ROMAN CHRISTMAS TAT CAN BE FUN!!

I have a confession to make - despite a professional life which has focussed in recent years on teaching students the arts of connoisseurship in the decorative arts - I've always had a penchant for tourist junk. I find it fascinating. At home we have a huge collection of fridge magnets I've collected on our recent cruise ship travels (we need to get a bigger fridge to put them on) and whenever we go to a place where there's a thriving souvenir trade - you can bet your life I'll be attracted to the shops and stalls like a moth to a light bulb! So it was in Rome last night. On our walk back from the Piazza Venezia to the Barberini hotel we came a cross a whole street full of brightly lit stalls with vendors hawking souvenirs to the Christmas tourists. Highlights (which I didn't incidentally buy) included miniature badly crafted painted plaster models of Romulus and Remus feeding from the she -wolf (loosely based on the wonderful Etruscan bronze sculpture of the same in the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitolone Hill) the Colosseum and every other famous Roman monument you can think of, figures of Papa Francesco with and without glasses, T shirts with unprintable slogans on them and horror of horrors Roman plastic helmets complete with plumes - perfect for those wishing to have their photo taken in front of the Colosseum.

ROMAN TOURIST SOUVENIRS

Maybe these objects are an antidote to the high quality stuff I've been used to dealing with in my professional life. The fact they are an affront to good taste I find a source of amusement and they tell us a lot about the places we all love to visit when on holiday.

What I did buy from one of the stalls was a bookmark calendar for 2015. There were lots to choose from and I picked out one with views of tourist attractions in the city centre. At a price of 1 euro (about 80 pence in sterling) this was an excellent value object with a practical use - a bookmark for every month of the year with a good quality image and a monthly calendar to boot. It's interesting to list the images for each of the 12 months of 2015 - they are as follows:

January                Saint Peter's from the Tiber

February              The Trevi Fountain

March                  The Spanish Steps

April                     The Colosseum

May                      Roman Forum

June                      Piazza Navona

July                       Pantheon

August                  Castel Sant Angelo               

September            The Colosseum

October                 Piazza Venezia

November             The Old Appian Way

December             Saint Peter's Basilica

Of the famous monuments listed - 6 of them are of Roman origin (one gets two photographs - guess which), 5 date from the  Renaissance/ Baroque periods from the 16th to the 18th centuries and only one building is from the late 19th, early 20th century. There is nothing from the modern period at all! If this selection of images has been carefully put together so it appeals as a souvenir what it appears to be saying is that tourists don't especially come to Rome for the legacy of the last two centuries. I have actually seen this point of view expressed in some popular guide books about the city. Rome maybe the capital city of modern Italy but tourists and visitors are drawn to it at all times of year because of its amazing cultural history. We all studied the Romans at school (do children still do that today?) and we are all aware that the city was at the centre of a vast Empire which covered just about all of the Mediterranean area and extended northwards as far as Britain; we know that many aspects of European language, its legal systems, architectural styles and art can be traced back to this period of imperial brutality and exploitation in the city's history. Likewise, although only about 3% of the city's current inhabitants regularly attend mass in its 600 plus churches, we all know Rome as the epicentre of one of the world's great religions. The faithful still flock to Rome and the independent Vatican state to pay homage to its significance as a major symbol of their catholic faith and the curious still want to see where the Pope lives or see the amazing art within its walls. In some ways the city is a huge disneyland - a theme park for culture junkies like me. There is visual evidence of all these great chapters in the city's history round every street corner and down every alley and its all there to be discovered, either by making pilgrimages to the big set piece attractions, or often when you are taking it easy wandering about and thus least expect it. The latter was the case on one of our morning walks this Christmas.

THE GHETTO 

We'd decided to visit the area marked on the city maps as 'The Ghetto', an area of narrow streets on the eastern bank of the Tiber opposite Trastevere. South of the Via del Portico d' Ottavia its an atmospheric district of narrow streets and alleys and traditionally associated with the city's Jewish community, so even today there are lots of kosher restaurants and Jewish bakeries, workshops and wholesalers of ready to wear clothing. Its been a significant Jewish community since the medieval period, but it was Pope Paul IV, father of the Inquisition, who decreed that the city's Jews should be forcibly contained at night in a walled ghetto in 1555. In the tenements abutting the narrow streets Jewish families lived in overcrowded conditions, the only advantage being that at least they enjoyed a degree of safety and security at night. In 1870 one of the first decisions of the newly formed Italian government, after the liberation of Rome, was to tear down the walls of the Jewish ghetto. Today most Roman Jews live elsewhere, but the area still has a great atmosphere and we were glad we'd visited. The big surprise came when we headed back towards the river and turned a corner to suddenly be confronted by a huge structure which turned out to be the remains of a vast Roman theatre complex. Begun by Julius Caesar and completed by Emperor Augustus it was dedicated to the latter's son Marcellus and it remained in use until 235AD when it fell in to disrepair after events were transferred to the amphitheatre. In the middle ages its advantageous position near the river determined it's future as a fortress but later, with many changes of ownership, parts of it were converted to domestic use. It was Mussolini who first secured it as  an important monument of the city's Roman past by removing adjoining buildings giving it the more detached appearance it has today. Another nearby vista from the Jewish quarter showed, close to the theatre, three picturesque classical corinthian columns once part of the Temple of Apollo rebuilt by the Romans following the demise of an earlier structure in 33BC. All of this then was revealed to us in just a short 45 minute walk - made all the more interesting by us not having read the area up before visiting. In this instance doing the research and follow up afterwards was fun.

OUTER WALL OF THE ROMAN THEATRE OF MARCELLUS
& ONE COLUMN FROM THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO

I remember last year being taken by surprise when we first visited the Piazza Navona to discover it's strange shape - its long and thin with a semi-circular end. This is the result it's Roman origins for it's in the shape of a classical athletics stadium of a type that originated in Greece - 900 feet long. The original stadium was built by Emperor Domitian in AD85 for the annual games he intended to hold in honour of Capitoline Jove. By the middle ages it was being used to cultivate vineyards and for storage barns which were built amongst the classical ruins. It was during Rome's resurgence as a city from the 14th century and especially later during the reign of Pope Innocent X that it was developed into the iconic Baroque piazza seen by visitors today and at Christmas its the location of the Christmas toy fair which specialises in the sale of nativity figures - it's a joy to visit it at this time of year.

PLAN OF ROMAN STADIUM OF DOMITIAN

PIAZZA NAVONA AND THE CHRISTMAS TOY FAIR

And now that I've finished this posting it's time to reflect on Christmas Eve and to look forward to telling you about our special visit to St Peter's basilica later that day.

TRAVELLER'S TIPS
Many sites, especially the more popular ones, have information boards - often in Italian and English.
Use your mobile phone to google sites round Rome as you visit them. You will find lots of maps, images and short articles to help decipher what you can see. If you have one of those apps to photograph those black and white square patterns that yield information that will come in useful too.

If you are interested in reading novels with a Roman theme try the Inspector Zen novels by English author Michael Dibden. The first one - Ratking - was published in 1988 and the last in 2007 was entitled Endgames. They are mostly set in Rome and highlight a side of the city not usually apparent to visitors. Inspector Zen is an interesting middle aged anti-hero character who seeks to manage his job and private life within the framework of a challenging set of police cases. It's attractive to read about sites in the city you may well have visited. Three of the novels were televised for the BBC and filmed in Rome and shown on TV in 2011. 

A ROMAN CHRISTMAS - ITS A GREAT TIME TO VISIT THE SITES

I've said before that I find Christmas difficult. It's not that I don't like it as I find many of its sentiments attractive - despite the fact that it's preceded in Britain by almost three months of the most awful aspects of modern day consumerism. I particularly hate having to endure Christmas songs being repetitively played in shops, supermarkets and on television for weeks on end and if I have to listen again to "It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas" I think I'll expire sooner rather than later. Seriously though my problem is more to do with with feelings of being divorced from it at home. We don't go to church and we have no choice these days but to pull up the drawbridge and spend it in splendid isolation - Christmas Day highlights being watching the Queen's Speech (actually I am a sucker for this) and perhaps also the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special! Both Jon and I have no close family to celebrate it with and after my Mum died three and a half years ago we have lost the will to make it special at home. To avoid melancholia taking a hold - keeping "the black dog at bay" as Winston Churchill would have put it - we have chosen to spend it in Italy these last three years - the first two of the three in Florence and the last one at our apartment in Citta della Pieve. We have come to thoroughly enjoy it there for all sorts of reasons - not least because although it's very important in Italy - it isn't the frenzied greedfest and mega shut down that its become at home. Last year, just before the main holiday, we went down to Rome by train and spend a night in a hotel near Termini station. I was staggered at what we were able to achieve in just 24 hours, so this year we decided to give it another go - for four days this time before going on to our apartment in Umbria for New Year.

We didn't do much planning before setting off other than to book the flights from Stanstead to Rome and then to choose a decent hotel in a convenient part of the city at the best possible rate. In the old days this used to be hit and miss affair - the best option being to get a recommendation from a friend. Now, it couldn't be easier with on-line detailed research available even to computer morons like me. I would strongly recommend the website "booking.com" for this - it is quite simply amazing. Choose where you want to go, (anywhere in the world) set the perameters and dates and press the button. Pictures, customer reviews (how hotels must hate these) and free cancellation/ pay later options are all usually available, the latter at a small extra charge. I must confess to using this and cancelling the first choice a few weeks later. I did this after making a new reservation close to the departure date when I found a better hotel in a great area available at a super rate. If you follow the site over a couple of weeks its fascinating to observe how rates can change, so the non-refundable option is not the best choice. So what did we settle for in Rome for our Christmas stay?

PIAZZA BARBERINI & THE LOCATION OF THE BARBERINI HOTEL

BARBERINI HOTEL

We chose a smallish 35 bedroom hotel called the Barberini just off the Piazza Barberini which is a superb location half way between Termini station and the Piazza Veneto and there is a Line A metro station just 200m from the door of the hotel. Loads of buses also pass through the Piazza which can take you almost anywhere you want to go. Stand on the front doorstep of the hotel and you look directly across to the impressive 17th century Palazzo Barberini designed by architect Carlo Maderno for the Barberini Pope Urban VIII and completed by Bernini. This building is testimony to what happened to the profits from the Papal Treasury in the 1630's! Now owned by the state it houses the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica and its magnificent art collection including works by Raphael, Tintoretto, Tiepolo, Caravaggio and Holbein. Look left from the front door, down past the piazza directly up the Via Sistina and its possible to see the obelisk which stands on a pedestal at the top of the Spanish Steps and outside Trinita dei Monti church - five to ten minutes walk away. Go east from the hotel along the street and you arrive at Boromini's small square of the four fountains the Quattro Fontane (currently under restoration) and thence on to the magnificent Sant Maria Maggiore church. All of this was part of a grand boulevard scheme planned by Pope Sixtus V. A ten minute walk south from the hotel takes one to the maze of streets which lead to the Trevi district and its famous fountain - more about that later. The four star hotel itself is a  five storey19th century building which has been drastically modified to accommodate a new layout in recent years. You enter at street level down a flight of white marble steps into a commodious reception area in what originally would have been the basement. Here there's also a small bar and a sitting area. Upstairs the double/twin rooms are quite small (there are I belived a small number of junior suites) but furnished traditionally (silk damask on the walls and tasselled window curtains - what more could one want?) with decent quality stuff and each with an excellent marble bathroom with power shower. By far the most important feature of the hotel however, and really why I chose it, is the breakfast room on the sixth floor. Its relatively small and intimate, is fully glazed on two walls and has outstanding views out over the Roman roof tops to St Peter's and the Vatican. What better way to spend Christmas morning than to join fellow guests in this wonderful space and partake of the excellent buffet breakfast and this spectacular vista!

BREAKFAST ROOM ON THE 6TH FLOOR AT THE BARBERINI HOTEL

After settling in on the afternoon of the 23rd we went out to grab an early evening meal in one of the many restaurants nearby (nothing to write home about) and then decided to soak up the Christmas atmosphere in the eternal city. We decided to walk south down the Via della Tritone so we could see the Christmas lights in Rome's fashionable shopping district. The city does Christmas lights big time (we'd seen what was on offer last year) so we knew we were in for a treat. Our first stop we decided would be the Via del Corso.

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS IN THE VIA CORSO

The Via del Corso is one of Rome's principal streets and leads from the Piazza Venezia to the Piazza del Popolo. It's lined with an array of historic buildings and monuments, such as the Triumphal Column of Marcus Aurelius and its an important shopping street too. Not surprisingly its a major venue for Rome's annual Christmas lights show - the equivalent of Oxford Street in London, but in the Italian capital the show is far more extensive and impressive. This year the whole length of the street was decorated and lit with an array of flags of the world some of which can be seen in the photograph here.


We walked down the Corso to take a look at the spectacle in the huge square at the end of the street first laid out in 1538 for Pope Paul III. This is the Piazza dell Popolo, built over a number of years with contributions form Michelangelo and Bernini to provide an impressive northern entrance to Rome. Three straight roads lead off its southern end, of which the Via dell Corso is one. The pair of twin domed churches were added in the 1600's. In the weeks before Christmas the square plays host to a charming Christmas market and this year the lights looked wonderful - an array of white shooting stars with tails.

SHOOTING STARS IN THE PIAZZA DEL POPOLO

Next it was a walk down the crowded Via del Corso to Piazza Venezia - this is the square in front of the huge white wedding cake like building at the top end of the Roman Forum built in the early 20th century and dedicated to the King of the newly united Italy - Vittorio Emanuele II.This is the site of Rome's  principal Christmas tree and its always a beauty. I saw London's effort in Trafalgar Square recently and thought how poor it was. Comparing it with this one - well what can I say? We need to do better at home next year.

HUGE CHRISTMAS TREE IN THE PIAZZA VENEZIA

By now we were beginning to feel footsore and just a little bit weary so it was now time to head off back to the Barberini for a good night's sleep and to prepare for Christmas Eve the following day The plan was to make and enjoy a good cup of tea and map out our next day itinerary; we knew by now that we had the great privilege of being able to attend mass inside St Peter's basilica - that would surely be a highlight of the whole trip!

TRAVELLER'S TIPS
Many of the sights in central Rome are walkable - nothing seems that far from anywhere else in the central area. If using public transport its a good idea to buy an integrated travel ticket which is valid on buses, trams and the metro. It costs 6 euros for 24 hours and 16.50 euros for three days. Weekly tickets are also available. There is no restriction on the number of journeys that can be made Buy them at the automatic machines at the metro stations with cash, Don't forget to validate your ticket in the slot machines on the buses and trams. Oh - and watch out for pick pockets who are notorious in Rome and very skilled. Metro platforms and trains are a magnet for them! Take care and you'll be fine.

SAFFRON - AN AUTUMN FESITVAL IN CITTA DELLA PIEVE

As Jon drove us back that afternoon along the narrow roads from Gioiella to the valley bottom so we could join the main road to Citta I suddenly had the colour yellow on my mind. Was it because I'd been thinking of the importance of the bright yellow found on many of the tin glaze pots made at Deruta I'd been thinking about earlier, or something more immediate? - and then I remembered. The theme of the festival being celebrated in Citta this particular weekend was saffron! I knew saffron was harvested from the stamens of crocus flowers as I'd watched a programme on British TV about the historic town of Saffron Walden in Essex recently, where crocus bulb cultivation had been economically important round there in times past, but I had always associated crocuses with spring and not autumn. The wonderful displays of spring crocuses in purple and yellow seen on the green grass areas of the Stray in Harrogate, Yorkshire, came in to my mind - another recollection of my upbringing in that beautiful part of England. But what were we going to find in Citta della Pieve? - I was intrigued. As we approached our little town up the steep hill road suddenly I saw a poster on the side of the road advertising the festival - it had been dark the previous evening so we hadn't seen in then. It was headed "ZAFFERIAMO" - 24,25,26 Ottobre - Centro Storico - so we knew where to head next.

I picked up a copy of the leaflet advertising the festival and detailing the events in the entrance hall of the Palazzo Corgna in the main square of Citta. A listing of  all the happenings filling the three day programme was contained inside - everything from cookery demonstrations to art exhibitions and even tours of the crocus fields outside the town. The last event on the Sunday (which we wouldn't be able to go to) was a guided visit through the town to look at the saffron hues in Renaissance painter Perugino's Citta Della Pieve works found in different churches and chapels. Downstairs at the palazzo was a display of fine local embroidery done on textiles dyed with saffron. We started our saffron experience with a display of contemporary works of art on the first floor of the Palazzo in its fresco decorated rooms and every painting, done by a variety of Umbrian artists, was themed on the yellow colour of saffron. This imaginative and thought provoking display of landscapes, still lifes, figurative and abstract works was an interesting start to our saffron sojourn. Walking along the main street the purple colours of the crocus had been used to theme window displays in various shops and the local gelateria was offering saffron flavoured ice cream! But where to next? - the market hall and outside square opposite it seemed the best choice as this is where most of the saffron festival activities were focussed.


Saffron is one of the most ancient of spices and its been traded and used by man for over four millenia. It's thought to have developed as a native plant of Asia Minor and was then cultivated there for centuries. Over time its been used not only as a colouring agent and dye for fabrics, but also as a medicine and flavouring agent in cooking. Cleopatra is known to have tinted her skin with saffron and the Greeks used it as an aphrodisiac. In the Middle Ages saffron was used to produce brightly coloured foods for elaborate banquets and it was a well know symbol of wealth amongst the nobility in Italy. It's a 13th century Dominican monk who's thought to have introduced it to Italy from Spain  and since then its been grown successfully as a commercial plant in different parts of  the country, particularly in Tuscany and Umbria; Florence became an international trading centre for saffron and the spice developed as one of the most costly by weight. Now unknown in the wild the latin name of the plant is Crocus sativas and its purple flowers develop from bulbs planted in early September in this part of the world; they flower in the middle of October. Saffron is harvested by removing the three tiny deep orange stamens in each flower and these must be hand picked on a daily basis so they are selected just when they are ripe and at their most colourful. All are then dried to make the pure form of saffron which is usable in the different ways mentioned. Today its been estimated that to produce one pound or 450g of saffron its necessary to harvest the stamens from between 50,000 and 75,000 flowers. It takes forty hours of picking to harvest 150 thousand flowers. I don't think I'll be applying for a seasonal job harvesting saffron!

THE YELLOW STAMENS ARE VISIBLE INSIDE
PURPLE CROCUS FLOWERS

STAMENS ARE DRIED AFTER PICKING TO
PRODUCE THE PURE SAFFRON

In medicinal use there is evidence to suggest saffron may be important in the treatment of depression and possibly in connection with certain eye conditions and some cancers. In food its traditionally been used to add colour and as a flavouring in European, Turkish, Arabian and Asian dishes and it's also been used in the making of liquers and confectionary.

Down the main street in the second of the town's principal squares the saffron festival was in full swing when we arrived. Outside the market hall a couple of young chefs demonstrated the making of various pasta dishes to an engaged crowd of seated onlookers, but we decided to go in to the hall to see the "Zafferano...e non solo" - or "saffron... and not only" market.

 All of the stalls were displaying and selling wares made with saffron so it was possible to sample local olive oil, honeys, cheeses, gelatins, breads, fruitcakes, sugared almonds, liquers and grappa all made with saffron and the tables were decorated with the violet crocus petals of the saffron crocus. It was a pleasure to mingle with locals and visitors and to listen to some of the animated conversations about the food and other products being displayed and sold. One local stall holder, who we'd met before - Jon bought some locally made artisan products from her last Christmas, explained where the nearby saffron fields were and tried to persuade us to go on one of the walks; we must make sure we can do it next time round

We ended our saffron day with a fixed price three course dinner (only 29 euros) at the nearby Vannucci Hotel where all the dishes were saffron themed. I had a golden coloured saffron based soup, followed by salmon fishcakes with saffron batterand saffron rice and of course a saffron gelato for dessert! And the taste......... well saffron tastes to me a little bit like eating dried hay with a slightly sweet note. I am not sure I would want to sample it every day. Overall the saffron festival provided another example of the local community coming up with an event celebrating a tiny dimension of the local economy in a significant and enjoyable way - for locals and visitors alike.

THE CITTA DELLA PIEVE SAFFRON FESTIVAL IS HELD EACH YEAR IN THE MIDDLE OF OCTOBER AND LASTS THREE DAYS. DETAILS ARE PUBLISHED ON THE TOWN'S WEB SITE.

AUTUMN IN UMBRIA AND THE OLIVE HARVEST

We've had our apartment in Italy for over a year now so have been able to experience the local Umbrian landscape through at least one complete cycle of seasons. A couple of months ago, in late October, we made our first trip out to Citta della Pieve in autumn and it proved to be a rewarding visit - albeit a short one; we had only four full days available to us before we had to return home. We arrived in town from Ciampino airport in our little hire car late on a Thursday evening, so it was impossible to make any judgements about the local weather, or how everything looked outside. The following morning, however, we woke up to bright blue skies and for the time of year a warmish ambience which I felt when I stepped out on to our tiny balcony. I was surprised how green the valley below our apartment still looked with so many of the trees still having most of their leaves. One noticeable difference to our last visit was the absence of our friends the swallows who had long since departed for the warmer climes of north Africa, It seemed strangely quiet without them and the thought passed through my mind that it would be six months before we would see them again.

After an early breakfast we decided to drive into the countryside and visit our friends in Gioiella - a small village on a ridge between hillside slopes leading down to Lake Trasimeno in the east and Lake Chiusi in the west. It's in beautiful Umbrian countryside and I was keen to see what it would look like at this time of year. As soon as we left the valley bottom and started to climb the gently rolling hillsides I was conscious of the rhythmic nature of the annual cycle and its steady progression in this part of Italy. Perhaps it's due to the seasons seeming more clear cut here compared with our part of the UK Midlands. Not only do the seasonal weather conditions seem very distinctive in this part of Umbria, they also seem to accurately reflect what we can see on the exposed hillsides. Today the landscape had a beautiful earthy tone to it, making it even more special in the morning bright, sharp light. In an area still dominated by agriculture involving crop growing, olive cultivation and vineyards not surprisingly various activities associated with the autumn season were evident on this fine morning. In one field a farmer was ploughing the soil, in another preparations were being made to harvest the olives and in yet another vine leaves were turning to a wonderful golden hue perfectly poised for the snip of the pruner's shears later on.

AUTUMN IN UMBRIA NEAR GIOIELLA

Suddenly and surprisingly I became aware of how this array of distinctive hues of blue, greens, yellows and browns had permeated the palette of colours used in the craft based making of Italian tin-glazed pottery and traditionally made in Umbrian towns like Deruta and Gubbio for centuries.

EARTHY TONES DOMINATE CERAMIC
OBJECTS IN A SPECIALIST
SHOP IN PRESENT DAY  DERUTA

I've been familiar with and enjoyed this type of pottery for years, but never before has the penny dropped so loudly as to how exactly the colours were inspired by the local landscape. The characteristic colour range of blue, brown, yellow and green, found on many of the wonderful pots made during and since the 16th century in this region, resonates in my mind with what I can see before my eyes this morning.

But it's time to move on and Frances and Michael will be awaiting our arrival at their village house just outside Gioiella. I'm keen to know more about the annual harvest of their olive trees.

Frances and Michael are expats from Ireland and England respectively. They used to live in southern Spain but ten years ago decided, after visiting the Italy a number of times, to settle there and buy a property in Umbria. They bought a stone house with an adjoining field containing about thirty mature olive trees and have annually harvested them to become self sufficient in high grade olive oil. But on the phone last week they'd indicated there were problems with this year's harvest so it was time to investigate. On arrival at the house, after parking the car, we took a peek at the field with the olive trees next to the house. Everything looked pretty normal to us but a quick inspection of the nearest tree showed there was very little to harvest. Where were the olives?

FRANCES & MICHAEL'S OLIVE TREES NEXT TO THEIR HOUSE IN GIOIELLA
LAKE CHIUSI IS IN THE DISTANCE

Olive trees have been cultivated in the Mediterranean area since at least 3000BC and the trees were probably first introduced from north Africa via Egypt and the island of Crete. For centuries the olive tree and its branches and fruit have been considered variously a symbol of peace, wisdom, glory and fertility as well as being the source of a major foodstuff - olive oil. Cultivation of the tree began in Italy between the VIII and V centuries BC. Today Italy has 1,700,000 hectares of land under olive cultivation, though 80% of production is concentrated in the south, especially in Puglia, Calabria and Sicily. With 28,000 hectares of land under olive cultivation in Umbria, our region produces only 2% of the national output, but the oils produced are generally of premium quality and many carry DOP status (protected denomination of origin). As olive oil is an important part of the Mediterranean diet its not surprising that Italians consume 12kg of the stuff every year - though not all of this is from Italian sources - much of it being imported from Greece and Spain. The high quality and valuable Italian oils, including those of Umbria, tend to be exported to countries like the United States and Great Britain. Umbrian oils are particularly favoured for their piquancy of taste caused by the high levels of antioxidants in the oils, the unique flavours the result of the unique combination of local micro-climates and soil types.

The trees owned by Frances and Michael came with the house purchased and were not the reason they chose the property, but it was a challenge to them to farm them and produce their own oil. All their trees are approximately 40 - 50 years old and include a mixture of cultivars or types. Each shows the characteristic twisty gnarled trunk beneath a squat bole and wonderfully silvery green leaves. Like everyone else in the area they prune their trees in February/ March and feed them with potash mix pellets in June. They allowed their neighbours to harvest the crop in their first year there so they could learn the procedures involved in harvesting and turning the olives in to oil. With good quality Umbrian olive oils costing up to 20 euros for half a litre in some upmarket shops, the idea of producing the same thing as an interesting hobby was very appealing.

In the first year Frances and Michael harvested 6 kilos of olives - considered a poor harvest by locals. In the several years following though the yield often reached 400 to 480 kilos of olives producing an oil yield of between 9 and 20 percent. It follows that from the thirty trees they owned, in the best years they could expect about 60 litres of good quality extra virgin olive oil - which if stored correctly could be kept for up to 2 - 3 years.

Under normal circumstances the olives would be harvested at this time of year with rake heads attached to broom sticks with nets set below the trees to collect the crop. Taking their time and perhaps with a little help from friends, the harvest would normally take about a week. After collecting the olives from the nets they would be placed in stackable boxes and left for a day or two for the fruit to dry and for any "worms" (insect larvae) to drop out of the fruit. They would then join a small consortium of neighbours so they could combine their crops to reach a minimum pressing target of 100 kilos.The olives would be collectively taken (or collected for a small charge) to the local mill for pressing. There are a few mills left in Umbria which operate with traditional pressing stones like the one at Paciano, but the one Frances and Michael use has more modern equipment and can be found run by a local family in the village of Petrignano. The mill operates 24 hours a day during the harvesting period and arrivees have to wait their turn to get their olives pressed. When pressing begins the olives are poured first into a washing vat before going to the press which has four outlets for the oil. It takes about four hours for the first pressing of the load through a series of filters; when the oil "comes through" it looks a wonderful luminous green colour. As oil made from the first pressing it is designated to be of "extra virgin" quality and the pulp left behind, which is usually pressed again, is of a pinky colour, the texture of a coarse pate or hummus.

MICHAEL HOLDS UP A STAINLESS STEEL
OLIVE OIL "FUSTO".

Everyone in the little consortium would have their estimated oil volume drained into stainless steel containers callued "fustos" which can be of 10, 25 and 50 litre sizes. Once filled they can be taken home and the consortium would pay the millers their modest fee of about 90 euros for the pressing. But what of this years harvest?

FRANCES INSPECTS THIS YEAR'S
SHRIVELLED OLIVES

Over a cup of hot coffee Frances and Michael told us of the problems facing this year's olive growers in Umbria - especially those with organic plots. A combination of a warm, wet winter which prevented the cryogenic frost action needed to stimulate spring growth in the trees combined with  an extraordinarily wet summer has stunted the growth of olives in this part of Italy. Though the olives looked to be progressing normally up until about August, they failed to swell and ripen and the double whammy of an infestation of olive fruit fly (their larvae grow inside the olives and devour the flesh leaving only skin and stone) has meant there will be no harvest this year at all for Frances and Michael and many of the larger growers in the area. Those fruits that did exist have dropped off the trees in a dried and shrivelled state and are of no use to anyone. In a recent email Frances has told us that the local pressing mill has actually closed early through lack of olives to process. All in all its a disastrous year for those depending on olive production for their living.


We left Gioiella feeling sad after hearing the story of the failed olive crop and it was a reminder to us of the precarious nature of farming as a means of making a living in Umbria or anywhere else for that matter. Suddenly it made the issue of climate change seem that little bit more real. Was this year's slightly odd Umbrian climate pattern a blip or part of a greater trend that would affect the area in the years to come?  My first impressions of the autumn season in Umbria had been slightly misleading and I found that a bit depressing. It was time to head back to Citta della Pieve and cheer ourselves up there. We'd heard there was a local festival being held in the town that weekend so we set off to find out what it was about.

THE LUMINOUS GREEN OLIVE OIL OF UMBRIA