1.  In Italy we use olive branches on Palm Sunday [e-mail, April 2019].

2. In the early 1960s I lived in northern Italy (near La Spezia, Liguria) and my teacher told me the local olives were the best because they did not beat the olive trees, despite the saying ‘Beat your olives and your wife for a good life’ [Nunhead, London, June 2016].

3.  [Turkish Cyprus] Olive is considered to be lucky – even the dried leaves can be used, burnt around the house to drive away evil [Brockley, London, July 2001].

Images: main, Hillbrook Road, Tooting, London Borough of Wandsworth, January 2014; upper inset, olive tree decorated with cardboard Palestinian flags in support of the people of Gaza, Córdoba, Andalucia, Spain, 15 August 2014; lower inset, bunches of olive and rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus, syn. Rosmarinus officinalis) prepared for use on Palm Sunday, in Madrid, Spain, 10 April 2022, © Carlos Bruzon.