The olive tree characterises the apulian landscape in a decisive way. everywhere, on hills or on the coastal territory, imposing olive trees alternate, many of which represent fantastic creations that nature has been developing for centuries. And that's no wonder if Greeks and Romans considered olive trees sacred.

The "Salentino" landscape
Completely different from that of the centre-nord of Apulia: the olive groves resemble well-kept parks which are particularly appealing to walks. Looking at them comes to mind the paintings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, where they take place under the shady foliage of olive trees. All this can attract, delight, move poets, writers, painters, photographers. but we are interested in the fruit of the olive tree: the olive.

Apulia, the land of oil
His glory and honour, the pain of his people. Andria is the biggest producer, in Bitonto the oil is superfine. A cultivable area of around 400 000 hectares, an average annual harvest of 11 million quintals of olives and two and a half million quintals of oil, the region with the highest oil production. The method of olive harvesting is, together with the choice of varieties, which are many, the factor that most influences the characteristics of the oil which in Puglia is of the highest quality and extraordinary organoleptic qualities. Alongside the olives for the production of the Apulian oil, in demand all over the world, there are those of the table, which allow a multiplicity of delicacies for the cuisine: "Beautiful Olives" of Cerignola and Giant of Spain" in Capitanata, "Sant'Agostino" in the land of Bari, the sweet and tasty "Pasola" in Salento. Last but not least, Apulian oil is required as an ingredient in many recipes in naturalistic medicine; used both internally and externally, it serves as a support in the process of various healings.

The thought of the poet
“If the olive tree has conquered and conquered the world of men – writes Lino Angiuli – it is not only because of its fruit used in many ways; ... it is also its symbolic value, its anthropomorphic physiognomy, its living monument, to ensure that it comes out of the mill to take root too in a poet page or in a canvas of a painter."