Bologna, Goats

New Pictures!

Bologna, the red city.

My couchsurfing friends admiring some frescoes.

Fattoria i piani, the goat farm. This is typical landscape in Emilia Romagna.

Baby goats acting sheepish.

It turns out sheep herding skills are transferable to other ruminants.

I've made it back to northern Italy. It's quite a cultural shock, and the weather has been cooler (as low as 60!) than I've experienced since May. I would guess the average midday temperature for the past 3 months has been between 80 and 85. I spent a few days in Bologna, which is a beautiful city. It's usually packed with students (150,000 out of 500,000 total residents), but they're all on vacation right now, probably at the sea in southern Italy, so the city was quiet. I couchsurfed with Mario, and English professor from Australia at the university, along with 4 Polish girls and 2 other Americans. It was quite a party, really terrific. For the first time I felt like a real tourist, seeing most of the big sites in the city. A fun change of pace, gorgeous cathedrals. It's strange to be back in the north, it almost feels like Austria or southern Germany here. Everything is very (well, relatively) clean, organized and on-time. I'm definitely more comfortable in this environment, Bologna could practically be a US city. On the other hand, my horizons aren't expanding quite as much as they did in the south.

Now I'm on a goat farm about an hour out of Bologna. This is the first farm I've been on that is actually making money (or at least trying to) by selling its products, which is a very nice change of pace. Work seems much more real and necessary. The farmer works more than any of the other places I've been, which is inspiring to see and makes my work feel more valuable. I haven't made cheese yet, but I'll probably get a couple chances to in the next 10 days. I love the goats, though. It's great to be with animals again, they're so calming and funny. The goats are much smarter than the sheep I worked with in Siena (not as smart as the pigs, but they were a little bit TOO smart, I think), and much more friendly. The baby goats are adorable, they like to lick my hands and chew on my T-shirt. I've done the milking a few times now (it's all by machine since there are about 150 goats), I think it's work I naturally enjoy, being from Vermont. Today we're digging a big ditch, good hard work. So everything is going very well, and I'm still adding to the list of things I've never done before this trip. And after this, I'm going to go to the Palio in Siena!