What would a vegetable soup, a low and scrocchiarella Roman pizza or a slice of toasted bread be without a good oil pouring copiously on it? Well, that would be banalities!

Lazio is a region that boasts excellent productions with 82 thousand hectares planted with olives and four PDOs to show off, it is the ideal place for a tour immersed in "green gold"!

The production of olive oil in Lazio has very ancient origins. It was the Etruscans who planted the first olive trees in Tuscia around the sixth century BC, while later the Romans developed cultivation and production in Sabina and Ciociaria. Today in the region there are three main areas dedicated to olive growing: Tuscia, Sabina and lower Lazio with the Pontine hills. Four oils are produced under the Dop brand: Dop Colline Pontine where the protagonist cultivar is the itrana, with its clear and decisive scent of tomato, aromatic herbs and a lashing note of green apple to the Dop Sabina, up to the Dop Tuscia and also in the Viterbo area the Canino Dop.

Lazio is a triumph of flavors and this "gold"!

The cultivation of the olive tree and the production of oil represent one of the main activities of the Lazio region. There are over 300 company and inter-company oil mills with an annual production of olive oil equal to twenty-two thousand tons.

It is precisely in this period of the year that those who harvest olives are in full swing. Colored sheets spread on the ground, like huge tablecloths, carefully placed under the trees, so that not even a grain is lost. The processing and maintenance of the olive tree is such an onerous job that even a single, small, grain is precious. And so, whole families, mostly on weekends, gather in the harvest.

Extra virgin olive oil is the cornerstone of Mediterranean gastronomy. Indispensable to “review” the famous chicory or chicory. Fundamental in the preparation of Roman-style pizza; inevitable in the classic traditional first courses or in the preparation of lamb. More than someone argues that oil is the real secret of Roman cuisine and beyond ... it will be so!