Three-day olive-harvest getaway in Spain
In Mérida, Spain, a Roman amphitheater completed in 8 B.C.E. still hosts outdoor performances. The country’s southwestern province of Extremadura has more Roman ruins than anywhere else in Spain, including a nearby gladiator arena.
Photo by Carolina at Dreamstime.com
Every autumn, Extremadura’s olive farmers harvest their crops, and some invite tourists to participate.
Photo by Felipe Caparros Cruz at Dreamstime.com
Standing in an olive grove in southwestern Spain, I felt a bit like Moses raising his staff and parting the Red Sea.
Stick in hand, I struck an olive tree’s large limbs, and voila! A hail of ripe, green olives thundered to the ground. How different this was from the slow picking of blueberries, strawberries and even peaches on my family’s farm on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
Travel experiences such as olive harvests needn’t be like going to the theater and watching others do it. They can — and should — have a participatory component.
After decades of traveling, I had that epiphany a few years ago: Firsthand experiences, beyond talking to the locals, are what make or break our travels.
Last September, after a conference in Madrid, five other journalists and I sought out a long weekend in the olive-growing region of Extremadura.
The bonus, it turned out, was that the area has more Roman ruins than anywhere else in Spain. We combined traditional sightseeing with hands-on experiences for an ideal getaway.
Roman roots
Extremadura’s capital, Mérida, helped us understand the development of a European city from its beginnings 2,000 years ago.
Here, in the westernmost province of ancient Rome (founded in the first century B.C.E.), we spent a full day strolling among sites including Early Christian basilicas.
Most memorable was our five-minute walk covering more than a thousand years historically and architecturally. We went from Plaza de Espana to a half-mile-long bridge — the Puente Romano spanning the Rio Guadiana.
The later Muslim era is also represented, as the bridge adjoins Alcazaba, an 11th-century Islamic fortress built over Roman walls.
City founders seem to have had us 21st-century visitors in mind by building spectacular sights such as the Roman Theatre and the Temple of Diana close to the scenic bridge.
We jaw-dropped at the Archaeological Ensemble of Mérida, built when Augustus completed the conquest of the north of Hispania in 25 B.C.E. He intended this far-flung post of the Roman Empire to present as an idealized model of Rome.
Approximately halfway (an hour’s drive) between Mérida and our more hands-on destination in Villamiel was Cáceres, a medieval walled city and province that’s a UNESCO World Heritage site.
No traveler can do everything on one trip, and I knew this place merited a return to cover Roman and Moorish occupations, as well as the Golden Age of Jewish culture in Spain.
Picnicking in olive groves
“Un-touristy” was how one of my travel companions described Villamiel, with its iffy internet service, lack of box stores, and few visitors to the municipality with fewer than a thousand inhabitants.
Cáceres was the closest population center to our rural accommodations for the next three nights — the olive mill-turned-four-star-resort named Hotel Aqua et Oleum (Water and Oil). The hotel reflects the countryside: rustic and elegantly charming for its authenticity in presentation and service.
A decade ago, an American entrepreneur, Joseph Shortell, saw the potential in the dilapidated structure with worn stones and water wheel. In restoring the place, he preserved as much as possible of the olive mill while renovating spaces into attractive guestrooms and adding a fine chef and concierge.
Among the three dinners we enjoyed were pork cheek prepared in a stew with a seasonal fruit sauce, and semolina with walnuts. A dessert featured fresh pears cooked with pepper, cumin, honey and raisin wine — recipes worthy of internet viral distribution, if we could get online.
Our full breakfast might be crepe-like scrambled eggs with Spain’s artisanal ham or scallion pancakes. For lunch, we picnicked on farm food either on the grounds (after striking olive trees to gather fruit) or at a nearby olive grove: charcuterie with fruit, crusty baguette and wine.
With an olive culture from trees to oil, Extremadura is about community connection. At an olive-processing plant, we witnessed a long line of cars packed with crates of homegrown olives to be pressed into oil — which, for an extra fee, might bear the label of the individual grower or family.
It’s not all work and no play: We couldn’t help but notice how often locals in the nearby towns of El Gasco, Asegur and Casares de las Hurdes laughed as they enjoyed shopping, dining, drinking and conversing with one another. That’s reason enough for a return trip.
If you go
Round-trip flights to Madrid in September start at $590. Prices vary with currency values, but it’s wise to budget an inclusive $2,500 per person for a weekend of three nights, including transportation to and from the Madrid airport, a Mérida stopover and visits to nearby sites while in Villamiel.
For travel resources, visit turismoextremadura.com/en/index.html.
