Follow us to the discovery of one of the Olive groves of Lucchi & Guastalli. The one in the video is named Busanco and lies over Riomaggiore, in the spectacular Cinque Terre Region.
Lucchi & Guastalli company is today spreading over a vast area from the Magra Valley to the Cinque Terre, as you can see from below map.
Lucchi & Guastalli has a strong historical and productive link with its territory.
The gentle slopes of the Val di Magra, in the Lower Lunigiana, are characterised, in living memory, by the cultivation of the olive tree, favoured by the mild climate due to the proximity of the sea and the protection of the Apennines.
The region has been crossed since Roman times and the Middle Ages by important communication routes, such as the Aurelia Consolare and the Via Francigena, and has always been a destination for pilgrimages and trade, where olive oil was and is the protagonist.
The archaeological remains of the Roman Villa del Varignano, in Portovenere, document the first olive grove in Liguria, equipped with an oil mill, large cultivated fields and loading docks.
The main activity here was the production and trade of olive oil.
After the long period of crisis after the end of the Roman Empire, around the year 1000, we are witnessing the rebirth of Ligurian olive growing, thanks above all to the phenomenon of terracing, initiated by the Benedictine monks, a qualifying element of the Ligurian landscape and cultural heritage of inestimable historical value.
In particular in the Cinque Terre, characterised by rugged rocky soils, man has carried out the heroic work of transformation of the territory that has made them a “World Heritage Site”
This ancient map of the Lower Lunigiana preserved in the State Archives of Genoa shows the olive groves of Santo Stefano di Magra and an oil mill, called “Molino di Ponzano”, placed on an artificial canal – now integrated into the Lunense Canal.
It’s right there that now the mill of Lucchi & Guastalli stands.
