a weekend away, in the green. September, 27th-28th

sometimes you just need to go away for a couple of days. embrace the road. enjoy the shades of greens. smell the autumn. feel the mountain. discover new textures of the nature. soak in the quiet. 

strolling at donkey's pace. May, Sunday 26th

have you ever done a donkey trekking? i've heard it's a trend in walking holidays.

on a sunny sunday morning, the last day of our blog tour in Vicenza's lands, we walked skin to coat with a female donkey named Silvana, along a path that vanished among the olive trees.

donkeys are nice companion to walk with. not too slow, not too fast, they give you time to look around when they stop to taste that tempting tuft of grass. also, they could take your backpack if the hike is too hard for you, and they have that shaggy coat which is so soft on the ears and nose! they make you smile and distract you from the effort and the heat, when they want to play stubborn and refuse to cross a water trickle. 

Martino with the donkey | San Bernardino cave facade

our hike's destination was a cave name after St. Bernardino, where we had a brief refresher on the prehistoric period. i felt like a third grade girl listening to Martino, our guide, who talked about the Neanderthal man traces left here, one of which is a fireplace of 170000 years ago. {seriously, 170000! i had to write it down, cause so many zeros confuse me}

now i want to buy a donkey.

{olympus om10 + fuji superia 200}

colli Berici. May, Saturday 25th

in the first part of our trip in Vicenza province, we breathed the mountain peace of the Altopiano di Asiago. then, with the Vicenza's historic center behind us, our eyes got the power of wander on the lavishly green hills surrounding us. we were ready for the last part, an exploration of the Colli Berici, gentle hills south of Vicenza.

Berici hills map and local products

a roadtrip on the Berici hills {colli Berici} is a journey through the local taste and products. in my mind, now that i'm recollecting those memories, voices and flavours cross each other, to tell the same story, of simplicity and care.
we visited some organic farms, slept in agriturismi with homely atmosphere, drove up and down the narrow streets, looking at the little towns life through the car windows.

i've selected three particular memories, to summarize my experience in the Berici hills. 
the first image that impressed me was the gray sight of the incompiuta, in Brendola. incompiuta means unfinished, and this church is the proof that the crisis was a matter in the past centuries, too: the client did not finish paying for it, and when he died, the work was suspended and never started again. so, the unfinished church still lies there, grim and fascinating, home for crows.

incompiuta di Brendola

the second memory is a feeling. you've seen the map above, where i draw all the local products that are made in the Berici; among those, there are two i like the most: sopressa {aged salami made with the best pig cuts}, and grappa {alcoholic beverage, a fragrant, grape-based pomace brandy}. the two rooms, in two different places, where i've seen the sopressa aging, and the distillery equipment, gave me the same feeling. the light and the smell were different, of course, but they were both dark and muffled, chilly and aromatic. and, first of all, the two rooms have the same atmosphere, the one you can feel in places that are rich in traditions handed down from father to son, manual labor, trade secrets. i love this kind of places.

the salami aging room in Agriturismo Monterosso - the Brunello distillery

the third and last memory is a gesture. at the olive oil tasting, and while Marianna was making the goat cheese, the starting gesture was the same: they draw a cross. with the spoon on the cheese, with the oil on the salad. a gesure of blessing.


info
Brunello distillery
via G.Roi, 51 - Montegalda (VI)
@grappabrunello

Agriturismo Monterosso
Via Monte Rosso, 18 - Brendola (VI)

goat cheese and legends. May, Saturday 25th

"behind every cheese there is a pasture of a different green under a different sky: meadows caked with salt that the tides of Normandy deposit every evening; meadows scented with aromas in the windy sunlight of Provence; there are different flocks, with their stablings and their transhumances; there are secret processes handed down over the centuries."

Italo Calvino, Mr. Palomar

nowadays, our modern palates are no longer used to the tastes of biodiversity. this is the first lesson we learned after we got off the Altopiano di Asiago, and arrived to agriturismo Al Cucco, surrounded by woods and stream waters. {if you don't remember what an agriturismo is, check this post for the definition}
when you produce non-industrial cheese, it's difficult to obtain the same taste every time, although the procedure and the doses are just the same: you can not predict what herbs or flowers the goat will eat tomorrow, or if she is going to stay in the stable because it's raining. 
for the one of us who are used to eat cheeses that have all the same taste, this could be disturbing. but it should be fascinating! when you taste a cheese, you're tasting the enviroment where the goat {or the cow}is living, the greens of the pasture, the different wind, sky, temperature, tradition. just like Calvino's quote says. 
 

chamoisee alpine goats

a blonde woman named Marianna is the landlady of agriturismo Al Cucco. she was a chemist but left her job to open this farm, raise goats and make cheese. she's not the only one who make that choice. she told us there is a small but increasing "return to the earth" that they're experiencing around there. people with good office jobs who decide to quit and follow the dream of making something grow with their hands. i think i'll do the same someday.

Marianna showed us how she makes her goat caciotta.

Marianna is a former chemist who had left her job to open an agriturismo, raise goats and produce cheese

Marianna is not just a cheese makers, she also knows a lot of local legends and old stories. while we were taking a walk in the woods, she showed us small tunnels dug into the rocks, excavated during the war and used as deposits.
then, she told us some legends about the anguane. an anguana is a fairy creature typical of the alpine mythology, related to the water, with characteristics that are partly similar to those of a nymph. 

in the Dolomites, anguane are frequently described as young women, often very attractive and able to seduce men, at other times, however, appear as half girls and half reptile or fish, capable of launching loud cries.
Marianna's story described how the anguane live near waters, and spend the nights washing and hanging white sheets to the moonlight. 
another lengend was about the salvanelli, pixies that have fun making jokes to the farmers overnight, like weaving togheter the cow's tails.

legends an old stories in the woods

out of the woods, we arrived at a semi-abandoned hamlet {in the local dialect, a contrà}. lots of rural houses have been abandoned, or, like some of them, are used as a summer house for old people who live in the city and come here to have some fresh healthy air.  

that give to those houses a melancholic look, suspended between being charming and being haunted.

{olympus om10 + fuji superia 200}

info
Agriturismo Al Cucco
loc. cucco, 2 - 36040 Valdastico (VI)
agriturismoalcucco@alice.it

Altopiano di Asiago. May, Friday 24th

we had the pleasure and the honor to be invited to a blog tour last weekend. the scheduled places and activities were so right for us, and so in line with the topics i love to write about, that i'm looking forward to tell you everything!

but, first thing first, the journey started with a sad note (the only one!): due to bad weather, we had to go by car and not by lambretta.

the first place we visited is a plateau between Veneto and Trentino Alto Adige, called Altopiano di Asiago. it's inhabited by an ethnic minority of germanic origin, known as Cimbri. the ancient cimbri language is still spoken in some families, and still survives in place names.

another peculiarity that impressed me is that just the 10% of the Altopiano's land property is private. the remaining 90% isn't state-owned public property, either. it's collective property, administered by the inhabitants. i don't think anything similar exists in the rest of Europe. 

it was the 24th of May, what a coincidence. in that same day, back in 1915, Italy entered the first world war, on the Allies side against th Austria-Hungary. the Altopiano was one of the unlucky places that were a battlefield from the first to the last day of those three years.
the war has left forts and trenches, and furrows of grief and loss as deep as the second ones. 

if it is possible that something good comes out of a war, many of the routes that served as links in those three years, nowadays are scenic and beautiful paths for trekking and outdoors. 

the evening was enchanted with silence and colors: the white, the yellow, the so many greens, the shining drops. we saw the shilouette of a roe deer, peeking on us from above, curious. the rain had made the wood magical and glistering. the scent of earth was intense.

there was some snow. snow over the blooming dandelions! this spring is moody and whimsical.
but there is a wise old saying that says:

in March, the snow of the swallow
in April, the snow of the cuckoo

in May, the snow of the quail

so, it seems that the snow in May isn't as weird as i thought. 

the little village below us looked like a clouds factory. then, the forest and surrounding mountains get darker and darker, the last light rised up, the clouds came swallowing the landscape. it was time to go to warm up into the malga. leaving the smell of dump earth, we followed the one of good food, that made us a path itself. 

now, what is a malga? it's an alpine house for the cattle summer mountain pasture. it's usually a great place to buy dairy products, butter, cheese. sometimes, a malga is also a restaurant, like in this case.

we ate at Malga Spill. the local cousine has a scent of milk and wild herbs. the main charachter is the cheese, of course. Asiago cheese is famous, and Mrs.Orfalia, our hostess, makes a heavenly lasagna with Asiago cheese.
i loved this kind of welcome, made of clumsy italian {the most used language here is dialect}, smiles, good food.

   
reading tips
Mario Rigoni Stern - Uomini, boschi e api |*italian only*
{the only english translated work of the author is The Sergeant in the snow}
Luigi Meneghello - I piccoli maestri | translated into english in 1967 as The Outlaws

both these italian writers were from this area. Rigoni Stern was born, worked and lived in the Altopiano, and Meneghello experienced there the partisan war.
Rigoni Stern's son, Gianni, dined with us at the malga, and talked with passion about plants and animals of  Altopiano di Asiago.

Gianni Rigoni Stern is developing an amazing project in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he had delivered, in the city of  Srebrenica, cows and equipment for agriculture, and he personally taught war widows how to manage a family farm.

 
info
Malga Spill
loc. Stuba Gallio, VI 36032
0424 658231