A Taste of Tuscany

There’s an ivy-clad stone wall opposite our balcony that overlooks a hillside olive grove and lemons are ripe on the trees in our courtyard. Rows upon rows of young grapevines glow in the early dawn light. Welcome to Tuscany.

When my sister and her boyfriend invited me to join them on vacation at a working Italian farmstead earlier this month, I jumped at the opportunity.

Poggio Oliveto is one of many farm operations participating in Italy’s Agritourism (agriturismo in Italian) program. Over the past five years, agritourism in Italy has increased by 25 percent. The Italian government closely regulates these businesses.

The Curatolo family bought this 115 hectare paradise in 1982 and developed it into a successful business with close to 4,000 olive trees, 12,000 walnuts and a greenhouse operation that supplies 20,000 kgs annually of watermelons, pumpkins, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, potatoes and more.

The watermelons are a source of particular pride for the oldest brother, Massimo. “We are famous in Italy for our watermelon,” he said during a farm tour. “We guarantee the colour, the sugar... each watermelon is perfect.”

His brother Filippo knocks, listens and grades each Crimson Sweet watermelon before it is trucked to market.

The olive groves are harvested in late October or early November, with many local residents arriving to help out. The pickers work for payment in olive oil and receive 15 kg of oil for every 100 kg of olives. The average Italian family uses 40 kg of olive oil annually.

Filippo’s wife Elisabetta explains how the oil is derived to us in detail and shows us the stone wheels used for grinding and pressing disks.

Afterwards we sample the traditional use of olive oil when she rubs a sliced garlic clove over a slice of Tuscan bread, salts the surface, then dribbles her family’s main product on top. It’s delicious.

Our farmhouse apartment served as a wonderful home base during our week of exploring stone villages perched on hills and day trips to Pisa, Venice, Siena, Monticello, Grosseto, Florence and Rome. There were red wines to sample, cones of gelato to quickly lick, wonderful thin-crusted pizzas, olives, capers and more to consume.

Tuscany is known as the land of emotions and we experienced many while there. All of our senses seemed magnified tenfold.

The Italian government is onto a good thing with this program. In 2003, three million flocked to Italian agritourism hotspots. For the Curatolo’s, extra income raised from the seven apartments they renovated for guests, has been a valuable boost to the sometimes fickle revenue that is raised through farming.