A bacterium called xylella fastidiosa started to desertify olive trees in Southern Italy, and to date no remedy has been found to stop the contagion. The European Union has imposed the eradication of every tree that is positive for the bacterium effectively proposing a desertification of the infected territory without addressing the issue of landscape protection. Here, an attempt will be made to explain the irrational gesture of many young rebels and peasants not to apply European decisions by highlighting the essential role that the olive tree plays in the landscape of south Italy, understood both as a landscape horizon and as a psychic horizon within which the citizen forms and recognises himself. The paper provide a critical comparison between the literary image handed down by travellers of the past and the present-day image of a landscape that seems to have lost its identity due to building speculation, the plundering of the land and a bacterium that has destroyed entire areas.