Rome Today Visits Largest Olive Tree in Europe: L’ulive più grande d’Europa

Olive harvest 2011 was a healthy success! Thanks to our friends from La Tartaruga Sabina, the villa and estate of the Micheletta family, Rome Today learned about the thorough process of turning olives into oil for a year-long supply of extra virgin olive oil. Luckily, their amazing OSCO olive oil will soon be available on store shelves in the United States, with New York as its first stop. In our upcoming video (log on to Rome Today), we’ll learn more about the beautiful region of Sabina and its most prized possession – Sabina DOP extra virgin olive oil!

Along the tour, we took a quick detour and drove up to the oldest and largest olive oil tree of in all of Europe. To our surprise, we discovered the tree stands on private property and the lovely owner – Ottavio Bertini – stepped out to greet us. We couldn’t resist and quickly asked him to give us a quick interview on the history of how this amazing tree has managed to weather the storm all these years. Like everything else, it’s a miracle when you consider that its trunk measures 7 meters in diameter and it’s been certified to be over 2,400 years in age! Luckily, this olive tree is protected by the European Union for years to come.

After seeing this tree, it’s easy to understand why this region produces golden olive oil in surplus.