Tirano - La Citta Delle Montagne

Tirano

...is a less pretty Italian Banff. The town is a little larger than Banff and the river that bisects it not quite as mighty as the Bow, but it has the same sort of small alpine feel, and  a river running through it. In fact, when I stood on one of the bridges that arched over the river it was almost as if I was looking at _____ Mountain. I think the main difference is that Banff has an incredibly young feel to it and is decidedly a ski town - lots of ski/snowboard shops, cheap eats, bars and 20-something's running around.

We grabbed a quick lunch at the hotel restaurant and crushed a bottle of wine, that is ended up drinking most of, and set out exploring the town. There are many retail stores along the Main Street running through the downtown, including 3 or 4 shops proclaiming to sell authentic Valtilinese products. Naturally I had to check them all out. Nothing incredible to report back, although there was a lot of a long noodle pasta that was flavoured with blueberry stocked on all the stores' shelves.

After a bit of a caffeine boost we sniffed out the older part of the city; I have learned that this is usually the most interesting part of the city and tends to yield restaurants that cook food typical of that particular region.

The food in Tirano is significantly better than that in Banff. For dinner we had an assortment of cheeses and cured meats from the region. A couple of e meats had a sort of "fridgy" taste to them, but aside from that everything was excellent - I had a grilled sausage and veg and Lynn, cotoletta with veg. The sausage was packed with flavour and ha ska nice tang to it which was pleasantly foiled by the copious amount of butter used to sautéed what I was hoping would be a healthy side. To say Lynn's cotoletta (Italian schnitzel) was big would be an understatement, as it took up her whole plate. It was scrumptiously crispy despite slightly burnt bottom, and was incredibly moist on the inside. Though I mused about dessert, it was probably for the best that we forwent it.

Yesterday we pretty much just puttered around town and pick up some stuff for lunch on the train as we were anticipating prohibitively expensive prices. We also stopped in to a little Osteria to check out the menu, at which point there as no one there(not a good sign),  ran a few more errands and returned only to find the place packed to the gills, all speaking Italian (the best sign). We had grilled porchetta, which is pork belly, or bacon for those of you who are a tad squeamish, that is rolled with herbs, tied and roasted til the skin is crackly-crisp. It was magnificent, with a stupendous side of roasted potatoes. We also had spatzli, which seemed to be more common the further north we traveled and understandably so, as the area we were staying in borders Switzerland. the spatzli was served with a bacon and cream sauce and was also delicious.

Cheese Babies

To pick up where we last left off - Gabri and his cheese-babies. Each one was fawned over and checked on by him like a lactic baby. He was supremely crushed when they ended up turning out anything except exactly how he envisioned they should. Even if the cheese was a delicious accident he would throw up his arms in a dramatic fashion and declare it a failure. Emotions I can completely relate to.

Gabri was pretty much the most useful WWOOFer on the farm; I don't think anyone even really thought of him as a WWOOFer as he knew pretty much all facets of the farm and farming and was capable of repairing pretty much anything on the farm. He is also an incredibly kind person.

Which is probably why he wasn't with us the day we had to shovel through a metre of horse shit. Though this may sound gross, it was not nearly as nasty as cleaning out the pigs' stall. Being tasked to take care of the animals and clean their stalls we came to appreciate some pretty odd stuff - such as the consistency and smell of a particular animals' shit. Pigs were the most vile, followed by the cows and tied for a very distant last the horses and goats. The little animals don't even count. We were also tasked with various minor construction/repair projects, which included the creation of a garden, fence repair and the beginnings of a mini greenhouse for herbs. Since I was terrified of shop class in junior high and have never done anything with a hammer but destroy things, it felt incredible to be creating something and actually doing repairs. (Granted I did smash my finger with the hammer hard enough to make it spurt a flowing geyser of blood).

Stefano and his partner Alice are both from the Bergamo area and both had past careers having to do with animals prior to starting the farm. Stefano was a vet and Alice, a dog trainer and breeder. Stefano also happened to be a very good cook, teaching me quite a bit about the. Bergamaschi kitchen and allowing me to help out on Sundays at lunch n their restaurant doing cheese plates. Did I mention how blindingly delicious the cheeses are?
Alice kept a much lower profile and we didn't really get to know her as well. We pretty much knew she has a pack of various dogs and had very strong opinions about food.

Our last day on the farm was a couple of days ago, and though we were sad to leave, it also feels nice to be on the road again, travelling and seeing some new towns and scenery. Afterall isn't travel about just that?

Ciao for now,

Matt & Lynn