Nicola Titone, the gentleman of Italian olive growing
There are people who leave a tangible and imperishable mark. It is not only for the acts, the innovations and the visions but also for the behavior and the style. Thanks dr. Titone, olive grower lent to the pharmacy.
Twenty-five years ago, when I entered the olive-oil world, Nicola Titone was already a star in the firmament of the national extra virgin.
The Sicilian pharmacist lent to olive growing had already broken the canons and patterns of custom, made it clear to the world that even Sicily could produce excellent oils, export them, innovate and get out of the tunnel of “so much oil is all the same” .
I remember that, on the occasion of our first meeting, I approached him timidly. It was he who involved me in a discussion on the management of the olive grove and the defense. His bottles to fight the olive fly did not convince me. Never arrogant, he never tried to convince me, but to explain me.
I was immediately struck by how shy and reserved he was but also his ability to transform himself as soon as he spoke of olive trees and oil.
The pharmacy was his first love but the infatuation for the olive tree and the oil was a cultivated passion and remained always present in his heart and soul.
You could see it in the eye.
This is probably why he was more of an olive grower lent to the pharmacy than a pharmacist lent to olive growing.
He was certainly a gentleman, the gentleman of Italian olive growing, not just Sicilian.
Everything about him revealed elegance and distinction, extreme correctness and loyalty in human and social relationships.
Having retired from the scene for a few years, in silence, handing over to his daughter Antonella, nothing wanted to let people know about his health conditions and the pathology that took him away from the affection of his family at the ripe old age of 85. A behavior that makes you think in the social age, where everything is published, shared, even exhibited.
Of course, he was a man of other times, but he knew how to look beyond tradition and had the strength, tenacity and acumen to mark the way, today traveled by many fellow olive growers.
Thanks Nicola Titone, for your example as a man, even before being an olive grower.
