'Maltempo in Abruzzo' - will the oil get through, as devastating storms wreck the Abruzzo countryside?

We're used to thinking of Italy as an enchanted place of sunshine, outdoor lunches in the shadow of some ancient monument, and sundowners round the pool.

Not this week.    The central Abruzzo region, where the olives for Stroud Green Olive Oil are grown, has been hit by devastating weather.   First blizzards, then floods.   Storms and snow have destroyed 2,700 hectares (that's 10 square miles) of vineyards in the districts of Pescara, Chieti and Teramo.   The city of Pescara is under water.

Just a few days ago, folk were in shirtsleeves, harvesting the trees.  Now the weather is so bad the Abruzzo region has called for a state of emergency.

The mountain people of Abruzzo are used to cold winters - but it's rarely this bad, or so early.  In the Majella region, where Stroud Green Olive Oil comes from, summers are baking hot, spring and autumn are balmy with pleasant days and cool evenings and.   Winter always brings snow to the mountain peaks,but rarely much to the green valleys below 600 metres or to the coastal plain.

When the snow does hit the mountains, roads are closed, cars are fitted with snow tires and chains, the roads are lined with stranded lorries and travel is difficult and hazardous - Abruzzo drivers are used to that.    On the plus side, the ski-ing can be excellent.  Two of central Italy's best ski resorts, Roccaraso and Pescocostanzo, are little more than half an hour away into the mountains from the Aventino olive groves.   It's hard to believe you can ski so far south, far from the garish tourist traps of the Italian alps.

This snowfall has been different.     The severe weather arrived in late November, after a fortnight of almost constant rain - a downpour that nearly (but not quite) put paid to the Stroud Green Olive Oil harvest.   The snow came down in sheets, blanketing the entire region from the peaks of the Gran Sasso as far as the Adriatic beaches.  The picturesque ski resort of Pescocostanzo, just over the mountains, has been transformed into an alpine-style scene weeks before the first skiers usually arrive.

But the weather has had serious implications. Blizzards have blocked roads and flattened ancient vineyards across the region.   One wine grower in Loreto Aprutino estimates he has lost half of his 50-year-old vines, the source of local Trebbiano d'Abruzzo wines.  Hundreds more hectares of the destroyed vineyards are the source of the famous Montepulciano d'Abruzzo wine, so familiar in every London Italian restaurant.

Subsequent snow melt has swollen the rivers and transformed streams into torrents cascading through houses and villages and making travel all b ut impossible.    I generally keep an eye on the Abruzzo weather from London, but I only became aware of how serious it is after seeing photographs of the lake close to Casa della Meridiana almost full to overflowing, and video of the Aventino River just a few hundred metres from the house seemingly on the point of bursting its banks - so much in spate that police closed the road bridge.

Duncan, the driver who will bring the next consignment of Stroud Green Olive Oil back to London next week, told me by phone he had been obliged to stop deliveries in Abruzzo because of the weather - 'You can't drive anywhere - roads swept away, trees down.'

The rain and snow means he has not been able to finish harvesting the olives from his own 500 olive trees, so the olives will be wasted.  On top of all that there was a further small earthquake north of L'Aquila just a couple of days ago which rattled teacups and caused alarm right actross the region.

Fortunately, Duncan expects to pick up the olive oil from the hotel basement where it is stored and bring it back to London N4, so it looks like Stroud Green Olive Oil will get through.   But my heart goes out to the kind people of Abruzzo who have lost their vines, trees, olives and livelihoods because of the weather this year.