This winter's programme of theme fairs and festivals throughout the country also prove this, as told in the Touring Club's "Guide to the cities of Oil", just out of the printer's. The National Oil City Association was funded in '94, aimed at the promotion of Italian Dop (Protected Origin) oil, but it soon started to organise food fairs, trade fairs and celebrations to entice the consumer to visit and "taste" production areas.

Success was immediate and today the association counts over 200 municipalities and offers, until February 2002, a schedule of 70 appointments throughout Italy, gathered in the sixth edition of "andar per fiere e mercatini" (going around fairs and markets).

An event that gathers together all the exhibitions and festivals connected with extra virgin olive oil where you can visit oil mills open for the occasion, take part in conventions and workshops, learn to recognise different types of oil and right combinations and especially, taste traditional products freely and purchase them.

In the past few editions 50 thousand visitors attended, and for year 2003 a true Stock is planned for this market segment, but the season at hand is the one to mark a decisive turn. In the past few months, the first two Italian theme trails were opened; the Oil Road in Casteldelmonte (Ba) and the Oil Road in Terra Taggiasca (Im).

The coming 7th December the Oil Road in Sabina, in Farfa (Ri) will be opened; an extraordinary itinerary just outside Rome, where the greatest Olive tree in Europe can be admired as well as the  new Oil Museum in Castelnuovo Farfa. In the Imperia region the appointment is from the 23rd to the 25th of November; conventions, special menus in the area's restaurants, tours and entertainment.

November.2001