Carol Drinkwater, an Irish lady surrounded by olive trees in the forest of Salento Lecce

Carol Drinkwater, an Irish lady surrounded by olive trees in the forest of Salento Lecce


Antonio Bruno *



The arrival in Brindisi



At the airport in Brindisi, the Alitalia flight of the 17 and 15 from Rome arrives on time at 18 and 30, getting off the plane Sandro Vannucci journalist who conducted the RAI broadcast the Green Line and actress Carol Drinkwater is an Anglo-Irish author .



Carol actress and writer of children's books



Carol was a member of the National Theatre Company under the guidance of Lord Olivier, and starred in numerous television series and in one of his films HJA-starred with Max von Sydow.

He wrote a series of children's books, including "The Haunted School" which was produced as a TV mini-series and was also a film for Disney and won the Chicago Film Festival Gold Award for children's films.

And you tell me that all these reports have nothing to do with my experience as an agronomist and the rural landscape of Salento Lecce true?





The eight books on the olive tree by Carol Drinkwater



But no! Why Carol Drinkwater wrote 8 books on the olive tree! Above all sailed in the Mediterranean to discover the olive tree in the history of civilization, to penetrate the mysteries of the function of the olive oil for food and medicine, and the possibility that the cultivation of olive trees in order to promote sustainable development.



The Olive ROUTE



A series of 10 television episodes in an original mix, a fun and colorful characters and situations, this is the journey of the olive by Carol Drinkwater. From southern France and then west to Spain, Gibraltar and from there through the Maghreb and Libya, then back to Europe, via Sardinia, Sicily, and I hope I convinced avrla Salento in Lecce, and going up and turning east, following the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, arriving in Croatia and then in Albania, Greece and Turkey continue to Anatolia and from there to the eastern shore of the Mediterranean to include Syria and Lebanon, Palestine and Israel greeting before arrive in Egypt and its Nile River. From there, the last stop before returning to the point where the path will be started in Sicily, Malta and Cyprus in the heart of the Mediterranean.



The forest of olive trees in the Salento Lecce



Why do I come, because there is the olive! The project and the way olive oil can not escape the forest of olive trees in the Salento Lecce, its suggestions and its Mediterranean giants. The olive tree which is the history of Salento, Lecce, Mirella says the Lord "the landscape Salentino olive grows up to become a place of memory, the tissue in which the land is wrapped ..."

In Lecce, Salento, the olive tree grows in shallow, rocky soils and poor in those deep, fertile, just can not live in the swamp, even if it becomes more or less powerful depending on the wealth of the land on which it lives.

The olive tree of Salento is prey to fly but that is immune to strong when infection is accompanied by a very cold year, so the following year, the olive tree is healthy. Only when you have a mild winter and rainy infection of the olive fruit fly is facilitated.

Olive oil was the richest product of Terra d'Otranto that changed the status of the owners of the agricultural landscape, deciding, in centuries past, luck and wealth. With olive oil all the inhabitants of the territory of Salento Lecce drew comfort, abundance and wealth!



The visit to the fleet of oil mills and to arrive at Gallipoli



We went to Preston, we are immersed in this city accompanied by a crowd of people and the sight of the "Fleet of the oil mills" in that city the wonder and curiosity took over. Many noble families and the presence of all distinguished men in that city!

Visitors to the city of Gallipoli, the mayor lit Joseph Venneri, passing the bridge that brings us to the island. Sandro Vannucci and always with a delicious pass from Lady Carol Drinkwater Canneto imagining of the old oil market, and the island, the questions on the number of inhabitants, descriptions of Conrad Venneri, stories of Giancarlo Mazzeo and Reading Notes Sandro Vannucci translating everything to Carol.



The olive trees in Provence in southern France



Smiles, kisses, caresses many a night on the island. Magical encounters with a woman who lived in a beautiful olive groves of Provence "planted in rows along the terraces of dry stone, sixty-eight twisted olive trees with an age of more than 400 years" and as in the South of France it is illegal to cut down a tree olive oil here is that Carol is to cultivate it, to love and write eight books!



The meeting with Antonio Corallo di Lecce



At age 15, Carol, with her parents, spend summer in Rimini, and here his story intersects with the Salento Lecce. In this wonderful holiday meets Antonio Corallo di Lecce, a man who told our land and that managed to excite Carol. Since then Carol has only now managed to reach the Salento Lecce and maybe one of you will not reveal to me where Antonio Corallo which should have 67 to 68 years. A man exotic, a land of the deep South, who managed to tell a story that made the indelible memory of our territory and marked the end of the evening yesterday.

Today we will be at Gallipoli and then to Alezio, to speak with a fakir. Another day, another story!





* Agronomist (expert in urban and regional diagnostic entitled International University Master's Degree in Diagnostic IMD Urban and Regional Urban and Territorial Diagnostics).





Bibliography



Mirella Lord, the landscape of Salento under the banner of Minerva

C. Moschettini, cultivation of olive oil and manufacturing. Naples 1794

S. Jovino, Ecology olive and deductions arising therefrom. Bari 1934

F.S. Lala, for the unveiling of the portrait of John Presta of Gallipoli. Lecce 1844