visitors can learn about what life used to be at the fortified farms that used to exist all over Puglia.  Olive oil was extremely valuable because it was used as fuel for lamps.  If you were an olive oil producer your farm, workers, and product had to be fiercely protected.  Large stone walls with small holes for weaponry were all that stood between raiders and the workers who already lived in appalling conditions for the sake of maximizing oil output (sounds strangely familiar).

Today Puglia is responsible for 40% of Italy's olive oil production.  At the end of our tour this morning we had an opportunity to do an olive oil tasting (always a fun experience).  My favorite was the cleaner grassier oil and Hans liked the one that had more spicy elements.

This particular tree is over 3,000 years old

1800's era millstones, driven by horses or donkeys

Since we were only ten minutes from the nearest beach we headed over to Lido Onda Blu, a quiet family-friendly beach club with very reasonable prices.  The wind coming in from the Adriatic was not as strong as it had been for the previous two days however the waves made swimming a little bit challenging.  The sand was nice and not too crowded.  We rented just an umbrella for a little bit of relief from the sun and skipped the loungers.  After rinsing off and changing out of our bathing suits I had an espresso and Hans had a lemon soda before we hit the road.

Sadly, this is our last full day in Italy.  Knowing how much packing there was to do, we went back to the hotel to start that task and make tomorrow a little easier.  We opted for take-out pizza from the tiny town of Casalini and ate at one of the outdoor seating areas back at our hotel.  It was a very beautiful evening under a clear sky full of stars and the very fragrant shrubs near us were buzzing with hawk moths, an exciting sight.