Rome Olive Tour Video - Olive Tasting near Rome

Looking for a Rome Day Trip into the Rome countryside that is relaxed, fun and informative? 

Come along and  join us on a Half Day Rome Olive Oil Tour

Rome Olive Tour with Convivio Rome.

Come along and  join us on a Half Day Rome Olive Oil Tour

This 3 hour Rome Olive Tour includes a visit to the largest olive tree in Europe (2080 years old),  a guided tour of a local organic olive grove, plus a visit to our family home for an olive oil tasting and light lunch, sampling local Sabina produce with a glass of wine while overlooking spectacular and unspoilt views of the Rome countryside.

This tour is all about olive oil, its flavour and the art of olive oil making. During your olive oil tour we will drive you through beautiful rolling hills covered with olive groves, fruit orchards and vineyard, on our way to visit a family run olive grove, where extra virgin olive oil is still produced traditionally in the beautiful natural surroundings of the Sabina region, just north of Rome. This is a unique experience, a chance to learn about olive oil making, walk in the unspoilt Roman countryside and admire a number of well established olive trees that are certainly a few hundred years old.

Small group tours mean individual attention and you get to experience so much more.

Website : Rome Olive Tours
Convivio Rome runs Rome Olive Tours in the beautiful Rome countryside, in the Sabine Hills, all year round.
To find out more contact Guido or Sally on info@conviviorome.com

www.conviviorome.com/olive-tour.html

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THE BEST OF ITALY: AMALFI COAST, CAPRI AND ROME, published in Escape travel magazine

Published in 'Escape*', an Australian wide travel magazine: 

Find out what Jane Armitstead,  an Australian freelance travel writer, wrote about her experience with Chef Guido and Convivio Rome. 

A guided tour of the medieval village of Farfa, is part of your Convivio Rome cooking day and culinary vacation

We hope Jane's article will inspire you to come along and visit us in this beautiful and unspoilt Italian countryside, just north of Rome.

Here is an extract from her article: 

"Among Italy’s most humble charms is how it’s ancient world bares such influence on the current lifestyle. This isn’t just seen through legends and landscapes but through the country’s next greatest obsession, food.

Even though the food culture is ever-changing, centuries-old recipes are still being used. There’s no better way to get to the heart of this tradition than to make it yourself.

An hour north by train from Rome is the little-known Sabine Hills, a place blissfully lost in time in the Italian countryside, dotted with medieval villages.

I’m in the family kitchen of husband and wife team, Sally and Guido, an Australian expat from Sydney and an eighth-generation Roman, who call this region home.

They’ve been letting people in on their secret hideout by hosting cooking classes for the past 16 years.

Out their kitchen window, I lose myself in the rolling mountains and the fields of endless olive groves....."

To read the full article,  called: "THE BEST OF ITALY: AMALFI COAST, CAPRI AND ROME " Just scroll down the article to find out about Jane's first visit to this area and her cooking-touring experience with us.

http://www.escape.com.au/world/europe/the-best-of-italy-amalfi-coast-capri-and-rome/news-story/f86900ff91c1095d81ea2a217c2706aa

P.S. We welcome freelance journalists to join us and write about their Convivio Rome experience in hope that it will inspire others to join in the fun. We did not know that Jane Armitstead intended to write this article at all. This article was a wonderful surprise. Thank you, Jane.
*Escape  (as described by their website) "appears as a Sunday lift-out in News Corp newspapers across Australia and, along with our website, will help you plan your next dream holiday."

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Torta di Mele (apple cake), from Guido's Nonna's cookbook

Cooking guests learning Torta di Mele during Chef Guido's cooking class

My favourite Italian cookbook is called 'Il Talismano della Felicita' (The Talisman of Happiness) and was written in the 1920s by a Roman lady called Ada Boni. Her cooking lessons were favoured by the Roman aristocracy of the time and her book is a true bible of Italian cuisine. This recipe for 'Torta di Mele' comes from an early edition of 'Il Talismano', which I inherited from my grandmother. It is deliciously moist, because the apple slices are 'sunk' inside the cake mix. Locally grown apples have just come into season. They are so juicy and full of flavour  I often make this cake when we have friends over for afternoon coffee.

torta di mele (Guido's grandmother's apple cake)

TORTA DI MELE
100g of butter, 135g of sugar, 2 eggs, 135g of flour, 12g baking powder (not if you use self-raising flour), bread crumbs, 1 and a half to 2 apples (depending on size), icing sugar, a pinch of salt.

Mix butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until smooth. Mix in 2 egg yolks, then add flour and baking powder (you can use self-raising flour instead). Add a pinch of salt to enhance flavour. Add 2 firmly whipped egg whites. Grease a cake tin with butter and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Pour cake mix in the tin. If the mix is too thick you can add some milk or some plain yogurt. Cut apples into thin slices push them vertically into cake mix, so they will stand upright. Bake for about 40 min. at 150 C. Pronto in Tavola!

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Foraging with Guido - wild mustard.

From the same family as rocket (arugola) and a wild relative to broccolini, broccoli, cabbage and many others from the 'brassica' group, wild white mustard is flowering now in Italy. It can be added to a salad or eaten by itself with olive oil and salt. Delicious and full of natural goodness!

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Chicken Cacciatore (Pollo alla Cacciatora)

Pollo alla Cacciatora

 Super simple and absolutely delicious....

Chicken Cacciatore Pollo alla Cacciatora - Serves 6

Ingredients: 1.2 kg  of chopped organic chicken, rosemary, sage, bay leaf, onion, garlic, celery, carrot, extra virgin olive oil, tomatoes, salt, pepper, white wine, olives .

Method: Gently fry the finely chopped vegetables in extra-virgin olive oil until onion is translucent. Roast the garlic until golden and then throw it away. Brown the chicken separately in another pan. Add browned chicken, herbs, tomatoes and olives (optional) in the same pan. Add a little white wine and let it reduce. Add salt. Let chicken cook on low heat in a covered pan. Serve hot, with a fresh salad on the side.
Buon appetito!

For more information about Guido's Day cooking classes and Convivio Rome Italian Cooking Holidays, contact me on info@conviviorome.com

www.conviviorome.com

www.winetoursrome.com

Olive Harvest in the Sabine Hills, near Rome, Italy

What a great time of year to visit the Roman countryside and especially the Sabine Hills. The Sabina region, just 40 kms north of Rome is famous for it's extra virgin olive oil and with over 2,5000,000 trees squeezed into hilly terrain you can understand why it is so important. The olive farmers make sure that the quality of the olive oil is at its best by picking the olives just as they are turning from green to black in colour. This is when the anti-oxidants are at their highest. The olive producers really concentrate on quality, not quantity and the Sabine Hills are now 'alive with the sound of music' of olive pickers. It is an exciting time to visit.

Olive picking with crates of olives already picked

We, at Convivio Rome, run Half Day Olive Tours all year round, but if you happen to be in the area in late October to early December, this is the time where olives are picked. You can understand how labour intensive olive picking is, when seeing it in action.

Olive harvest in progress takes teamwork

The olives need to be picked and taken to the local 'frantoio' olive mill, within 24 hours to ensure the quality of the extra virgin olive oil remains high.

Being an eighth generation Roman, means that even as a child I was taught by my parents and grandparents the importance of the Sabine Hills for it's D.O.P. extra virgin olive oil. I remember travelling with my family through the Sabine Hills to renew our supply of the famous Sabina extra virgin olive oil, and other local produce, to take back home to Rome. 

The olive trees are full with olives ready to be picked

We operate Rome Olive tours all year round, to discover more:

http://www.conviviorome.com/olive-tour.html

Or contact me, Guido, at Convivio Rome on info@conviviorome.com

www.conviviorome.com

www.winetoursrome.com

Autumn Equinox: What foods are in season in Italy

Autumn Equinox 'equinozio d'autunno' is celebrated on the 23rd September, this year, with the hot Summer months coming to an end and Autumn beginning. On these days, there are almost equal amounts of day and night, ( in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres) which is where the word equinox — meaning "equal night" in Latin — comes from. After the Autumn Equinox peaks, the days will grow shorter and the nights will grow longer.

View from our home terrace and cooking school in Autumn

Growing up in the city of Rome, we always knew what was in season, by watching my father, mother and grandmother preparing meals for our family. My grandmother used to teach me and my brother that each season brings new fruit and vegetables that are perfect for the weather, your health and your next round of seasonal recipes.

Moving from Rome to the nearby countryside in the Sabine Hills has made me even more aware of the changing seasons and what fruits and vegetables are coming to an end and what will soon be produced.

As I write, our Summer garden is still producing it’s last tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini and I have just begun to plant our winter vegetables in our home permaculture garden. So I will keep you posted as to the next harvest. I will also do a lot of foraging in the winter months ahead as there is so much to gather that just grows wild in our immediate countryside.

persimmons, locally called 'Caki'

Here’s a list of just some of the more popular fruits and vegetables in their peak, or coming into season in Italy: broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cavolo nero, celery, fennel, garlic, leeks, peas, pumpkin, spinach, plus olives (to be harvested in October/November), apples, blackberries, pears, grapes ( harvested in September and made into wine), prickly pear (fichi d’India), and persimmons ( locally called ‘Caki’) and chestnuts (where you will see and smell being roasted everywhere over an open fire).

Olives still ripening on our own olive trees

I hope I have ‘wet your appetite’ for some more seasonal recipes to come. Wishing you all a Happy Autumn Equinox directly from my home in Italy
Buon equinozio d'autunno

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Rome olive tours

Italian Day Cooking Classes near Rome

Convivio Rome Italian Cooking Holidays