by Ida Bini (ANSA) - VOLOS, 08 NOV - The period of health emergency still prevents us from traveling, yet, never like today, we would like to go and discover places and meet people;
all that remains is to plan new and fun travel experiences for the future.
Among these is the olive harvest that allows you to get closer to ancient rural traditions and discover beautiful territories such as Pelio, a natural paradise of central Greece, Andalusia between festivals and hills covered with olive groves, Provence between villages and fabulous landscapes and the Alentejo , a land full of castles and pousadas.
Collecting olives with the locals and cooking according to traditional recipes or participating in oil pressing festivals is not yet possible, but for when it will be possible to do so we recommend 4 European regions, among the major producers of extra virgin olive oil, which deserve a visit in these weeks.
Pelion, in Greece, is a little known but simple and authentic destination: it is a natural paradise not far from the port of the city of Volos, north of Athens;
in autumn it is tinged with a thousand transparent colors that are lost among the olive groves and ancient churches up to the sea.
In this period of the year you can participate in the olive harvest, which still takes place with the traditional methods, and watch the pressing of the green gold in the mill, at the end of which everyone can fill their bottles with new oil.
This precious gift of nature is also an important ingredient for traditional dishes: for the feast of Sant'Andrea, which is celebrated on November 30th, it is customary to prepare loukoumades, pancakes made with water, flour, oil and honey, served with cinnamon and walnuts. or toasted disesame seeds.
In addition to unspoiled nature, Pelio also offers suggestive monasteries and charming villages such as Portarià, with picturesque squares and stone houses;
Makrinitsa with its stunning panorama over the Pagasitikos gulf and its tower-shaped houses;
Tsagarada, a village with centuries-old plane trees and crystalline waters, and Chània with traditional shops and its ski center.
Info: visitgreece.gr Already in recent weeks the olive groves of Andalusia, in the aforementioned Spain, are animated by men and women who pull the fruit directly from the trees or by beating the branches and collecting them in the nets under the plants.
In the most modern companies it is the machines that do the work, but in many factors everything is still manual and the harvest goes on for weeks, sometimes months, especially in the provinces of Jaén, Seville and Cordoba where the olive groves cover the hills and the expanses of red earth.
There are many companies that allow visitors to assist and participate in the whole process of the birth of the oil: from harvesting to milling and from pressing to bottling.
Among the most prestigious oil mills to visit there is the Núñez de Prado company in the historic center of Baena, in the province of Cordoba, famous for having produced the first organic olive oil in Andalusia.
Here in Baena, a white village in the Guadajoz valley, the plant has been cultivated since the time of the Phoenicians and the museum of olive culture could not be missing.
Also not to be missed is the olive festival in Martos, in the province of Jaén, which takes place from 4 to 8 December: it is a popular event entirely dedicated to oil with tastings of bread, cod and olives and with a fair where the new products are exhibited. in the mills.
Outside the city, in Mengíbar, the Terra Oleum active museum of sustainable olive oil is worth a visit.
AS Seville the olive harvest is preceded and followed by engaging popular festivals: Arahal, a delightful village between sunflower fields and olive groves, is a large center of table olive production;
here the Feria del Verdeo, a national interest party, is the perfect place for those who love to eat well and dance flamenco.
With a fruity aroma, slightly dense but also bitter, spicy or sweetish, delicate or intense: this is the Portuguese olive oil, a fundamental ingredient of its gastronomy.
6 regions boast the protected designation of origin but the Alentejo is the area where there is the largest production in the country.
It is a beautiful region with immense plains covered with wheat fields and dotted with olive trees, dasughero oaks and whitewashed farms;
hidden in the folds of this endless fertile countryside, villages and towns of art with an ancient flavor sprout, rich in history.
The region boasts a fine green gold and pickled olives from Elvas and CampoMaior, of high quality and DOP certification;
Also in CampoMaior, the Lagar-Museu do Palácio Visconded'Olivã is worth a visit, a space dedicated to olive growing where an oil mill has been created and with a multimedia room where the process of oil processing and transformation is explained.
Finally in Moura there is the Lagar de Varas do Fojo oil museum with a 19th century oil mill. The region is part of a project of oil roads, where you walk among producers for guided tours and oil tastings with tiborna, a tasty abruschetta. Info: visitportugal.com The olive oil of Provence is the great protagonist of the gastronomy of the south of France. Here, too, there is the possibility of combining the experience of harvesting olives with discovering the territory: from walks among the olive groves to tastings in oil mills and shopping in specialized stores. The starting point is the Oppéde olive oil museum, in Lubéron, where there is the reconstruction of an old mill using the techniques of collecting and extracting oil. From here we move to Baux-de-Provence and Mouriès, where the landscape is marked by olive groves and where some producers such as Moulin CastelaS and Moulin Saint-Michel open their companies for walks among the plants, visit the oil mills and taste the best cru d ' oil from Provence. It is precisely in Mouriès that a festival dedicated to the collection and new oil takes place with stalls and markets. Finally, the L'Olivier Ecomuseum of Nyons deserves a visit, where you can find all the regional oil varieties and in particular the tapped Aop olives from the Baronnies Provençales area. Here, starting from November, you can taste these specialties which are celebrated on December 19th with tastings and markets. Info: it.france.fr/it(ANSA).