Family Tilli Oil Mill

A) TRANSLATION OF THE LICENCE PLATE

The olive tree has always been the most “venerated” plant in the rural tradition of Casoli. It is estimated that olive trees grown in the municipal area are around 160,000, with an average concentration per square kilometer of almost 2700 plants. Among other recognitions, our Municipality also received that of Oil City. The most cultivated olive varieties are Intosso (Slow Food Presidium), Crognalegno, Gentile, and Leccino. The first two varieties are present only in Casoli and other nearby mu-nicipalities. Therefore, a centuries-old vocation demonstrated by the fact that since the nineteenth century there were numerous oil mills, such as the one preserved in Palazzo Tilli in Via Garibaldi (formerly Via San Giacomo). Every house of notables had an oil mill (in our dialect-idiom “lu trappìte”), but other families opened their plants in the autumn on the wall of Santa Reparata, in Corso and Piazza Umberto I, in Via Garibaldi, in Via Frentana, in Largo San Nicola, in the Aventine Suburb, in Temple Square and in other neighborhoods. The oil mill in Via Garibaldi has been preserved as it was in the 19th century. It can be visited on request and is a symbol of the city’s memory. It is located on the ground floor of Tommaso Tilli’s building which, for a period, was the headquarters of the Carabinieri barracks. Together with the olive tree, two records in agriculture should be remembered. According to Franco Cercone, in Casoli there is news, for the first time in Abruzzo, of the presence of guinea wheat (lu randinije in our dialect). Which leads us, reasonably, to think that the Indian wheat was imported into Abruzzo at Casoli and, subsequently, spread from here throughout the region.
In 1998 Di Menna claimed that «The first detailed evidence on the presence of to-mato cultivation in Abruzzo concerns the territory of Casoli, in particular the areas along the Aventino river, dating back to 1815. The rooting and ancient tradition of this cultivation in the district this is also evident from the presence in the area of old crop varieties such as the pear tomato, widespread mainly in the Laroma district […]”.

B) SUPPLEMENTARY NEWS