Moving around in Italy!

Italy Journal

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Buona viaggia Aucoins!

The Aucoins took off for the Malpensa Sheraton early this afternoon. We gave them an escort to the autostrada,, then we exited to take a little detour and sent them on their way! What a fun time we have had with all of them here. We will miss them.

We stopped to see a little town called Guarene and found an agriturismo that Peter was interested in researching for touring purposes. It looked really promising.

Italy Journal

Monday, July 30, 2012

Have I ever told you that Monday is the day that most stores are closed in Bra? Today, however, I noticed that many stores were open in the afternoon with huge sales on everything. We were told that July was the sale month. That is so true. The Aucoins got all sorts of great deals on things they wanted in the stores here.

Today we are preparing to be gone from Bra for 2 weeks. Peter spent most of the day determining where we would stay, eat, visit, etc. Our purpose on this trip is to complete a research project that Peter has been given. It is due in October, but it requires research that is not available in Bra. This is a great opportunity to do that work.

This is the main project for his main professor in his Ethnobiology class. He’s studying the Malga – the place where the cows go in the summer to eat the mountain grasses, and they make cheese from those cows. The buildings and the farmhouse up in the pasture are also called Malga, and the cheese is called Malga cheese. The cheese is owned communally by the village below. Traditionally, the children have worked in the summer to help with the traditional cheese. It seems that Malga cheese can be found in the Trentino district. It is a very popular cheese, made only of cow’s milk (no goat or sheep milk). Peter has learned that for many years, sons have helped on the farm and taken over the farms after the father leaves it where this cheese is made. Now, however, the sons are deciding they want to leave the farm, and the farmers are importing immigrant workers to help in the farm. This sometimes means that the techniques that are used on the farm change, according to the knowledge of the imported workers. Also, mocroflora changes the makeup of the cheese.. Compositions and flavors of the cheeses must be consistent to use the area name. Peter’s design in his research is to visit each of the 20 Malga farms and discover how many of the field workers are now imported and where they are from. Is it traditional or immigrant cheese that’s actually being made?

Italy Journal

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

https://picasaweb.google.com/105096135818321367223/TrentoVillaMadruzzo?authkey=Gv1sRgCMv1mJ3OtKnftQE

Our beautiful 4 hour trip to Trento, the capital of the region of Trentino (like Atlanta is the capital of Georgia) was filled with practicing what we might want to say in Italian to people on the farms, deciding where to go first, and eating the leftovers we brought when we cleaned out our refrigerator. Fortunately, Stephen had left his wonderful onion tarts and plum tarts, so we were well fed!

Trento is a lovely city. We found Adriano, who is the head of the regional cultural center. Peter had met him when he was here before, and he had promised to bring Kyle and Neale’s Habit book to him. Adriano was so pleased to receive it, and he even showed us a note that he was carrying around in his wallet to remind himself to order that book. He gave us great suggestions about what to do and where to go to get the information Peter wanted, and even gave Peter a map of the area. So, when we left him, we went to the closest libreria (book store) and bought the other maps that he had mentioned. The places we will go are in remote areas, and these maps might help us actually arrive there by car.

We stayed at Villa  Madrusso overnight and enjoyed very much the food, swim, view and sunset. We’re talking about staying here at the end of our two weeks of research before returning to Bra.

Thank you, Shona and Enzo for taking care of our flowers while we are away.

Don’t move to your new house before we get back, Enzo!!!

Colleen