Saturday they took us to a pig farm and then to a cheese farm. The pig farm interesting because apperently the kind of pigs they raise, the cinta sienese is specific to Siena and no longer very common. They're distict because they are black with a white stripe, and there are some painted into the good government side of Lorenzetti's Allegory of Good and Bad Government. They told us that these pigs are hard to raise and people do it just because they happen to love these kinds of pigs. The pig farmers who raise them formed a coalition sort of thing that sets up really strict requirements about what they're fed and how much space they need (At least an acre available for every 2 pigs, I think they said), which makes them expensive. In addition, this kind of pig gains weight SUPER fast, and so they can't be sold if they're too fat, and they're hard to sell anyways because they're so expensive.
We got walk around in the pins and pet them, they gave us silly plastic booties to put over our feet for trekking through the mud. They're we some cute little piglets too!
Then they took us inside and fed us pig. The guy explained all the different types of meat (where it came from in the pig, etc) and told us what order to try them in. It was a little weird eating it after just seeing the pigs, but we didn't let it bother us.Next they took us to a different farm where they make cheese. The farm is run by only 3 people, a sister and two brothers, and they do ALL of the cheese making process. She showed us all the equipment and explained the different processes, including the pasteurization of the milk, the forming and draining of the cheese and the aging of the cheese. Seeing how it worked was cool and all, but I have to say, the overpowering smell of cheese was a bit much for me.
Then came my favorite part, the cheese tasting. We only tried four different kinds but they were tasty. The first one was my favorite, it was the youngest of the ones we tried, I think only a week or two old. The third one had been aged for several years and was good but intense. Last they gave us ricotta with honey and cinnamon to eat it with, which was very tasty.
And today they took us to a Carnivale festival! The one we went to was small but a lot of fun, in a town called Foliano. Apparently they have 4 contrade there, but I don't think it's nearly as cool since
they don't have a Palio or anything. Each one had a big float though, 
which were supposedly supposed to be allegories of something or other, but they were all really weird. One had a mad scientist and a tiger, whatever allegory that is is beyond me.
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| Confetti! |
Krissy and Simon and I went on a mission to find some carnivale food and ended up getting these things called Cinnacine, which were large salty disks of fried dough. They were very tasty at first, but we really should have shared one, because by the end I was overloaded on fried-ness and I couldn't finish it.
Oh yeah, and one of the really fun things about carnivale is the confetti. It's everywhere, people buy big bags of it and throw it at each other. Not even people you know, necessarily, just at everyone. The streets were covered in confetti, and by the time we left, so were we. I still have a bunch in my hair! Oh and people dress up like it's halloween. I didn't but Julia was an old lady, which turned out to be hilarious! The kids were the best, though, so cute all dressed up and running around throwing confetti. A couple even randomly got us with confetti!We ended up spending most of the day dancing in this one area where a band was playing American hits, which is always a good time.
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