Stories of the Local Ambassadors: Discover Trequanda’s Festa dell’Olio Novò with Giuseppina Zaccaria

A journey through olive groves, villages and traditions, discovering Novò olive oil and the story it tells of the Trequanda area.

Stories of the Local Ambassadors: The Trequanda Olive Oil Festival with Giuseppina Zaccaria

The Trequanda Olive Oil Festival: tradition, territory and the culture of extra virgin olive oil

With this new series dedicated to Local Ambassadors, we want to tell the story of events in the Valdichiana Senese through the voices of the people who organise, imagine and bring them to life. People who, through their work and passion, help keep the area alive and create experiences capable of engaging both visitors and local communities.

In the heart of the Valdichiana Senese, the Trequanda Olive Oil Festival is an event dedicated to one of the area’s most representative products, one that tells the story of the landscape, the work of olive growers and a tradition that has become an integral part of the local community over the years.

The story of the event is told by Giuseppina Zaccaria, Councillor of the Trequanda Municipal Administration, who introduces visitors to a festival born from the desire to promote the local area and recover a resource that was at risk of being forgotten.

This year, the Olive Oil Festival will take place at two different times and in two different locations: on 10 and 11 October in Castelmuzio and on 18 October in Trequanda. This unique format allows visitors to experience two different villages, both deeply connected to the culture of olive oil and the rural landscape.

As Giuseppina Zaccaria explains, the festival was born at a time when many olive groves had been abandoned and local olive growers began to recognise olive cultivation as a great opportunity. A decision that proved to be successful: Trequanda was in fact recognised as the first municipality in Tuscany to receive the “Historic Rural Landscape” designation, acknowledging the value of its agricultural landscape and history.

Since the 1990s, the event has grown and developed, adding moments of celebration, tastings and food experiences to the traditional technical conference dedicated to olive oil and olive growing. The festival has thus become an opportunity to discover the product first-hand, but also to meet the people who work every day to preserve this landscape.

Another distinctive feature of the Olive Oil Festival is its itinerant format: two weekends, two villages and two different atmospheres. Castelmuzio, with its beautifully maintained streets and intimate atmosphere, is described by Giuseppina as a true “living-room village”, a little jewel. Trequanda, on the other hand, welcomes visitors with a livelier and more vibrant atmosphere, transforming itself into a place of celebration, joy and togetherness.

Even the journey to Trequanda can become part of the experience. The 11 a.m. train brings many visitors to the village each year, creating a shared moment of arrival that contributes to the special atmosphere of the day.

What makes this area unique above all is its landscape: gentle and harmonious, yet at the same time rugged and hilly, shaped by olive groves, woods and countryside. And it is precisely from this landscape that one of the festival’s most precious elements is born: an olive oil capable of expressing the character of Trequanda’s land.

For Giuseppina, however, there is one place that represents her personal connection with the Valdichiana Senese more than any other: Trequanda and, in particular, a hill known as Piazza di Siena.

It is here that she keeps a childhood memory connected to the landscape. When the woodland was not yet so tall, from the top of the hill it was possible to see Siena in the distance.

An image that captures the most authentic essence of the area: a landscape to be observed, experienced and preserved, where the history of people and the history of nature continue to meet.

Watch the full interview to find out more.
https://youtu.be/y7cMrRl3vyM