TUSCANY ON THE MED - 5

Today another treat: we ride to an olive grove for lunch.  The grove is down a long narrow road.  Or more correctly, UP a long narrow road.  The olive farm is owned by the same family as owns the hotel we’re staying in.   As we arrive, one of the sons is waiting with pitchers of ice-cold orange juice.  I had a couple of glasses, even though I arrived in a car.  Tables were arranged in the olive grove and were moved as the sun moved to provide maximum shade.  Several blankets and pillows were also laid on the ground and a couple of riders missed the tour of the olive farm and took naps.  But you can’t blame them; this was after a 4-course lunch with wine.  The entire hotel family was there, the chef , the waitress, the family and other staff.  As I’ve indicated previously these are very friendly and hospitable people.  Tonight we’re going to take up a collection at happy-hour so we can give additional gratuities to the hotel staff.

As the 85 year old father walked along the olive trees – up and down steep hills, the son translated.  There are 500 trees of five different varieties on the farm.  All of these little olives are grown for olive oil.  Larger olives for eating, other types, are not grown on this farm.  While still in the states I saw a news feature about the hot summer in Europe and the shortage of water in Italy.  The program showed an olive farmed with ruined crops.  That isn’t a problem here; they have a very deep well and drip irrigation on the entire farm.  At the end of the tour the old guy donned a contraption where he strapped on a battery pack and held what resembled a pitch fork.  When turned on this device was used to shake the tree limbs to harvest the olives.  That would be a lot of work for 500 trees!