I would like to introduce Heather Melhem and Megan Venere, FIT students and Merchandising Society memebers studying in Florence. We are glad to announce that Heather and Megan will be guest editors on The Society during their time spent abroad! We hope you enjoy their posts about their adventures in Florence.
- Erin Trabold
Social Media Manager
Merchandising Society at FIT
In U.S., one brings in the fall season by heading to the
nearest apple orchard and picking as many apples as you can possibly carry back
home. In Tuscany, Italians ring in fall a different way, with olive picking.
This past weekend, a group of us went to Grace’s house to take part in this
Tuscan tradition (Grace is our FITSA advisor). Around 25 of us went out to
Grace’s home, where she has a modest amount of trees in her backyard….only
around 400! We had perfect weather that day, and the orchard was set up on a
hill, which provided us with amazing views of the Florence countryside Although
we were all anxious to get to taste the olives, these ones are more commonly
used to make olive oil. The trees had both green and black olives to pick.
When most people think of olive
picking, they think you place the olives in a large barrel or bucket (that’s
picking grapes a la I Love Lucy). Instead, you lay large nets out underneath
each of the trees. When you pick the olives, you throw them down onto the nets.
Once we were done picking the olives, you fold up the net up to keep the olives
from falling out. We also learned about the best kinds of olive oil to buy-make
sure to look out for the “cold press” label.
We spent an afternoon out in the
orchards picking olives. When we were done, we went inside and had an “aperitivo”
and socialized. It was nice being all together again, since Design and
Merchandising are split into blocks. It was a fun and relaxing weekend- check
out our pictures below! (especially of our own resident MS “flower child” and
Florence Manager Heather)
