Day 19 - The Olive Oil Journey

Rimini, Italy --> Lucrezia, Italy | November 12th, 2022

One takeaway from the car ride: Italians drive like Mad Men. 1 hour and 5 minutes later I arrive at the hotel and successfully check in.

You'd think I would go to sleep - but nah I knew this was my only night in Rimini - a beach city on the East coast. Also my first in Italy, I wanted some late night pizza. Apparently there was one open .25 miles up the dark road. I walk there with close observation to my surroundings as it didn't seem as innocent a city as Quesada back in Week 1. I arrive at the pizza place at 1:32am but closed at 1:30am. Sheesh.

Per their instruction I walk another 300m (3 football fields) and see a group of people outside a bar. Lets goo they had pizza. I grabbed a slice and just observed.

This was the start of a period of 24 hours that I filmed minimum video but had some of the best potential content moments of the trip.

Full outdoor bar with 2 sections. One section was a free-for-all of Cigarette smokers under an awning at tables, and a second section of hippy music players and people chilling at high tops and sitting on cars. Pretty cool vibe but after 10 minutes I was ready to get out of there.

I see a group of young guys at a table right before I leave and I do my first "English English?" approach and immediately get bombarded with attention. No not like they wanted to steal something - more like the famous guy from America. Everyone wanted to be that guy that understood the English so they came to me and said "nah talk to me talk to me." 10 minutes of hectic but incredibly entertaining conversation later I literally ran home. A bit too sketchy for me to walk all the way home. Thankfully, I wasn’t stopped by the cops this time. Passed out.

I wake up at 9am and decided to go on a bit of a jog. I made it about a mile I reached the classic thousand year Roman arch in the city (of course, like every European city). Then when I turn into the old town and see there is a full-blown flea market going on, and my run was pretty much done at that point because I had to stop and take pictures of everything.

But one break from the market was when I went into an alley and into a bakery and got my first Italian breakfast food which happened to be a breadstick, but I didn’t want an ordinary breadstick. I wanted something with flavor: there is poppy, sesame, and Cacio e Pepe and I was like I’m in Italy - I had to get a Cacio e Pepe.

So I got it it and it tasted like a salt and pepper breadstick. I don’t even know what Cacio e Pepe means.

Then I walked back down the market and cross this bridge into the Fisherman's village. There were basically a bunch of sailboats on the harbor with colorful buildings surrounding the area. I eventually walk back to the harbor and try to find some more food as the single breadstick didn’t really do the job.

I found my way towards a café with about 15 guys chainsmoking cigarettes, drinking beers and coffee at 10:15 in the morning and I was like...I HAVE to be there (but not participating of course).

So I made a left-hand turn, walked in, pretended I was going to get something, while pondering how to talk to these guys immediately. I saw two Yankee hats - classic - and I’m like OK perfect so I just scream at them "Yankees Yankees." In their little circle they were probably saying who the f**k is this guy in whatever language they were speaking.

But one of them was like "a little English." I had a great 20 minute conversation with these men. They were all Tunisian Fisherman who had the Saturday off and claimed that they were drinking beers in order to forget everything that happened during the week which makes sense. It’s a very stressful job to be a fisherman, and I actually got an offer to go fishing with them on Friday - had to decline. I got a nice selfie and made my way home, packed up and took a bus to the train station.

In Spain, masks are required pretty much anytime on public transportation, but in Italy, I didn’t have to wear a mask which is amazing. Also, the bus had pay readers, but I just never paid despite offering the bus driver my 2 euro coin. I take the bus to the train station and with about a minute to spare and stay on for 20 minutes towards Fano.

I knew there was a bus maybe 30 minutes after I arrived in Fano but I had to walk 20 minutes to get there but the bus station wasn’t in my Apple Maps GPS - which I always use for walking. I go into a coffee shop and I ask a lady "hey how do I get to this bus stop?" Of course she knows zero English but I just showed her the name of the stop and she basically said walk straight when you see a Pharmacy make a right. I’m like all right I guess I’ll do that, so I walk straight until I saw a Pharmacy.

With the help of Waze (got a bit creative as Google Maps never works on my phone), I not only find the bus stop but also use the app to determine the stop I should get off as there were no real announcements. I got off the bus in the middle of some random town 3 miles from my target city of Cartoceto. It felt as if I was dropped in the game show it was like OK figure out what to do. You got to get a room but you couldn’t book a hotel because there are none and not a single person that spoke English, and walk to the closest open restaurant to get Wifi.

The next two hours were insanity. And it's only 1pm. Long day…

I walk in and feel guilty asking for Wi-Fi without ordering something, so I got a coffee and then got the Wi-Fi code. But they were still curious as to why I was there with a backpack over a wheeled bag.

I’m from the United States and trust me: these people aren’t accustomed to seeing people like me in their coffee shop, so I end up explaining to them what I’m doing in some English and some Google translate + their son who knows "a little" English.

We end up getting to a point where they understood why I was there but they kept asking me where am I staying? And I said I don’t know I’ll figure it out. I wanted to look it up online but they knew it’s not so easy to do that. They also knew it wasn’t so easy to get a ride to Cartoceto.

I try logging onto the Wi-Fi, but fail because they wrote it out on a piece of paper and their Ms look like Ns their I like Js. I must’ve tried like three or four times to do the Wi-Fi (son eventually did it for me) and then once I’m on the computer they come back to me and say so where are you staying? In Italian of course - my phone was burning hot from the Google Translate usage.

And I said I don’t know and they’re trying to hook me up with some local guys apartment but that fell through.

Once I pulled up translate on my computer instead of my phone, the crowd grew bigger and bigger around me. Maxed out at all 10 people looking over my shoulder / screaming in Italian and I actually felt a bit of pressure haha.

They asked who do you know, I said Antonella, who of course they knew too. It keeps going but I will be sitting here another 3 hours to finish out this story - another time.

I eventually get a ride from one of the men (red shirt guy named Gregorio in cover photo) to a BnB that they set up for me (30 Euro) & I got a ride set up for the next morning to Cartoceto at 8:45am. By the time I got to the BnB I needed a break from non-English speakers. Went the next 4 hours in my room (short walk in between) then dinner at the restaurant the BNB. Nothing else was within 2 miles walking distance…I had no choice.

Against all expectations, the restaurant was PACKED. 60 person graduation party in the rented out basement and every single table filled up upstairs. I was genuinely surprised - I thought I'd be the only one at dinner - and felt happy to stay there. A couple drinks and playing around with my podcasting mics later, I made my way to bed.

1 Olive Oil Takeaway

Whenever you hear the term "Early Harvest" - this refers to the Olive being harvested early in its ripening cycle (green Olive). At the early stage, there are more nutrients (anti-oxidants) and flavor, but less juice (quantity / quality tradeoff). As the Olive Matures on the tree, the amount of oil per Olive multiplies but at the expense of nutrition. Producers who sell Olive Oil by quantity (usually in bulk co-ops) are not incentivized to harvest early, but the industry is trending towards earlier harvests - for good reason.

Early Harvest olive oils are relatively new contrary to popular belief. The technology and research wasn't there a generation ago. Whether it was the old-school crushers / pressers, air-exposed malaxers, or hot centrifuges, there were plenty of inefficiencies in preventing oxidation of the oil. Many producers claim to be the first to start the early harvest thing - but one thing for sure is early harvest oils last longer, are more nutritious, and taste better. The best Early Harvests wouldn’t exist without extensive R&D - I’m thankful the industry has made it a long way in the past ~30 years, though still a long way to go...

-Jack

Thank you for reading and welcome to the blog! I'm traveling through Europe on a quest to find great Olive Oil.