Itanos Tours - Activities in Eastern Crete

Collect olives and prune the olive trees. Learn about the different types of Olives and their quality. Visit Olive oil extraction facilities that follow the old traditional way or modern methods. Learn about the different qualities of olive oil and learn about the values of Olive oil.  

The olive Tree was a gift from the gods to the people. It keeps you healthy.

Sitia Olive oil has been considered the best in the world in competitions. The rich aroma and unique flavor are special. The winds that blow in the area in the hot summer months not only keep the people cool, but also the olive trees and the olives do not get hot. The winds from the sea, and the wild spices of sage, thyme, oregano and rosemary give the olives special aromas.

More then 4000 years ago, Olive oil was already used on Crete. It is also called the gift of the Gods.

It will pass no-one's attention how important the influence of the use of this extraordinary oil is in normal life. It is known that Crete has the lowest percentage of heart and coronary diseases of the world. The scientists give credit to this fact due to the influence of the olive oil and the way of living. The food of Crete is nowadays considered as an example of the Mediterranean culture. The good health of the Cretan people is supposed to be credited to the pattern of eating and drinking. Olive oil is the most important part of this pattern.

In most North-European countries like Holland and Germany, the average use of olive oil is 200 gram per year. The average use of the Cretan people is 35 liter per year! Olive oil is already used at breakfast and hardly any dish exists without olive oil.

Compared with other oils, olive oil has many other advantages:

• Consuming olive oil decreases the bad LDL cholesterol in the blood and takes care of the maintenance of the good HDL cholesterol.
• Next to this it is proven that by the consumption of olive oil, the triglycerine decreases in the blood. Triglycerine and the bad LDL cholesterol both cause the narrowing of our blood vessels.
• In general one can say that the consumption of olive oil drastically decreases the danger of heart and coronary diseases.
• Olive oil also takes care of a good blood pressure.
• A balanced diet, together with olive oil reduces the chance of getting cancer by 75 %.
• It can be helpful in bettering diabetes and it decreases the chance of getting rheumatologic diseases by 50 %, etc. etc.

Next to this, many myths exist about the olive tree and its fruits.

In short, all these interesting things as described above and many more, were the reason for us to organize this theme-tour.

Please visit Olive Oil Photo Gallery