Liguria
Among the best known national productions in Italy and abroad, the oils of Liguria represent only a very small percentage of Italian oil.
The Ligurian oil industry, which boasts the first oil exporting families of the last century, has the merit of having contributed to the affirmation of the image of Italian oil in the world.
History
The history of oil in this region dates back to the time of the Romans, who with the Pax Romana consolidated the presence of the olive tree in the Mediterranean area and significantly intensified the production of oil. With the fall of the Empire, however, the olive groves almost completely disappeared and were supplanted by the woods. In Liguria, the olive tree, planted on the borders of the properties, was used above all to delimit its extension. At that time, fats were animal fats and the countryside mainly required cereals and legumes; to confirm this, we can find a petition received in 979 by the Bishop of Genoa from settlers who requested perpetual lease, specifying “excluding the olive groves”, of land in San Romolo, Taggia and Ceriana.
Source: article by Fausto Borella
To save the fate of olive growing were the Benedictine monks with the intuition of building the “dry stone walls” on the slopes of the hills to solve the problem of water instability between the embankments.
Today, in the difficult orographic conditions of Ligurian olive growing, among the magnificent olive groves, Ligurian olive growers and millers still represent heroic elements, as in many other Italian areas, for the protection of the environment and landscape
Technical contents
In 1997 the DOP Riviera Ligura was established which includes the whole region, with three geographical indications:
Riviera del Ponente Savonese, for the Savona district
Riviera di Levante, for the provinces of Genoa and La Spezia
Riviera di Fiori, for the province of Imperia
The olive grove area extends for 17 thousand hectares, with 135 active oil mills.
In the territories of Imperia and Savona there are the largest plants with the most known and renowned variety of olive trees, the Taggiasca
There are also native varieties such as lizona, morino, olivana, typical of the Savona area, and the colombaia and pignola widespread in Imperia.
In the area of La Spezia the most cultivated varieties are the lantesca and the olivastrone, in Genoa the native pignola and rossese.
Sources
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