After the footsteps of Thomas Jefferson in Northern Italy

Piazza

In 1787, on 28th of April, Thomas Jefferson passes through Savona on his way back to France. At that time he was a governor of Commonwealth. What the future president of America was doing in Italy and through which places he was passing by is what I am going to show you next.

While Thomas Jefferson was spending some time in France inquiring business opportunities there, he also decided to explore "the rice country of Piedmont" in order to understand why European consumers refuse Carolina's rice... As a result he did quite a big tour of Northern Italy.

What is more, his alpine and seaside journey Thomas Jefferson did on the back of a mule, alone, and anonymously. That's an adventure!

Alright, I did quite a map to show his approximate route from France to and through Italy and the places he visited:


View After the footsteps of Thomas Jefferson in Italy in a larger map

Here what Thomas Jefferson said about Italy in his Autobiography, 1743-1790:

"Here are nightingales, garden warblers, gardeners, pheasants, partridges, quails, a superb climate and the opportunity at any time to change from summer to winter climbing in the mountains. The earth produces wine, olive oil, figs, oranges and all products the garden ..."

I believe everyone will agree with his remark on the climate and the opportunity to switch easily from summer to winter ☻ This is true especially in the region of Liguria.

What followed was adoption of some agricultural crops by American farmers. Among them his favorite was the olive. However, it grew on South Carolina's and Georgia's land with poor success. Anyway, Thomas Jefferson classified three things as top necessities of life: olive oil, wine and books...

Off topic: A noteworthy fact is that the olive marks the extent of the Mediterranean climate.