Marco:

This is an ancient variety that is very popular with Italians. The small town of Caneva, in the province of Pordenone, in the Friuli Venezia-Giulia region of Northern Italy even has a feast dedicated to this amazing fig. Somehow, the original name was reassigned to “Fico Secco,” which means “dried fig” in Italian, which may end up being the final product of how the Figo Moro da Caneva is sometimes processed. I don’t know how it got the designation of Fico Greco, which in Italian means “Greek Fig.” Now why in the world would anyone name a Greek fig using Italian words is beyond my comprehension. Then I hear some folks in France renaming it “Nerino.” More recently I saw it named “Fico Piacentino.” It’s so confusing and it never ends.

Sod:

I talked to someone about that recently. Mario was given Fico Secco by someone at Pamona Gardens or someone that got it from Paolo Belloni. There was either a typo, someone couldn’t read a label, or it was a common case of misinterpretation or didn’t hear it properly. Fico secco Piacentino became Fico Greco by accident. When someone asked Paolo Belloni about a fig from his collection called Fico Greco, he said he’d never heard of it and said he only had Fico secco. I talked about this on a post of mine recently and said I’d be changing the name of my Fico Greco to Fico secco.