Our roots
The taste of time, the strength of a communityOlive oil production in Panicale and the Trasimeno area has ancient origins dating back to the Etruscans. Our story begins with an act of courage. It was 1949; Italy was emerging wounded from the war, and those who worked the land—often not their own—struggled simply to survive. Private mills, controlled by wealthy landowners, imposed unsustainable conditions on local families and small-scale producers. A group of farmers decided to join forces to change their destiny. Thus, a cooperative named La Panicalese was founded, giving life to the first cooperative olive oil mill in Umbria: an act of redemption that transformed the “Molino dell’olio” (the oil mill) into the symbol of a shared future for an entire community. In 1952, the cooperative became the Oleificio Cooperativo Il Progresso, which has since brought together over four hundred families and farmers from the Trasimeno area, united by the conviction that together we can do better.
Today, PaneOlio safeguards the deep roots of those choices, innovating without losing its bond with the land and the values of cooperation and solidarity: a place for gathering and dialogue, a custodian of memory, and a stronghold for the future.
These ancient Umbrian lands, rich in history and blessed with a unique microclimate, endow the olives with unparalleled organoleptic characteristics. But all of Umbria—which is home to monumental, millennia-old olive trees such as the one at Sant’Emiliano in Trevi or the Raia di Macciano, living symbols of continuity between past and present—holds a prominent place on the national scene. With approximately seven million trees spread across 30,000 hectares and over 200 olive mills, the region stands out for its extraordinary variety of cultivars. In our olive groves in Isola Polvese alone—covering about 50 hectares, largely planted by the Olivetan monks during the 1400s and protected as monumental olive groves on Lake Trasimeno thanks to the work of the CNR (National Research Council)—we have identified over 30 varieties that are unique on the international stage, which we jealously safeguard.
In 2020, the Umbria Region, together with local municipalities, launched the “Grand Tour Trasimeno” project with the goal of creating a widespread cultural itinerary linking museums, villages, and anthropological traditions across nine municipalities in the Lake Trasimeno district. The project’s name evokes the Grand Tours of the 18th and 19th centuries, when wealthy members of the European aristocracy undertook a long journey to complete their cultural education. Their primary destination was Italy, where they visited its cities and landscapes, discovering its rich cultural heritage. The main “attractions” were the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and above all, the “picturesque”—understood as the harmonious balance of the human-shaped landscape.
Regarding Panicale, among the monuments of greatest artistic significance, the “Grand Tour Trasimeno” highlights the Collegiate Church of San Michele Arcangelo, dedicated to the village’s patron saint and an example of Baroque architecture; the Church of San Sebastiano, which houses two splendid frescoes; the 14th-century Palazzo del Podestà, home to the Municipal Historical Archive and the highest point in the town; and the Cesare Caporali Theater, which, with its 140 seats, is one of the smallest in Umbria.
A true jewel of the region, the Church of San Sebastiano houses two important frescoes: “The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian” (1505) by Pietro Vannucci, known as Perugino or the “Divine Painter,” one of the leading artists of the Italian Renaissance; and “The Madonna Enthroned with Musical Angels,” attributed to the young Raphael, a pupil of Perugino. The landscape of Lake Trasimeno and the panorama enjoyed from Panicale are reproduced almost like a photograph in the background of the fresco.
In 1505, to pay tribute to Saint Sebastian, the martyr saint revered as “depulsor pestilentiae” (driver away of pestilence), the residents of central Panicale commissioned the large fresco from the greatest Umbrian painter of the time, Pietro Vannucci. The commission and the choice of theme for the grand fresco were prompted by the sacking of Panicale by the troops of the Duke of Valentinois (son of Alexander VI Borgia) in 1503, and the subsequent plague epidemic that struck the inhabitants. Perugino signed the work on the central plinth, where his name can still be read, though with some difficulty: “P(etrus) DE CASTRO“. The date 1505 can be read in letters (MDV) on the pillars of the portico. Two years later, on September 1, 1507, Perugino received the final payment of 11 florins for the “S. Sebastiani depicte dicte comunitati Castri Panicalis et hominibus ipsius“. Overall, the fresco scene of the “Martyrdom” is conceived as an abstract representation made of geometric shapes, reflecting compositional standards from Perugino’s experience at the Sistine Chapel, and strongly expressing a taste for antiquity. Conversely, the panorama painted in the background is the most realistic possible depiction of Panicale as a splendid terrace overlooking Lake Trasimeno. In Handbook for travellers in Central Italy, London, 1864, J. Murray writes: «The figure of St. Sebastian is singularly beautiful, exquisite in colouring, and with the form and proportions of an Apollo. This great work will amply repay the inconvenience of leaving the high road.»