An Italian visitor made an offer that Buildings and Grounds Director Sal Genito could not refuse, almost. The visitor, Fabrizio Floriani, showed up at a thank-you luncheon that Genito hosted on April 11 for people who helped launch UC Davis' olive oils for 2007.

Floriani spoke in Italian, and his U.S. host, UC Davis employee David Phillips, provided translation.

"I like your olive oil so much that I want to buy the rest of this year's bottles, and all of next year's, and send all of it to Italy," said Floriani, who identified himself as an olive oil maker himself. "Your olive oil tastes like the kiss of a beautiful woman," Floriani told Genito.

Genito liked what he heard. He is ever the entrepreneur, coming up with the idea of harvesting and pressing UC Davis olives. The inaugural bottling last year won three gold medals in the nation's largest international olive oil competition, held as part of the Los Angeles County Fair.

Genito asked Floriani and Phillips to step into the hallway, outside the luncheon that was taking place in a meeting room at the Activities and Recreation Center.

Floriani continued to heap praise on the campus's olive oil: "The viscosity is so good, you could put it in the engine of a Ferrari."

Floriani then offered Genito an all-expenses-paid trip to Italy to visit the Floriani family's olive oil factory.

At that point, Genito started getting uncomfortable, even starting to sweat a little. First of all, university policy would not allow him to accept such a trip from a company doing business with the university.

Second, "We barely have enough olive oil to meet the demand on campus. There is no way we can supply Italy!"

Finally, Genito speaks some Italian — and he suspected that Phillips' "translations" were not exactly on target.

The bottom line: Genito wondered if this was something too good to be true.

In fact, it was too good to be true. "You've been punk'd!" Phillips said, referring to the kind of pranks featured on the MTV show Punk'd.

The only part of the story that was true: Floriani is from Italy. He was here visiting Phillips, his friend. Phillips is associate director of facilities in Operations & Maintenance; he took photographs at this year's olive oil launch party, as a favor to Genito.

Phillips is not fluent in Italian, so his "translations," as Genito suspected, were not entirely accurate.

Floriani is in business with his family, but not in olive oil. They knit sweaters for Prada.

Genito's response to Phillips' prank: "Tell Fabrizio he owes me a sweater!"