Oliva yesterday and today The old town, is no fake "olde worlde" pueblo-style village, but a typical small Valencian town, dating back to Moorish times and before. This quarter is endowed with charming, narrow, winding streets, lined with well-kept white-washed houses, often leading to quiet cool squares. Two beautiful old churches dominate two of the main squares in the old town - one of the churches with beautiful blue-tiled domes.  Overlooking Oliva on a hill is an ancient ruined castle which is well worth a walk for the splendid views it affords. Robert Hugill in his 1930s travel classic, I Travelled Through Spain, wrote: "The driver pulled up opposite a stall heaped with freshly caught eels and sardines and got out to deliver a couple of live chickens at a bar. On we went through lemon and orange groves where the ripe fruit hung like lanterns among the dark green polished leaves in the shelter of tall cane and cypress hedges. Oliva is a quiet town sprawled about a blue-domed church on the slopes of a castle-crowned hill."
The "blue-domed church" to which Hugill refers is San Roque, an edifice steeped in history, well worth a visit. Oliva is a lively market town with men (and women) still taking to the fields in the mornings while senior citizens "take the air" (and shade) in one of the many plazas, discussing the day's news.  Oliva folk are very friendly, always quick to help and will greet strangers with a cheerful buenos dias and adios wherever one goes. A simple hola can go a long way in making friends.
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