Every region has its own — and Italy sells more olive oil than anyone, not all of it Italian.
No country wears its olives more proudly than Italy, and few are more varied. The vast groves of Puglia, in the heel, press the fierce Coratina and grow the giant Cerignola table olive. Tuscany built its reputation on the balanced Frantoio–Leccino blend. Sicily gives the world its buttery green Castelvetrano (the Nocellara del Belice), and Liguria the tiny, sweet Taggiasca.
One honest caution that runs through all of it: Italy is also the world’s great seller of olive oil, much of it pressed from olives grown elsewhere and merely bottled on Italian soil. “Italian” on the front of a bottle is a reputation; the real origin is on the back. Below, the Italian olives we’ve covered so far.
The large, tender green olive of Ascoli Piceno — the heart of olive all’ascolana, stuffed with…
One of Sicily’s most ancient varieties — a pale, delicate, sweet oil with light almond and…
The dominant olive of Sardinia — a robust, aromatic, well-keeping oil with artichoke, cardoon and almond…
The leading olive of Calabria — a large fruit good as a green table olive and…
The signature olive of Lake Garda — grown at the northern edge of the olive world,…
The mild, bright-green “gateway” olive — what it really is, why it’s so green, and what…
The small, tough oil olive of Puglia’s Salento — a fruity, characterful oil, and one of…
Named for the cherry-red blush of its ripening fruit — a bold, green, fruity western Sicilian…
Cerignola olives: the giant, mild, buttery green table olive of Puglia. What they are, how they…
Coratina — Puglia's fierce, peppery, high-polyphenol oil olive.
The signature olive of Abruzzo around Loreto Aprutino — giving a fresh, fruity, well-balanced oil with…
Frantoio — Tuscany's benchmark oil olive.
Gaeta — central Italy's soft black olive (usually Itrana).
The dual-purpose olive of Lazio — cured ripe it becomes the famous Gaeta olive, picked late…
Leccino — Italy's gentle, dependable oil olive and Frantoio's blending partner.
A central Italian pollinator and light oil olive — planted among Frantoio and Leccino, giving a…
The robust, peppery oil olive of Umbria, Tuscany and the Marche — high in polyphenols, the…
The bright-green Sicilian cultivar sold cured as the famous Castelvetrano — and pressed into a fine…
Sicily’s dual-purpose olive of the slopes of Mount Etna — a good green or black table…
The prized olive of Brisighella in Emilia-Romagna — one of Italy’s northernmost, giving a fresh, fruity,…
The mild, sweet oil olive of the Bari countryside — the gentle partner to the fierce…
The graceful weeping olive of central Italy — a key pollinator for Frantoio and Leccino, and…
The elegant dual-purpose olive of northern Puglia’s Daunia — of French ancestry, giving a delicate, sweet,…
The versatile olive of Lazio, Marche and Abruzzo — giving a sweet, fruity, well-rounded oil and…
Taggiasca — Liguria's small sweet olive; kin to the Niçoise.
The award-winning olive of the Monti Iblei in south-east Sicily — a green, tomato-and-herb-scented oil that…