Oil

The culture of the olive trees is typical of the Province of Lucca: in the fifteenth century the olive oil was considered as "one of the essential goods in human life". 
The biggest part of olive groves that produce this fine extravirgin olive oil, the qualities of which are universally known, is located on the hills of Capannori, where the culture of the olive tree has ancient origins, even if its diffusion dates back only to a couple of centuries ago. That is probably due to the benedectine's work: they were precursors of terracing, a necessary sistemation of the ground, otherwise impracticable, that characterizes our province among the other tuscan ones. 

With the term "EXTRAVERGINE OIL OF THE HILLS OF LUCCA", as it is defined along with the term "TOSCANO", added for the IGP (Geographically Protected Indication) certification, we mean the geographically defined oil produced in the territory described by this same geographical mention.  It is a unique oil characterized by a perfect taste (fruity thanks to the perfect maturation grade of the olives, deeply sweet and spicy at the same time), a perfect colour (golden yellow with green shimmers) and a perfect aroma. Many oil tasters, when going to the different italian areas of oil production in order to buy oil for the farms, are used to take with them a sample of extravergine oil of the hills of Lucca so to compare the quality. The olives used for the production of oil are for a maximum of 90% of "FRANTOIO" variety, for a maximum of 20% of "LECCINO" variety and for the remaining part of "PENDOLINO" and "MAURINO" varieties. 

The olive groves, located on the southern and northern hills of Capannori, characterize the landscape. The importance of oil during the centuries is attested by the presence of still working oil mills. Some of these are annexed to farms, as the one of the farm of Petrograno, on the northern hills, while others are autonomous mills that use modern technologies (Frantoio Sociale of Compito) or traditional methods (Frantoio La Visona).