Naples is a city of unexpected art forms. The Neapolitan pizza is perfection. The graceful and exuberant language of gestures is on display at every street market, restaurant and café. And anyone who has experienced the thrill and challenge of driving in this beautiful city knows that even driving is an art form. (Finding a parking spot can take a lifetime of practice!) But there’s another local art form you can’t miss when you’re walking through the lively and colorful streets of Naples – I Dolci (the desserts).

With a pasticceria or café located around just about every corner, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to experience the Neapolitan’s proudly prepared cakes, pastries and desserts. The problem, however, is knowing where to start! You simply must try the heavenly Sfogliatella. The pastry, with its crisp, flaky shell and sweet ricotta cheese filling, is undeniably a Neapolitan classic. But the sfogliatella isn’t the only Neapolitan sweet treat that you should try when you visit Napoli, though. Babà, a rum-soaked sponge cake with a funny name that you’ll find in all sorts of tempting shapes and sizes, is sure to be a delicious experience.

The origin of the babà takes us back to the 18th century when Naples was ruled by the Bourbon King Ferdinand IV and his wife Maria Carolina, the sister of Queen Marie Antoinette of France. The French influence on the regional cuisine of Naples—at least that of the elite and wealthy classes—was pronounced during this period as French chefs became de rigueur. One of the French-influenced desserts to show up on Neapolitan tables was the babà.

The French influence on the regional cuisine of Naples—at least that of the elite and wealthy classes—was pronounced during this period as French chefs became de rigueur. One of the French-influenced desserts to show up on Neapolitan tables was the babà.

However, the story of this little Neapolitan cake is not over yet. First we have to travel from Paris to the court of King Stanislaw Leszczyński of Poland, where the rum-soaked cake was supposedly born. According to Neapolitan tradition, the cake was created when the King poured some rum over the top of a Polish cake he found too dry. The King’s new cake became an immediate success in Paris when Stanislaw’s daughter, Marie, married King Louis XV of France. From there the dessert made its way to Naples where it received a few finishing touches and became the Babà Napoletano (or Babà alla Napoletana) that we know today.

…Phew – that’s a lot of traveling for one little cake!

Traditionally the babà is baked in a round tin similar to a bundt pan, and before being served is doused with a mixture of water, sugar and rum. This is also the easiest and most common way the babà is made at home. In a pasticceria, you’ll also find babà in their traditional mushroom or chef’s hat shape. These are baked in individual tins and are soaked in the rum mixture after they cool from the oven.

And just when you think it can’t get any better, the Neapolitans know how to improve on perfection. For those who find the light, traditional babà not quite rich enough, be sure to try the cream or chocolate filled variations. Sometimes the babà is even covered with an apricot glaze and garnished with fresh fruit or cream, so keep your eye out for one of these over-the-top babà variations!

Traditions keep developing here in Campania, and another variation of the babà dessert has developed on the island of Capri and on the Amalfi Coast, where it is now common to soak the babà in the strong and flavorful limoncello liqueur produced in the area. A good idea is always a good idea, and the babà al limoncello has quickly become popular throughout Campania and Italy.

Now that you have two pastries to taste on your “must eat” list for Naples, stop by next week as we sample the Zeppole di San Giuseppe – yet another traditional Neapolitan dessert.

Would you like to walk the ancient streets of Naples as your ancestors once did – and even have the chance to uncover living relatives in the process? Contact us and find out how italyMONDO! can help you research your Italian family tree or create a vacation of a lifetime for you and your family!

Photo Courtesy of “emiana” at Flickr

Last Friday I tempted you with some of Italy’s Sweet Treats for Carnevale. But don’t worry if you missed the Carnival celebrations in bella Italia this year. Italy has an endless selection of delightful desserts you can enjoy any time of the year. Over the next few weeks we’ll be looking at the fun stories behind some of the most popular traditional Italian desserts. This week, let’s start with one that was originally prepared only for Carnevale—just like chiacchiere and castagnole are today—but has since become one of Italy’s most famous desserts. Known (and enjoyed!) around the world, we are—of course—talking about the divine cannoli siciliani (Sicilian Cannoli).

The Sicilians have used their unique and vibrant touch to create some of the most beautiful and extravagant desserts in Italy. But the king of all of the island’s delectable desserts is surely cannoli, crunchy fried pastry tubes open on each end and traditionally filled with sweet fresh ricotta cheese and a mixture of chocolate and candied fruit pieces. Although most people around the world—particularly in America—call a single tube “a cannoli,” only one of these treats is actually called a cannolo – a name that refers to the tube shape of the pastry. The linguistic corruption is easy to justify, though. After all, who can just eat only one!?!

The origin of cannoli is now covered by a haze. (Or is that powdered sugar?) Food historians suggest it was probably first made in a now forgotten convent or monastery near Palermo during the period of Arab rule of Sicily. We do know that they were originally a sweet prepared during Carnevale. There are even stories that suggest—in keeping with the practical jokes and festive spirit of Carnevale—a cannolo would sometimes be stuffed with something unpleasant inside and covered with cream on both ends as normal. The unsuspecting victim would bite into the scrumptious looking cannolo to find the surprise inside!

Whatever the true story may be, cannoli have long since lost their connection to Carnevale, and can now be enjoyed throughout the year. This is, of course, good news for cannoli lovers traveling to Sicily and Italy! You will find them in a variety of sizes, from the tiny cannulicchi or cannolicchi (no bigger than a finger) to cannoli of gigantic proportions made near Piana degli Albanesi near Palermo. Every year this town hosts the Sagra del Cannolo (Festival of the Cannolo) from January to February, which carries on the tradition of celebrating Carnevale with cannoli. What a perfect opportunity to indulge in true cannoli siciliani!

Although most people around the world—particularly in America—call a single tube “a cannoli,” only one of these treats is actually called a cannolo – a name that refers to the tube shape of the pastry. The linguistic corruption is easy to justify, though. After all, who can just eat only one!?!

Traveling around Sicily you’ll find countless different regional and family variations on the classic cannoli filling. Some bakers will add little bits of chocolate or different types of candied fruits. Sometimes you’ll find bright red candied cherries decorating each end, which is a typical decoration in Palermo, while in the eastern part of the island you might find the bright green of chopped pistachios from the town of Bronte sprinkled on each end. Cannoli shells are even sometimes dipped in chocolate before being filled. In Sicily the filling is flavored with vanilla extract or sometimes with Marsala wine, and the final touch is the dusting of powdered sugar.

Cannoli are one of the staples of the Italian-American household and, like so many things, everyone remembers Grandma’s cannoli as the best. The dessert has even more variations in America, although the cannoli you’ll find in most Italian-American bakeries are still commonly filled with the traditional sweetened ricotta. Sometimes you’ll also find mascarpone cheese or a sweet custard in place of the ricotta, though. Vanilla is the most common flavoring, but it’s still possible to track down a good cannolo made with a touch of Marsala at a traditional bakery. Just as in Sicily, you’ll find candied cherries and citrus peel, pistachios and chocolate pieces decorating the tops of the cannoli.

Now that I’ve got you heading to the nearest pasticceria or bakery, don’t forget to stop back by The italyMONDO! Blog next Friday as we travel from Sicily up the coast of Italy to Naples where we’ll discover the traditional Babà Napoletano.

Buon appetito!

Would you like to taste true Sicilian cannoli and find your family in Sicily? Contact us and find out how italyMONDO! can help you discover your roots in Italy and create a vacation of a lifetime for you and your family!

Photo Courtesy of “alifayre” at Flickr

Anyone who has enjoyed the pleasures of a big, family-style Italian meal knows that, no matter how much you’ve eaten, no proper meal is complete without a little something sweet. The traditional meal for Carnevale—a day dedicated to rich foods and celebrations—is certainly no exception to the rule. The Italians love crafting beautiful and delightful desserts for holidays. In fact, many holidays have sweet treats that are specially-made only around the time of the holiday. This makes the dolci (desserts) of Carnevale and many other holidays a much-anticipated treat!

So are you wondering what special desserts you’ll find in Italy during Carnevale? Let’s take a look at a few traditional ones enjoyed during this time of year. The most common are different shapes and varieties of fritelle (fritters), but—in keeping with the spirit of Carnevale—there might just be a surprise in store for you!

Chiacchiere
The most popular Carnevale dessert—one that you will find throughout the Peninsula as well as in Sicily and Sardegna—are the thin, fried ribbons of sweet pastry dough topped with powdered sugar or honey. In much of southern Italy they are often called Chiacchiere, a fun Italian word meaning “chatter” or “chitchat,” but most Italian Americans will know them by their older name – guanti (pronounced by many as “e wands”). That’s not the only two names by which you’ll find these delightful treats, though! Few desserts in Italy can boast quite so many names as this one, and as you travel around the boot region-by-region you’ll often find this same dessert called by many different names. In Rome they’re called frappe, while in the Piemonte area you’ll hear Bugie (lies), and traveling down through the Abruzzo and Marche you’ll find them in the pasticceria (pastry shop) as cioffe and sfrappe respectively (and the list goes on and on)!

While the name changes, the dessert is essentially the same regardless of where you find it. Although Chiacchiere connoisseurs will notice subtle differences in the flavor from the north to the south, most often the different regional of family variations depend on what type of wine or liqueur is added to the batter. Sometimes it will be a few drops of the intense grappa, vino bianco (white wine) or regional specialties like Marsala in Sicily or Vin Santo in Tuscany. On the Sorrentine Peninsula in Campania, home to two special varieties of lemons, you might just find a drop of the locally made limoncello and lemon zest.

Castagnole
Another Carnevale favorite in southern Italy are the small spoonful-sized fried dough balls called Castagnole. The name comes from their small, round shape, which is reminiscent of a castanga, or chestnut, rather than for a chestnut flavor as you might expect. You’ll often find piles of these sweet treats dusted with powdered sugar appear on the table after the grand Carnevale meal, although they can (and are!) enjoyed anytime of the day!

Sanguinaccio
This dessert for Carnevale is not for the faint of heart. Sanguinaccio is a rich chocolate pudding flavored with cinnamon and, yes you guessed it, sangue (blood)! It was traditionally made in southern Italy, especially Campania, after the annual pig slaughter that happened in the cold winter days leading up to Carnevale – as we talked about last week here on The italyMONDO! Blog. Today it is rare to find the pudding made with pig’s blood. (But perhaps that isn’t such a bad thing after all?) The cinnamon pudding is often served with Chiacchiere – often considered an inseparable pair for many people!

These are just a few of the traditional desserts prepared each year for Carnevale. You’ll find many others as you travel through different regions of Italy during this time of year. Wherever you’ll be celebrating Carnevale this year, why not add an Italian touch by trying your own hand at making Chiacchiere. Here’s a helpful video with instructions for making Chiacchiere in the Neapolitan tradition.

After all, it’s not Carnevale without at least a little bit of extravagance!

Would you like to learn how to make chiachiere, castagnoli and sanguinaccio while visiting the village where were ancestors were born in Italy – and even meeting living relatives in the process? Contact us and find out how italyMONDO! can help create a vacation of a lifetime for you and your family!

Photo Courtesy of “DIGISEA” at Flickr

Carnevale in Cicciano, Napoli

It’s just about Carnevale time in Italy, the fun days of celebration for Carnival leading up to the 40 days of fasting during Lent. Already the traditional coriandoli, or confetti, are being strewn about the old stone streets of small towns. Behind closed doors, excited voices can be overheard as the large, colorful floats that appear in the parades are receiving their final touches. Around the corner a group of locals are rehearsing the traditional music for the big celebration on homemade instruments. These are the winter days before Carnevale in southern Italy.

While Venezia is the reigning queen of Carnevale in Italy, with its famous masked characters, celebrations and masquerade balls, Carnevale is a holiday celebrated across the country. Even the smallest villages will have parades of carri, or floats, often featuring oversized figures made out of cartapesta (papier–mâché). Viareggio, located on the coast of Tuscany, may host one of the most famous Carnevale parades, but the carri and other festivities found in the mezzogiorno (Southern Italy) will not cease to amaze. Capua, one of the most storied cities in the region of Campania, offers an enchanting (and wild!) night of celebrations complete with scenes of world-class carri back-dropped by medieval monuments and buildings. Each region has its own unique traditions as well. In Sicily, where the warmer climate brings flowers earlier in the year, the local custom in many cities and towns is to decorate the traditional horse carts with brightly colored floral decorations.

Yet, like so many things in Italy, if you want to experience the true spirit of Carnevale, it is often easier and more intimate in the smaller towns and mountain villages located in southern Italy and Sicily. Even smaller towns, such as Cicciano in the province of Napoli, spare no expense when it comes to carri and other Carnevale festivities. So, while seeing the grand Italian celebrations for Carnevale in the cities of the north is quite an experience, to truly immerse yourself into la vera carnevale, skip the cities of the north and head south. While the coriandoli will still fly and the carri will circle around the piazza, you’ll also see children dressed up in cute costumes and maybe even catch a glimpse of the deep religious roots of this century-old holiday.

Carnevale, like many holidays in Italy, has ancient traditions and religious roots deeper than one might expect. Behind the parades and costumes is the reminder of the Roman Catholic traditions leading up to the Easter holiday. The period of Carnevale lasts two weeks and ends on Martedì Grasso, Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday, the final and biggest day of celebrating before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of la Quaresima (Lent). The 40 days of Lent before Easter commemorate the Passion of Jesus, and is a period traditionally associated with sacrifice and fasting in the Roman Catholic faith.

While the religious significance, elaborate floats, parades, confetti and candies are a thrill—especially for kids and kids at heart—what really defines Carnevale for many Italians is the food. In fact, one thing you can count on when celebrating a traditional Carnevale is a grand, Italian family meal. (As is so wonderfully the case in Italy, it always comes back to food)!

One thing you can count on when celebrating a traditional Carnevale is a grand, Italian family meal. (As is so wonderfully the case in Italy, it always comes back to food)!

The traditional Carnevale meal often begins with a rich lasagna made with salsiccia (sausage) and cheese, usually mozzarella and sometimes also with ricotta. After the lasagna, which is a meal-in-itself for most, the secondo (second course) often includes more salsiccia, more cheese and winter vegetables, such as broccoli rabe. As Carnevale is the last hurray before Lent, the Carnevale meal is often full of rich foods and sweet desserts.

The traditional connection between salsiccia and Carnevale tells an interesting story about rural life in much of Italy. Before refrigeration, which is some areas didn’t arrive until the 1970s, the cold winter months of January and February were the time of the pig slaughter, especially in southern Italy. Salsiccia, therefore, was only eaten during these cold winter months when it was possible to produce and store it for a short period of time. Fatty and rich, it was also needed to help survive the harsh mountain winters of the snowy regions such as the Abruzzo and Molise. Over time the tradition of serving salsiccia on Carnevale became the norm, and it continues despite the fact that sausage can now be bought any time of the year. While Martedì Grasso is the big feast before the fasting of Lent, you might be wise to do a bit of fasting in preparation for the Carnevale meal itself!

So get your costumes, coriandoli, and bombolette of silly string ready – Carnevale is almost here! But, of course, no Carnevale celebration would be complete without a few sweet treats. Stop by The italyMONDO! Blog next Friday to read about the traditional and special desserts of Carnevale in Italy.

Would you like to celebrate carnevale in the village where your ancestors came from in Italy? Contact us and found out how italyMONDO! can help create this vacation of a lifetime for you!

One chilly venerdì sera (Friday evening) not long ago, the mailwoman with her friendly yellow Labrador helper buzzed at my gate. She had a special delivery for me that evening, which I eagerly unwrapped. I couldn’t help but smile as I read the title of Michele Carbone’s book: Venerdì Sera, Friday Evening: Creating La Dolce Vita, one bite at a time. It couldn’t have arrived at a more perfect time.

Beautifully illustrated, Venerdì Sera is just as much as mouth watering to look at as the menus described within. Before you think you already have a stack of cookbooks in your kitchen, read on. Rather than a list of recipes to follow, perhaps with a bit of commentary thrown in, Venerdì Sera is a book sharing Carbone’s unique way of bringing La Dolce Vita into everyday life. It isn’t for those looking for detailed recipes and it doesn&rsquot pretend to be your one stop Italian cookbook. It is instead something else entirely, which is both the book’s strength and also what makes it a delightful read.

Rather than one recipe after another, Venerdì Sera introduces us to the Friday evening family meal in the Carbone family. The book was born out of a tragic upheaval in the family when Michele transitioned from a corporate engineer to a full time caregiver for her daughter. Life dramatically and suddenly slowed down for Michele, and soon cooking became both a creative and nurturing pastime for her and her family. She tells us: “I decided to write down what I’ve learned. My hope for you is that no matter what your kitchen is like, and no matter how busy your lifestyle, you’ll realize that living La Dolce Vita is an achievable reality, not just reserved for dreams and vacations.” By sharing her family’s Friday evening meals over the past years, she shows how she creates La Dolce Vita for her own family by focusing on the hallmarks of Italian cooking – freshness, simplicity and family meals surrounding the dinner table.

“My hope for you is that no matter what your kitchen is like, and no matter how busy your lifestyle, you’ll realize that living La Dolce Vita is an achievable reality, not just reserved for dreams and vacations.”

Michele Carbone

A few chapters in, Michele’s inspirational writing starts to get inside you, bringing reflection on our own kitchens, shopping and cooking habits, and the role of food in our daily life. It is an inspiring read in numerous ways – encouraging us to think creatively when it comes to cooking. But above all to think! With family stories and beautifully crafted words and images, Michele encourages you to think about each meal you prepare. In today’s hectic lifestyle where multi-tasking is how we making it through the day, how could we possible have time to prepare a 7-course family meal? Think. How can we buy both the freshest, healthiest ingredients and create the least impact on our communities and environment. Think. Michele reminds us that being conscious of what we are preparing and the time we can enjoy on a daily basis with our families are the first steps to bringing La Dolce Vita into our lives.

Michele also inspires readers to think creatively as well. She tells us how her Venerdì Sera menus are based on the freshest ingredients picked up at the local markets, and when she can’t find what she’s looking for, she improvises! She encourages us to step outside our recipe boxes and take a look around the local market and pay attention to what is fresh. This is how people shop in Italy, but it doesn’t have to happen only in Italy. Michele also encourages us not to be afraid to substitute ingredients if some are not available or you have things waiting in your kitchen to be used up. The more you create and think creatively, the more aware you are of what you’re doing. For Michele, this is the secret to “cooking your way to the good life.”

La Dolce Vita comes quietly. It is in those moments when you enjoy the little things – a fresh mandarin shared with family members after dinner, the glass of wine friends and the laughter. Venerdì Sera, Friday Evening: Creating La Dolce Vita, one bite at a time is truly an inspirational account of how food can bring people together and bringing La Dolce Vita into your own home.

To purchase your copy of Venerdì Sera today, please visit Pentola Press.

La dolce vita—the sweet life—often brings to mind images of relaxation and the quiet appreciation of life’s many beautiful moments. It is different for everyone, but for those who have experienced it in La Bell’Italia, it is hard to forget. Perhaps it was an evening stroll as the town church bells echoed through the hills, or the warm Mediterranean sun on your shoulders while enjoying a creamy gelato. In today’s chaotic and hectic world, who couldn’t use a little bit of that it their daily life? As the pace of life moves forward at an ever-quicker pace, more and more people are discovering those little secrets of enjoying moments of everyday life that the Italians have known for generations. La dolce vita comes from slowing down to savor good, fresh foods and sharing time with family and friends. In Italy, cooking is a fundamental (and delicious!) part of la dolce vita. But how can you bring that into your own home?

Personally, I know when I moved to the Amalfi Coast in southern Italy’s Campania region just how much of a challenge it can be learning to cook in another culture. Every day I learned about new recipes and ingredients, but trying to recreate them in my own home was often an adventure. Those beautiful home cooked sauces simmering on the stoves certainly don’t prepare themselves! Never mind the metric scale for measuring everything and the oven marked with Celsius temperatures, what presented the biggest challenge was learning all the new cooking traditions here in the Naples area.

What did I do? Well, after a bit of panicking, I discovered what quickly became my “secret weapon” in the kitchen, the wonderful cookbook Naples at Table: Cooking in Campania by Arthur Schwartz. There it was right in front of me, all the inside tips and tricks for preparing the local specialties. This wonderfully researched cookbook was also fun read, and it taught me about the culinary history here in the region that I now call home. It not only made me feel more comfortable cooking in another culture, but also improved my creativity and approach to cooking. Most importantly, it helped me learn how to bring la dolce vita into my own life and to my own table in Italy.

Living La Dolce Vita (v.)
1—To enjoy the moments of everyday life 2—To slow down to savor good, fresh foods 3—To share time with family and friends

A cookbook at its best is not just a written record of how to prepare dishes. It is also a place to record stories—both family and historical—and shows us that why we eat the way we do is often just as interesting as how it is made. With the increasing popularity of Italian food and the Italian lifestyle, there are now an abundance of books available on subject. From Rachel Ray to Giada De Laurentiis, the shelves of your local bookstore are lined with cookbooks to teach us about Italian cooking.

This is why we at italyMONDO! want to help you find the best and most inspiring cookbooks out there to help you learn more about Italy’s fascinating food culture, history, traditions and regional recipes. Every so often throughout the year, we will be presenting our favorite cookbooks—the ones that really wow us—that we know our readers will really enjoy. Each series will feature book reviews and interviews with the author, but also spotlights on some of our favorite recipes and other selections.

Stop back by next Friday as we begin our first cookbook series with Venerdì Sera – Friday Evening: Creating La Dolce Vita, One Bite at a Time by Michele Carbone. What a perfect way to remind ourselves, as this holiday season whirrs into high gear, about the importance of slowing down, enjoying time with our families and friends, to savor every bite, and, most of all, to remember to bring Italy’s la dolce vita into our lives!

Photo Courtesy of “jenniferrt66” at Flickr

To celebrate Italy’s autumn olive harvest and pressing, we’ve recently devoted our Friday Foods column to a series on that one essential ingredient to La Cucina Italiana – olive oil. An integral part of Italian cooking in all of Italy’s diverse regions from north to south, olive oil has become an important part of Italian culture and daily life. But what is the story behind that bottle of olive oil sitting on your counter? In our olive oil series we’ve followed the production of Italy’s “liquid gold” from the age-old harvesting traditions to the many different methods for extracting the olive oil. But with so many different types of oils to choose from, you’ll also want to check out our recent posts on choosing the best olive oils and how to keep them tasting their freshest.

If you’ve missed any of our series on olive oil in Italy, we thought it would be handy to have the articles all gathered together in one handy post for easy reference. For those of you new to The italyMONDO! Blog, we hope you enjoy reading about olive oil from harvesting to pressing to enjoying it with your favorite Italian dishes. Buon appetito!

For the Love of Olives – Italy’s Olive Culture

October marks the beginning of the olive harvest season in Italy, and traveling across the Italian countryside, you’ll find that the olive tree—that ancient symbol of abundance, longevity and peace—is just as much an integral part of the landscape as its luscious oils are a part of La Cucina Italiana. Dotting the hillsides in picturesque groves or popping up unexpectedly alongside a mountain road, the distinctive silvery green leaves and the large, gnarled forms are indelible symbols of Italian culture. The first part of our olive oil series, this article will introduce you to Italy’s ancient olive culture.

La Raccolta – The Olive Harvest in Italy

One of the most exciting times of the year to travel through the Italian countryside is during the autumn olive harvest. The hillside olive groves come alive with activity as nets are spread out under trees and family and friends gather for the harvest. This yearly event is an ancient tradition in Italy, even older than the many century-old olive trees, and the chance to see it with your own eyes offers a moving connection to the past. This article will introduce you to the traditional and modern-day olive harvesting methods in Italy.

Il Frantoio – From Olives to Olive Oil

Once harvested, olives must be pressed as soon as possible – generally within 36 hours at most. After the hard work of the harvest, the freshly picked olives are rushed to the olive pressing mills called oleificio or frantoio. This time of year the mills from the north to the south of Italy run almost around the clock. Much like the different harvesting methods used across Italy, there are just as many different ways to press oil. In this article you can read about the olive pressing process, including the best part, sampling some of the season’s freshly pressed olive oil!

Olive Oil and La Cucina Italiana

Italy is known worldwide for its distinct regional cooking traditions. But no matter where you travel in Italy, you’ll find that olive oil is an integral part of La Cucina Italiana. Without it any Italian kitchen would come to a grinding halt. This love of olive oil drives Italy’s Olive Culture, and the hard work of the yearly Olive Harvest and Pressing that we’ve talked about in the first three parts of our olive oil series here on The italyMONDO! Blog. Now that Italy’s fresh oils are coming off the (cold) presses, read on in this article for tips on how to enjoy them in your own kitchen.

italyMONDO!’s Olive Oil 101

To wrap up our five part series on olive oil, here is italyMONDO!’s Olive Oil 101, where you can learn about the many varieties of olive oil, what the different names indicate, and what determines the unique flavor of each oil. You’ll also learn how to choose the best bottle, as well as handy tips for how to store your olive oil to preserve its flavor from the first to the last drop. What better way to finish your olive oil introduction than with our olive oil Italian vocabulary that will help you find the best olive oil during your travels in Italy.