Due to climate change, olive groves in Italy have moved closer to the Alps. In the Po Valley, therefore, approximately half of the national production of tomatoes for preserves and durum wheat for pasta, both typical Mediterranean crops, are cultivated today, while the vineyards have even reached their zenith, and in the south, there is a boom in tropical crops, from avocados to mangoes. These are some data from the Copernicus report that highlights how 2022 was the second warmest year ever recorded in Europe and even the hottest ever in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Great Britain and Ireland. The outcome is a major alteration in the environment, the distribution and seasonality of crops, and the same qualities of Italy's most iconic goods. It is in fact in the province of Sondrio, beyond the 46th parallel, the last northern frontier of Italian olive oil. In the last decade, the cultivation of olive trees on the sunniest hills of the Valtellina mountains has increased from zero to over ten thousand plants, covering almost thirty thousand square meters. The temperature of Italian wine has risen by one degree over the last three decades, but the harvest has moved up to one month earlier than the usual month of September. In the municipality of Morgex and La Salle, in the province of Aosta, where the grapes for Blanc de Morgex et de La Salle Dop are produced from the highest vines in Europe, the heat has also altered the distribution of vineyards, which tend to expand upwards with the presence of the vine at nearly 1,200 meters above sea level.
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