The olive tree The olive-tree and the oil obtained from its fruits are very ancient elements that have been accompaining the Mediterranean Civilization since its birth, gaining important, deep and religious meanings.The olive branch symbolizes peace, the trunk stands for fertility and prosperity, the oil represents the divine essence.There are many ancient novels that prove and confirm the importance and the tradition of the olive oil, "the noblest among the fats", whose benefits were appreciated since Homer's times.The most ancient growings of the "Olea Europea" have been discovered in the Southern Caucasus, west of the Iranian Plateau, in Syria and Palestine. The cultivation then spread to the Greek Islands, above all to Rhodes, Cyprus and Crete. Then through the Greeks it reached all the Mediterranean Countries, where it found the greatest expansion.The Phoenicians helped spread the olive tree and they teached the peoples they visited during their periodic commercial journeys how to gain the oil from its fruits. After it reached the Greek settlements in Southern Italy, the Romans extended the olive tree cultivation first to the rest of Italy and subsequently to the conquerred territories: the Provence and the Iberian Peninsula.Today the olive growing area extends between the 30th and the 45th Northern Parallels. Olives are also grown in Northern India, in Argentina, Mexico,Peru and in the United States; but the best olives solely grow in the Italian Peninsula, where the ground varieties and the efficient production technics allow to obtain a product which is definitely superior to the European Community average.