Italy has convinced the world that it is the king of liquid gold – hiding the fact that a significant proportion of "Made in Italy" olive oil comes from Spain.
Italy is 60% of the size of Spain and has a similar ratio of arable land (27.1 vs 27.9% per Wikipedia, Spain is also quite mountainous). Doesn’t really invalidate the point in your comment, but I expected a bigger difference when comparing "immense spaces and flat fields"to a mostly mountainous fraction of the territory
A big difference between Spain and at least Greece, is that in Spain, farmers tend to optimize for yield. This means they are planting and cutting down trees quite often, whereas in Greece old trees are usually left standing for longer.
Italy is 60% of the size of Spain and has a similar ratio of arable land (27.1 vs 27.9% per Wikipedia, Spain is also quite mountainous). Doesn’t really invalidate the point in your comment, but I expected a bigger difference when comparing "immense spaces and flat fields"to a mostly mountainous fraction of the territory
Honestly I’m surprised, but anyway you grow crops on arable land, not trees.
A big difference between Spain and at least Greece, is that in Spain, farmers tend to optimize for yield. This means they are planting and cutting down trees quite often, whereas in Greece old trees are usually left standing for longer.
(Can’t really say about Italy though.)