San Pietro a Maida and the Route of the Mills.

San Pietro a Maida is a little town near Catanzaro and is very famous for the production of olive oil.

You can soon note it, because as you leave the motorway to reach the village, along the route you can see great fields of olive trees which stand one next to an other like soldiers in different rows. From different point of views you can see these wide areas full of olive trees, whose species is called Carolea which is considered the king of this land.

Not so far from the centre of San Pietro there’s the “Route of the Mills“: it is a path which goes down to the valley of the Pilla River. Here there are the ruins of some ancient olive oil and flour mills: once the water of the river actioned these mills to grind grains to flour and olives to oil. It is a beautiful walking through cork oaks and Arbutus or Strawberry trees, ornamental trees which produces bright-red fruits in the autumn.

The old path was not only used to reach the mills (Trappeti), but it was also a beaten track by the women who went down to the river for washing the laundry and a good opportunity for meeting their lovers.

We discovered this path thanks to our tour guide Nicola who described to us every details of the vegetation, the mills and their traditions.

Then we went to a farm which produces organic olive oil: the owner is a woman, Mariangela, who has continued the tradition of her family. She told us how many difficulties she faced to manage her company being a woman, the old methods and machines used for the production and their new technologies which make their work simplier, the harvesting of the olives and all phases of the production: it was very interesting!

Then we had lunch at the farm and we tasted delicious dishes, all made with their products: several focaccia breads made by different kinds of flour with olive oil on the top, vegetables in oil, ham and cheese very good eaten with jam always realized by them.

At the end Mariangela organized for us a mini-class of olive oil tasting: we learnt the difference in taste between the extra virgin olive oil, the simple olive oil and sunflower or soybean oil. It was interesting and funny at the same time.

Mini class of olive oil tasting

It was a day where the past was compared to the innovation which respects the tradition.

Brunella Brusco

Watch the video “Trekking sulla Via dei Mulini in Calabria.”