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 he Phoenicians, in the first millennium B.C., and the Greek, in the eight century B.C., planted the first olive trees in the eastern part of Sicily. In antiquity, these trees were so much part of the scenery that Odysseus, according to Homer, used the trunk of an olive tree to blind Polyphemus, the one-eyed Cyclops who personified Mount Etna.
Through the centuries, the olive has become a major element of the economy on the slopes of the Sicilian volcano. As early as the third century B.C., the Romans levied a heavy tax on the island's production of oil in order to curb its competition with the oils produced on the mainland regions of Campania and Latium. In later epochs, the Arabs, who dominated the island for many centuries, organized and increased Sicily's production of olives.
During the Renaissance, Etna's olives were so highly appreciated that Venetian scholar and writer Pietro Bembo praised their quality in his book "De Aetna."
Many other writers have written the praise of the Etna olive, among which Antonio Stoppani, Wolfgang Goethe, Guy de Maupassant, and the naturalist Lazzaro Spallanzani. During a trip to Sicily in the spring of 1827, Alexis de Tocqueville observed that the region around Mount Etna owed its prosperity and abundance to the plantations that thrived on the volcano's fertile soil.
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APO - Associazione Produttori Olivicoli
Via di San Giuliano, 349
95124 Catania (CT)
ITALY
phone: (+39) 095/326035
fax: (+39) 095/326035
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Region of
Production
DOP Map
Sicily
Recipes
CAPONATA SICILIANA
INSALATA DI ARANCE
INVOLTINO DI MELANZANE
PESTO ERICINO
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