Rome visit--easy side trips?
Jan 21st, 2007, 01:38 PM
#183
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E and F..Every good sleuth needs to know when the case is just too dicey to pursue. {No doubt I got too close to the truth with the comments about the opera cape and the velvet slippers appliqued with the family crest.}
The more I think about this the more I am certain it is close to the truth. I wonder about the string of honorifics and royal titles preceeding his name.......what do you think???
One day soon we can dig up the thread and send our e-mails to him....I will look for it soon...
Now my leanred companions, another query about earth-shattering matters:
I thought often about bringing home olive oil but decided aginst it due mainly to the unfortunate packing issues nowdays. Also, prices were not all that low; remember, I was in the central city most of the time.
However, I did get tempted at the airport duty free (I know, I know, not the best place to buy but I did bring home a nice bottle of new oil last year from the Frescobaldi kiosk...)
SO..I am looking at all of the bottles for sale at the duty free. And looking. And thinking. And debating. For a very long time, as you might imagine. Finally, I decided on a bottle of Ligurian oil; maybe it was Roi brand, I forget. I turned the bottle around to check the date (amazing how many old oils we have on the shelves of "gourmet" stores back home) and I see that it is pressed from olives from the 2005 and 2006 harvest.
Because it contained olives from 2005, I put the bottle back on the shelf, convinced it was past its prime. Did I make a mistake here? Do they sometimes use older olives to temper the oil? This sounds unlikely but perhaps....
The more I think about this the more I am certain it is close to the truth. I wonder about the string of honorifics and royal titles preceeding his name.......what do you think???
One day soon we can dig up the thread and send our e-mails to him....I will look for it soon...
Now my leanred companions, another query about earth-shattering matters:
I thought often about bringing home olive oil but decided aginst it due mainly to the unfortunate packing issues nowdays. Also, prices were not all that low; remember, I was in the central city most of the time.
However, I did get tempted at the airport duty free (I know, I know, not the best place to buy but I did bring home a nice bottle of new oil last year from the Frescobaldi kiosk...)
SO..I am looking at all of the bottles for sale at the duty free. And looking. And thinking. And debating. For a very long time, as you might imagine. Finally, I decided on a bottle of Ligurian oil; maybe it was Roi brand, I forget. I turned the bottle around to check the date (amazing how many old oils we have on the shelves of "gourmet" stores back home) and I see that it is pressed from olives from the 2005 and 2006 harvest.
Because it contained olives from 2005, I put the bottle back on the shelf, convinced it was past its prime. Did I make a mistake here? Do they sometimes use older olives to temper the oil? This sounds unlikely but perhaps....
Jan 25th, 2007, 12:01 PM
#184
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You did well to put that fancy bottle (or was it a tin?)back on the shelf. What a crazy place to buy extra virgin olive oil-at the airport. Come to visit the little producers in Northern Lazio and get the precious green-gold liquid that is made with our hard labor, hand picked by people who love the land and dont mind the hard work. It gets harder every year, purtroppo.
Olive oil is best within the year, can keep for 2, but unlike wine, it does not improve with age.
Our new oil is completely different from those few litres that have been settling in a corner of the magazzino since Dec 2005.
This thread seems to almost a tete a tete between two people so I thought it was high time someone else posted (interrupted).
Olive oil is best within the year, can keep for 2, but unlike wine, it does not improve with age.
Our new oil is completely different from those few litres that have been settling in a corner of the magazzino since Dec 2005.
This thread seems to almost a tete a tete between two people so I thought it was high time someone else posted (interrupted).
Jan 25th, 2007, 02:25 PM
#185
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Thanks for the input. But has the bottle really been sitting on the shelf since December 2005 if it has been marked to contain olives from the 2005 and 2006 harvests? I thought it was an odd designation, to contain olives from two different harvests. did I metnion it was from Liguria?
I bought very good new oil from Frescobaldi (no not from Lazio but good nevertheless) at the airport last winter so, strange as it may seem, the airport is not always a horrid place to buy given the new rules about transporting liquids.
Granted, I would love to visit the small producers of Sabina or elsewhere in Lazio. Would that I had had the time on this trip. Where would I do this on the next visit?
Thanks for contributing..it is always good to hear informed opinions about food!
I bought very good new oil from Frescobaldi (no not from Lazio but good nevertheless) at the airport last winter so, strange as it may seem, the airport is not always a horrid place to buy given the new rules about transporting liquids.
Granted, I would love to visit the small producers of Sabina or elsewhere in Lazio. Would that I had had the time on this trip. Where would I do this on the next visit?
Thanks for contributing..it is always good to hear informed opinions about food!
Jan 29th, 2007, 03:02 PM
#186
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ek, I'm afraid you might have made a grave mistake - if it was Olio Roi indeed. etruria, please, I know that you're doing your best to promote your region on Fodor's, and I even appreciate these efforts somehow and to a certain extent, but this olive oil comment is really weird: Olio Roi is by no means producing fancy bottles, that's one of the best among the bigger olive oil brands (tiny private producers excluded, of course -but Roi oil is REALLY excellent stuff). Of course, it was NOT sitting on the shelf since late 2005, or how should the 2006 olives have made their way into the bottle? On the shelf?
No, seriously: I had to investigate that at once, since I, too, have never heard of olive oil blends from several harvests. But it seems to be a method Roi uses ONLY for their BEST oils, strange but true. Look at their website: http://shop.olioroi.it//roi/catalog/...05b0a768cbaa6d - this is a 2004/2005 blend, and it has been added to their online catalogue on September 12th, 2006!! So obviously, it hasn't even been ready earlier. A new puzzle, no doubt, since I've never heard of ageing olive oil - but here we have an example, quite obviously...
This revelation apart, it's true that fresh olive oil is best; especially olio novello, made from the very first olives, those harvested in November. It loses this certain green, fresh quality soon; till summer, you can't quite discern it from a "December oil". And every oil suffers a certain loss of quality, that's true; but for two years or so, it still remains excellent, so, I repeat, buying that 2005/2006 oil wouldn't have meant any risk - in order to contain any 2006 olives, it must have been super-new, the harvest never begins before November! Certainly, duty free shops are a strange place to buy high quality olive oil, but the strange (and laudable) thing here is that a duty free shop has Roi oil on stock.
No, seriously: I had to investigate that at once, since I, too, have never heard of olive oil blends from several harvests. But it seems to be a method Roi uses ONLY for their BEST oils, strange but true. Look at their website: http://shop.olioroi.it//roi/catalog/...05b0a768cbaa6d - this is a 2004/2005 blend, and it has been added to their online catalogue on September 12th, 2006!! So obviously, it hasn't even been ready earlier. A new puzzle, no doubt, since I've never heard of ageing olive oil - but here we have an example, quite obviously...
This revelation apart, it's true that fresh olive oil is best; especially olio novello, made from the very first olives, those harvested in November. It loses this certain green, fresh quality soon; till summer, you can't quite discern it from a "December oil". And every oil suffers a certain loss of quality, that's true; but for two years or so, it still remains excellent, so, I repeat, buying that 2005/2006 oil wouldn't have meant any risk - in order to contain any 2006 olives, it must have been super-new, the harvest never begins before November! Certainly, duty free shops are a strange place to buy high quality olive oil, but the strange (and laudable) thing here is that a duty free shop has Roi oil on stock.
Jan 29th, 2007, 03:15 PM
#187
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My goodness, how silly can one be? We've all been thinking the wrong direction, of course: the harvest begins in November, and lasts well into the new year - no blends here, the oil was from last winter's (2005/2006) harvest, so still very good to good. Olive oil blends!! Mamma mia! What remains is the fact that Roi added their 2004/2005 oil to their catalogue only in September 2006, which means that the oil ageing puzzle has still to be solved - or maybe the solution will be as easy as this one, and I'm blind/deaf/stupid again. Oh, that's one of those moments that make me REALLY wish Fodor's would finally install an "edit" function...
Jan 19th, 2009, 03:10 PM
#192
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Hi, Frascati is lovely and just a local train trip from the Termini up into the hills. We were there when it was very hot in Rome, so much cooler up in the hills. January will be a lot colder. Orvieto is also lovely.
