However, you can’t live by wind alone. To know Tocco da Casauria also means mentioning the toccolana, a native cultivar that owes its name to its place of origin. It is an olive tree that is well-suited to this micro-climate, where the wind constantly sweeps away any hint of humidity, and which produces a sophisticated extra-virgin DOP olive oil, with bitter and tangy notes, that is one of the local excellences for export. “There are about 80,000 hundreds of year old trees that do not take root in other parts, or do not produce fruit, and that only grow in this small area of Casauria”, explains Stefano Di Giulio, owner of a local farm. He is also one of the promoters of the association bringing together a network of producers with the purpose of adhering to and respecting a single production discipline and, at the same time, combining their efforts around a product that is representative of the area. Just one warning – in Tocco, you do not vulgarly taste the oil on a piece of bread, but you savour it as if it were a glass of champagne. To appreciate the nuances of its complexity and the diversity of its bouquet – from artichoke to cardoon to almonds.

This village buffeted by the wind is also known for its wine tradition and its cellars, often found in ancient tuff caves. Some of these belong to Fausto Zazzera, who has all the right traits to be considered a 20th century figure. A no longer so young civil engineer, for almost 15 years now, he has begun using, at the beginning a hobby, then more seriously, a classic artisan method, using local vine varieties, that could be the envy of the more famous spumantis. The cultivation of the grapes, and the spumanti base, takes place on the hills of Crecchio, a medieval village in the province of Chieti. The spumanti vinification, instead, is carried out on an artisanal level (in the true sense of the word, to see is to believe) by Fausto Zazzara in his subterranean cellars in Tocco da Casauria.

The largest is a fantastic tuff cellar excavated out of rock dating back to the 15th century and, apparently, a time of the barons of Bonanni d’Ocre, who used to use it as an escape hole. The name of his company renders the idea of the figure quite well. It’s called Majgual (no two are the same) because friends continued to repeat that the spumanti was optimal but every bottle was different to the previous one. However, alas, it is about to change its name. He feels that foreigners would not be able to fully understand this sophistication. And maybe, a good glass of rosé could help to climb the mountain of Tocco and fly with outstretched arms before the wind admiring the village below and surrounding valleys. For a couple of decades now, the area, thanks to its strategic position, close to the massif of Morrone and being open to the sea, has become one of the focal points, also internationally, for paragliding with enthusiasts launching themselves from a natural shelf at an altitude of 600 metres.