Ballando in the Alps

This past week has been full of festivals and parties: wine, food/drink, dancing, singing, and overall great fun. On Sunday was the Passagiando de Murrazzano, a walking tour through my town to checkpoints that coincided with different courses and foods of a "typical Langhe" meal. There were 12 different stops, and our station served segundi and contorni: 2,000+ arrosticini de pecore (sort of like a sheep kabob...) and ensalada. My job, along with Marco (a friend of Mario and Isa's) and my Theta friend, Lauren, was to chop lots and lots of tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions to keep the salad going. All the ingredients were fresh out of our garden, and we were able to feed 750 or more people with what we had (the garden still has a lot more coming). It was a lot of fun, especially seeing the little cheerleading squad perform a routine. Absolutely hilarious. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from this festival because I left my camera at home. Perhaps one of the other wwoofers will donate some for me to post later on.

The Allegre Pastorelli, the group of shepherds that we belong to, hosted the next major party in Murrazzano: una cena d'Allevatore (roughly translating to "the dinner of the breeders"). Think sheep. For about 80 people, we served a big dinner in a covered piazza: antipasti of crema di formaggio (a very good creamy sheep cheese), junca (a fresh sheep cheese), sheep salami, and sheep liver pate; primo of pasta with sheep ragu; segundo of arrosticini of sheep and ensalada de pomodori; lots of aged sheep cheese; dolce of gelato alla crema e cioccolato made with sheep milk served along with a sheep-ricotta dessert; caffe; grappa and vino from a local vineyard; and pane made by one of the allegre pastorelli. A delicious success!

Fabrizio and Giovanna preparing antipasti for la cena.

The next day, the sheep festival continued in Murrazzano with a sheep show (yes, we washed our sheep to make them pretty...and this took Isa and I ALL DAY. It is not as easy as it sounds). We didn't win any prizes, but a few allegre pastorelli did. There was also a market and a lunch for the people who organized the cena d'allevatore. Not as good as the food we eat here, but still a nice get-together.

A newborn lamb at the sheep show.

Two other allegre pastorelli (Marco and Serena) with their trophies and sheep.

A succulent plant stand at the market

A bread and pasta stand at the Market. Alessandro is the Allegre Pastorello waving in the background.

Finally, this past Sunday Mario, Isa, and I ventured westward toward the French/Italian border in the Alps for a HUGE Occitano celebration(I don't know the english equivalent...something like Occitan? It's the culture and ex-country of south France, North Spain, and NorthWest Italy). We arrived on foot to reach a small town called Becceto, where the party had been going on nonstop since Friday. Traditional Occitan music, dancing, food, and overall revelry made it an absolute blast. Plus, I didn't realize how gorgeous this area of Italy actually is. Simply breathtaking! And the architecture is really different too: hand laid stone houses with wood trimmings and stone slab roofs. Although I didn't know the dances in the first place, they were pretty easy to learn and I got the hang of them (more or less) pretty quickly. By the end of the day, I had danced with more than six different guys, who were eager to show off their moves and pride for Occitan culture.

A pretty field on our hike to Becceto.

Isa and Mario on the trail.

The fountain in the town square. Multi-purpose: water source and refrigerator for wine, refreshments, etc. Notice the large watermelon floating in the background.
Mario attempting to slice the large chunk of bread that I brought along for our picnic with a pocked knife.

Traditional House
Becceto
Occitan dancing