Visiting the Museum of the Olive, A Top Ligurian Attraction
Not just for Children or Tourists or Rainy Days, This Imperia Stop is a Treat.
The Museum of the Olive displays many examples of early private label olive oil containers. No stereotypes here! |
Early branding: typical ragazza with 20 liters of olive oil. |
A small sample of things we learned:
When we were finished, we had also arranged for the free English tour of the company facilities across the street, with the excellent bilingual guide Michela Gavi. You can arrange the tour by simply asking for it in advance. The offices are busy, the historical artifacts along the tour interesting, and of course the production line is great. You'll see the bottles stream steadily along to be cleaned and filled and weighed and sealed and inspected and boxed and readied for shipping.
At the end, one more treat – the Fratelli Carli store and lunch counter. The company has expanded into gourmet food products and cosmetics over the decades and all are available here. The store is a treat because you can taste every food product. There are crackers or bread to put the artichoke spread, pesto, or olive oil mayonnaise on; there are tiny little cups that you can use to taste the oil straight up; there are cookies, jellies, and of course olives. The lunch counter is fun, too. It is best to reserve ahead because it's a good value, and they have a small menu. A complete lunch with antipasto, primo, and little dessert is 15€, but you can have just an antipasto if you like.
Olive Mill: Visitors to the Museum may also visit the modern Carli Olive Mill by appointment. The mill is adjacent to the Museum and is in operation during the Olive Harvest season (normally between December and March).
Parking Note: While visiting the Museum, you can park across the street at the Fratelli Carli store and factory lot.
Museo dell'Olivo
Via Garessio, 13 (Oneglia) Imperia Link: Museum of the Olive
Tel : 39 0183 295762
Email: info@museodellolivo.com
Museo dell’Olivo opening hours:
Mon. to Sat.: 9 am – 12.30 pm and 3 pm – 6.30 pm Closed Sundays.
Admission tickets:
5€ full fare, 10€ family fare (2015)
2.50€ children, students and 65+.
Audio (Italian, English, French, German): 4€
- There were olive trees in existence 12 million years ago. The seeds, and so probably the fruit, were much smaller than those of modern olive trees, but a fossilized olive tree trunk is still identifiable as an olive tree.
- Some of the early uses of olive oil were surprising – rather than cooking with the oil or using it on food, the oil was used as a medicine, as a unguent for athletes, a medium for fragrances and cosmetics, and for flaunting wealth by displaying it in beautiful early glass vessels.
- When Ligurians began to cultivate olive trees, their land had the right soil and weather, but there simply wasn’t enough room to grow a lot of trees. Workers terraced the land all the way from the sea to the mountains to create level fields, hauling rocks for walls and filling the terraces with soil. They built over 220,000 km of dry stone walls – that's 136,000 miles - more than 5 times around the earth.
- Genoa was long the queen city of olives, thanks to Ligurian enterprise, and it set the standard. There is a white stone measure in the museum with a hollowed out center, which holds a precisely defined ¼ of a barrel. Precise was crucial, because olive oil was literally used as money.
- After the olives have been pressed, the remainder has value, too. Olive pits were an important and clean source of heat, and were burned in copper braziers and stoves.
Ancient glass containers for olive oil. The cruets of 18th C. nobility follow. |
At the end, one more treat – the Fratelli Carli store and lunch counter. The company has expanded into gourmet food products and cosmetics over the decades and all are available here. The store is a treat because you can taste every food product. There are crackers or bread to put the artichoke spread, pesto, or olive oil mayonnaise on; there are tiny little cups that you can use to taste the oil straight up; there are cookies, jellies, and of course olives. The lunch counter is fun, too. It is best to reserve ahead because it's a good value, and they have a small menu. A complete lunch with antipasto, primo, and little dessert is 15€, but you can have just an antipasto if you like.
Discriminating shopper in the excellent Fratelli Carli store. |
Olive Mill: Visitors to the Museum may also visit the modern Carli Olive Mill by appointment. The mill is adjacent to the Museum and is in operation during the Olive Harvest season (normally between December and March).
Parking Note: While visiting the Museum, you can park across the street at the Fratelli Carli store and factory lot.
Fratelli Carli olive oil. Is a big family producer an oliogarch? |
Museo dell'Olivo
Via Garessio, 13 (Oneglia) Imperia Link: Museum of the Olive
Tel : 39 0183 295762
Email: info@museodellolivo.com
Museo dell’Olivo opening hours:
Mon. to Sat.: 9 am – 12.30 pm and 3 pm – 6.30 pm Closed Sundays.
Admission tickets:
5€ full fare, 10€ family fare (2015)
2.50€ children, students and 65+.
Audio (Italian, English, French, German): 4€