The "La Traversagna" estate is situated in a lowland area of about 100 hectares at the foot of the hills which border the provinces of Lucca and Pisa, in the Parco Naturale di Migliarino/San Rossore, one of Italy’s national parks.
It is the biggest olive grove in Italy with 45,000 olive trees, which have been planted following mechanical intensive farming methods.
In line with the hydro-geological characteristics of the area, the olive grove has been equipped with a drainage system, which has entailed placing more than one hundred 1 metre deep drainage pipes, which avoid any excess rain water accumulating in the soil during very wet periods of the year.
The whole olive grove is equipped with a drop irrigation system, which provides each plant with up to 16 litres of water each 72 hours during the dry summer season.
This irrigation and drainage systems provide the olive trees with the ideal growing conditions, perfectly timed blossoming and maturing of the olive fruit. The trees that have been planted are only Frantoio/Leccino/Pendolino cultivars in a proportion of 70:20:10, as per the tradition of the Tuscan hills and the Colline Lucchesi olive oil discipline.

The trees have been planted 3 metres apart from one another and in 6 metre spaced rows. The plants are pruned so as to create the “monocone” growth shape. This permits the labourers to carry out all of their work mechanically, including harvesting, which means that the fruit is pressed within 3 to 4 hours after being picked – a great advantage for the characteristics of the oil. The farming programme includes minimum use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and prefers to adopt more advanced organic farming methods in order to improve the product and cut down on environmental pollution.
The "La Traversagna" estate has an extremely modern olive mill and automated bottling plant. The olive oil that is produced has the typical characteristics of the Lucca olive oil productions: a clear golden yellow colour with a touch of green, a sweet lightly fruity flavour and a very low level of acidity. This project has come about thanks to the work of the Fontana family and is unique in Italy. It is proof of the direct efforts of the olive oil industry worldwide to produce olive oil according to a planting model and this experience will be vital to improving olive tree farming.