Plants in the Castiglion Fiorentino Courtyside

Olive Tree

On May 28 we took a class field trip to make homemade pizza and bread with Romano and Giovanna, an Italian couple's home. Our Italian teacher, Rosella, lead us on a walk through the country side to reach the couple's home and took about an hour to walk there. Along the way Dr. Starman and Rosella would stop and take some time to point out certain plants we would come across. What I learned along the way was that Italians are very proud of their gardens. Along the way I noticed a lot of olive trees everywhere, even in people's yards. Dr. Starman had pointed out that the olives on the tree were already blooming and that they would be ready around Fall to pick. Rosella then told us about an insect that had damaged the olive trees and devastated last year's olive oil industry in Italy. After being in Italy for a few days, I noticed how often olive oil is used in almost all of their food dishes. I thought how crazy it is that because of these insects destroying their olive trees the olive oil industry was impacted greatly, but also how the Italian culture, food wise, was impacted just as much. -CL