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<pre>Philip,


Perugia has a fine university including a faculty of agriculture.
They have done a considerable amount of work on olives. For the names of
people you might contact look through some the the recent issues of the
Australian Olive Grower. They have published a few papers in translation
from Perugia on time of picking etc. Down the road at Spoleto is one to the
national olive experimental research centre.

One interesting topic to research is poly and mono conical pruning.
Both camps are represented but I think the poly-conicallists are dominant.
You will see from our book that we are convinced polys. Besides the
university and research centre you have the Rapenelli factory at Foligno
(they are one of the big three producers of frantoio equipment) Foligno is
past Assisi on the to Spoleto. There is also a factory there that makes
every conceivable container for oil.

Up the other way (north) is Enorossi at Umbertide who make small scale
olive oil and wine equipment.

In addition to this you have a couple of interesting olive museums - one
part of the Lungarotti complex at Torgiano and the other at Foligno (but I'm
not 100% sure of this).

Of course there are tens of thousand of hectares of olives in a wide
range of climates and soils from the fertile Tiber valley to the stoney
mountain terrain in the Appenini. There are very good growers and frantoio
you could talk to if you speak Italian.

As far as I know there are no table olives at all. If that is your
interest you need to go south.

Have a good stay in Perugia - perhaps you are learning Italian at the
Foreign University?

Cheers Brian Chatterton.
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