Villa Monteoriolo is a family estate just south of Florence. We visited on our way driving out of Florence towards Orvieto, but it is close enough to Florence where I think you could take an uber/taxi there and back. It was a fantastic visit of a couple of hours with a very authentic family whose estate holds several thousand olive trees. They were extremely welcoming. I spoke to Eleonora and her son Tommaso via email and in person, and Tommaso spent the entire time there with us. A few other family members stopped in to say hello while we were there. It felt both welcoming and authentic. It is a working estate - some of the family lives there and they produce and sell their own olive oil.
We saw the estate including the garden, the olive groves, the chapel inside the Villa, and their open air cellar where we did an Olive Oil tasting. We learned a lot about the process of creating olive oil and saw many of the implements which were traditionally used. Tommaso taught us how to taste olive oil which was fun. We enjoyed their olive oil with some fresh pecorino, bruschetta, olives, and wine. It was fantastic and our whole family really enjoyed the experience. Tommaso even brought out their family made version of Nutella - my teens loved it!
Their Olive Oil was so amazing I asked if they could ship some to the United States. Turns our they can ship their oil directly from their Villa to anywhere in the world. They were going to wait till the next time they decanted from their large stainless steel storage (they do this every few weeks) to send our cans so it would have the absolute best freshness. They use cans because it protects the oil well and is ideal for shipping. Right now, checking Fedex, my oil is in Virginia on its way to Boston. I can’t wait to enjoy it and share this special taste of Italy with family and friends.
Anyways, I thought I would share this hidden gem with you. I found them after quite a bit of searching on-line for a way to explore Olive Oil in Italy (there are many more options to explore wine than oil, and few overall experiences as authentic as this). If I am back in Florence again, I will try to make it there again to take a cooking class from Eleonora (I didn’t know she did this!). Tomasso is starting to grow some grapes by the coast, so who knows - maybe I will be able to enjoy some of their family wine in the future as well!