Extra Virgin Italy?

One year ago I was in Italy -- exploring the heel of the Italian boot with our wonderful agents. During our trip, we....

• prepped orecchiette pasta from scratch with local grandmothers

• strolled under hundred-year-old olive trees at a family farm

• ate oysters fresh from the sea in a charming fishing village

• sipped wine at a historic vineyard in the countryside

We're thrilled to share this part of Italy once again with agents this November 4th - November 11th. We'll nosh on fresh pasta. We'll walk by the blue-green Mediterranean. And, we'll eye field after field of olive trees. Keep your eyes peeled on Facebook for pics from our Puglia trip for agents!

When you drive through the countryside of Puglia, you're immersed in a sea of silvery olive groves. Stone farmhouses pepper Puglia's landscape -- as if remnants from another time. Puglia produces 40% of the Italy's olive oil -- boasting over 50 million trees. Some of the olive groves are 1,000+ years old! With our help, your travelers can go behind the scenes at a local frantoio or olive mill.

Near the end of our trip, we lunched at one such family-run farm. Sitting in a sun-dappled orchard, we feasted on focaccia and burrata cheese. Touring this farm, we spotted green and purple olives ripening on gnarled branches.

After our meal, we went inside to see how olives are turned into liquid gold -- extra virgin oil. Steeped in millennia of tradition, olive oil is a way of life here. In Puglia, olive trees cover over 200,000 working farms.

The farm owner excitedly told us about his new “adopt-a-tree” program. Visitors to the farm can adopt a specific olive tree, receiving bottles of oil produced from it. What better Italy souvenir than one that prolongs your life and tastes delicious too!

Locals in Puglia don’t even cook with extra virgin. It’s so prized that the extra virgin oil is only used atop uncooked vegetables or drizzled over meat. Store-bought oil has nothing on the real deal.

Puglia’s oil is bright green – tasting ripe, nutty, and fruity.

When you think of it, travel is a bit like olive oil. Off-the-shelf options are bland and made for mass consumption. They're not something you can truly relish.

Savoring the authentic Italy - takes local know-how and care. Don't your clients deserve to taste the extra virgin Italy?

Contact us at info@seeitalytravel.com to wow your travelers. We help you to access the Italy most tourists never experience.