Johnny has a 9 seater mini-bus and can take people on a tour of olive groves, olive presses (particularly when they are working, have their fires lit and can offer you bruschetta - toasted bread - on which to taste the freshly-pressed and explosive oil) and olive oil producers.

The trip can start or end with an olive oil tasting in Johnny's oil/wine bar in the medieval village of Casperia. In the morning tastings would be exclusively for the clients of the Tour. Whereas in the evening the wine bar is open as a wine bar. Many wines and oils are available for tasting and there is often singing...

Only one Englishman has worked on the tasting panel of Slow Food's Extravergini olive oil guide: Johnny Madge. His expertise is thus unique.

TOUR DESCRIPTION

The tour normally starts by me picking people up at Poggio Mirteto station at 12.31 in my 9-seater mini-bus. This means taking an 11.45 train from Roma Tiburtina station which normally leaves people plenty of time to get there from their hotels in Rome. We then proceed through the olive groves to Castelnuovo di Farfa where we have a light lunch. As we drive along - approximately 30 minutes - I normally start talking about olive oil making techniques, different qualities of oils and varieties of olives as well as what makes an olive oil the Best in The World as some of the oils we will be tasting will turn out to be.

When we get to Castelnuovo we go to Francesca Pingi's tasting room/restaurant with a breathtaking view of Farfa Abbey. On her estate two of the Best Oils in Sabina are made: La Mola and Sole Sabino. Francesca's companion makes Antichi Sapori, another of the Best Oils in Sabina so we then set about tasting these three oils.

Having done that we sit down to the light lunch where it is possible to experiment with the three different oils by adding them to the various different dishes on the table.

After lunch we drive on just for a short ride to a nearby olive grove where we can walk through the trees and I can talk about the trees themselves, how they are pruned and, if people are curious, some of the various wild food-plants that grow in the grass under the trees.

Then we slowly make our way to our village, Casperia, where my oil/wine bar is. Casperia is a very special village which is perched on the top of a hill. It is completely without traffic as it is impossible to drive into because the streets are nearly all made up of steps. This makes for a very peaceful 'slow' atmosphere but is, unfortunately, very difficult for the disabled.

In my wine bar we do another olive oil tasting trying oils from other areas of Lazio. This time those who wish to can do "serious" tasting drinking out of little cups. Those who don't can use bread/toast. This tasting is accompanied by two glasses of wine each included in the total price.

If you are interested in staying in Casperia we highly recommend La Torretta