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‘Terra degli Ulivi’ estate agency hopes
that you will share our love of Puglia; this ‘land
of olives’.
More than just a source of food, the
olive is an ancient and symbolic element of mythology,
history and worship. Man’s use of the olive
is celebrated in legend, religion and literature:
in the dove giving Noah an olive branch to mark the
end of the Biblical deluge; in the Greek myth of Athena
and Poseidon; in the Odyssey of Homer, where Ulysses’
matrimonial bed is hewn from a millennial olive tree.
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The olive wreath is an ancient symbol
of victory and glory, the tree a source of fruit and
food, wood and fuel, oil for lighting, as a cure and
for cosmetics. The first fossil traces in Italy are
found in Tuscany and go back 12 million years. In
the Neolithic period (9,000-2,500 BC) primitive wild
olives provided food and oil for lighting, ointment
and medicine. Modern olives originated in Asia Minor,
spread to Egypt and Greece and then throughout the
Mediterranean basin.
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In
Puglia, ‘olivicoltura’ was highly developed
from the 12th century; a result of local climatic factors
and wider commercial intervention. Merchants from Venice,
Tuscany, Genoa and other parts of Europe prized its
quality, had offices and warehouses in Puglian ports
and were exporting great oil cargos of over 80,000 ‘quintale’
annually by the end of the 18th century. Puglian oil
was in high demand for lighting, to prepare soaps, and
for the processing of wools. By the 16th century, trade
in the oil of Puglia was so important that the Spanish
commissioned a road to Naples to speed its commerce.
Today, as you travel around the high ‘Valle d’Itria’
or the lush coastal plains, you will see that the olive
continues to thrive. This is evident not only in the
huge ancient specimens (which are so prized that they
are sometimes illicitly dug up for use in parks and
gardens in the urban north!), but in the groves of young
trees which are still being planted and cared for. This
land truly is ‘La Terra degli Ulivi’. |
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