Cinta Sinese (aka "Prosciutto") Tour

The next morning was one for enjoying and exploring some of the cool things about Spannocchia: we were going on the Cinta Sinese Tour! (or as T likes to call it, the Prosciutto Tour!) :)

We met in front of the Fattoria and got to talk to Carrie, our tour guide for a bit while we waited for the rest of the group. We were the only ones on the tour staying at Spannocchia- the rest were a family staying in Sovicille, the next town over.

This family, it turns out, were also Americans, and they were in Tuscany celebrating the grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary! Grandma and Grandpa had done more travelling- they went to Turkey first- and the rest of the family flew here from all over the US to celebrate and have a vacation together! They seemed to be having a great time, and they reminded me of our family, only instead of having their family reunion/get-togethers with a picnic at Nana's, they traveled together! The kids were in the 6-16ish range, but the teenagers stayed back at their villa and slept in- they didn't want to be bothered with a dorky "pig tour!" :)

Anyway, with all of us now being scattered across the country, it made me wonder what our family reunions are going to be like in the future, as these first little ones grow up and are joined by more cousins! We're already travelling all over the country for each others' weddings, so who knows? Family, don't laugh- you never know! ;)

-:-:-:-:-:-

So the first thing we did once the tour started was meet the pigs.



The pigs raised at Spannocchia are of an heirloom breed called Cinta Sinese. Cinta means band, or ribbon, and Sinese means Sienese. So suddenly the name of the tour made sense: we get to meet the pigs who are named after their region and their distinctive stripe around their middle!



In keeping with the sustainable goals of Spannocchia, the livestock here is all of heirloom breeds. Historically, domesticated animals were very local- they were bred and raised over the centuries with traits that worked well in that particular region.



With the industrialization of agriculture we are losing many of these breeds, as farmers focus their efforts on the standardized, "higher yielding" breeds, just as they are with varieties of apples, tomatoes and anything else you can think of. This is a huge loss, from ecological, cultural and gastronomical standpoints.



Spannocchia is one of the places where great efforts are being made to preserve the heritage of these Cinta Sinese pigs, along with the other animals and crops raised and grown here. (SO cool!) They breed the pigs as carefully as any thoroughbred dog- or horse- raiser does: watching for the trademark traits, and maintaining a strong line of these animals.



Cinta Sinese pigs are very much associated with this region. There is a 14th century fresco by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in Siena's Palazzo Pubblico, or town hall, of "Allegory of Good Government" and "Allegory of Bad Government." (yes, I had to look this up!) On the "Good Government" side, along with the happy and industrious people are Cinta Sinese pigs! The fact these pigs are depicted is indicative of their place in the local heritage.



...so now you've gotten to meet the pigs, too! :)

We walked further up the hill, to meet the piglets, and learn how they are fed.



Here's another one of the dry-laid stone retaining walls I was telling you about in the last post. Also, note where I am in relation to the group. Unless I do a good job editing my pictures, you'll notice that most of them are from this perspective- I'm too busy taking far too many pictures to keep up with the group! (thanks for putting up with your shutterbug friend, AM and T!) :)

This is one of the fields where the pigs hang out.



They weren't anywhere to be found. It was getting to be a hot day already, and Carrie thought they had probably found some cool spots in the shade at the edge of the field. So she taught the kids how to call them:

Maiale! To! To! To!

No pigs. The kids thought it was pretty cool, though, and kept calling, in time to the stick they were banging on the ground as they walked, and in a sing-songy kid-sort of way. (Yeah. They SO easily could have been Bren and Aud!) :)

We got to meet two of the interns who were preparing the food for the pigs- Cinta Sinese pigs get to eat farro, too! Then we continued on to meet the piglets...

...but they went squeeeeaaaaling away as soon as they saw us coming! Oh well. :(



But we enjoyed some fresh-off-the-tree cherry plums on our way back down the hill!





Next we got to see where the meats are prepared, cured and stored. This all happens in the ivy-covered building on the left.



Here are the legs, curing into prosciutto!



Finally, we all sat down around the dining room table for a salumi tasting!



Salumi is a collective word meaning cured meats. Prosciutto is a type of salumi, as is salame. We had five different salumi on our plates, which we tasted, clockwise from the really white one at the 5:00 position around to the dark reddish one at 3:00: lardo, pancetta, prosciutto, capicolla, soppressata. (Thanks, AM, for remembering what they all were!) They were really yummy! We tasted all of these meats along with Tuscan bread, olive oil and white wine; the entire meal was made, start to finish, at Spannocchia!

It was pointed out to us that Tuscan bread has no salt in it. The meats are salty and fatty, and the local wine is very acidic, which cuts the fat. In that way, these three foods work very well together!

It was a fun and tasty start to our day! :)

Oh, and our run-in of sorts with the pigs the day before? They were Cinta Sinese pigs, hanging out on another part of the estate! Now we know. :)

Spannocchia

After so much travelling and exploring in the first two days, we decided that we needed a day to just unwind, get over our jetlag, and explore this awesome place where we were staying!

I got up early to take a tai chi class on the front lawn. I'd never done tai chi before, but since they offered it for beginners, I thought I'd sign up. I was joined by three of the women in the printmaking studio, and we all did all kinds of stretches and exercises, and learned all kinds of neat things like how to walk silently on gravel like cats. It was such a great place to wake up with these movements!

Afterwards I went back and took a short nap, then joined AM and T in starting the day.

Ooh, I don't think I've posted pictures of our farmhouse yet!

Here's my room:

This ladder leads up to a loft, which we never really used, but I could imagine if we were here in cooler weather, this would be an awesome place to sleep!



AM and T shared the other room.

Here's the kitchen:


...complete with AM making coffee and me scrolling through my billions of photos so far!

It's got a fantastic marble sink, with a wooden drying rack/storage rack above it. This seems like such an intelligent way to do things: any water dripping off the dishes go right back into the sink, but they're not taking up counterspace in the meantime. (something I should think about for future NYC apts, especially someday when I have a say in their design!)





Check out this marble! I'm guessing it's local, maybe even from the property itself. The entrance to the Spannocchia estate is right across the street from a marble quarry. Randall (who you'll meet in a later post) mentioned that they quarry yellow marble, with questionable legality. I'll explain all this later.

The kitchen table is marble, too, but of a different variety.

...along with some of our breakfast preparation one morning. Mmmm! I loved all the fresh ingredients! The bread, honey, onions and eggs in this photo were all baked/harvested/collected here at Spannocchia!

Here's the fireplace on the opposite side of the kitchen...



...and here's our collective stack of travel books on the hearth! (really, with AM, T and me, would you expect anything less?) :)



The ceilings were all open to the rafters with clay ceiling tiles. Reminded me of Yin Yu Tang!



I don't have any pictures of the bathroom or the little dining nook right before it. The dining nook, like the loft, would be great in cooler weather, but with the three of us and such fantastic weather, we didn't use it at all.

The bathroom had the typical European bathtub, with a loose shower head. I still don't understand how those are supposed to be used without getting water all over the place! Fortunately, we had a shower curtain! :)

Anyway, this was our home for the week. Pretty cool!



We did a bit of cooking, and used up some of the fresh veggies we had in our basket. We made a fantastic farro salad for lunch, which we ate out on the terrace. Farro is a grain, an ancestor of our wheat today. Apparently the Romans ate it, and it is said that much of their strength came from eating farro. So I guess it's pretty nutritious. It was very tasty, and had a nutty flavor and consistency.



Also note the water glasses- this is something T taught AM and me: a slice of cucumber in a glass of water makes it taste more crisp and refreshing!

AM and I took a walk around the property- it was such a nice day for it, and there's so much there! So we started down the looong drive we drove up to get here to begin with. It was all wooded, and reminded me a lot of taking a walk down the camp road towards Pathfinder Lodge, only drier and dustier.

We got to a point where the drive continued down the hill to the right, but to the left there looked like there was some stuff worth seeing: a vineyard and a farmhouse to the right (ooh, look at the baby grapes!),



a fantastic view across the rolling hills to the left,



and more woods straight ahead. From here we could also get a great view back up to the main villa complex.



Ok, really that was zooming in. Here's what is looked like with the other farmhouse in the foreground - don't know what I did to get such a dark exposure in this shot! Oh well. :\



And here's another fig tree!



...yes, that is within the context of this story- the fig tree was along our walk at this point!

The stone walls you see in these pictures were kind of neat- sometimes they acted as retaining walls, so we had stuff growing up above our heads. How often do you get this perspective on wildflowers? :)



Further on down the path, we came along another farmhouse, and then, well after we had gotten into the wooded part again another.



We were starting to get a sense of how the land was settled around here, but didn't quite understand why, or if these farmhouses are/ever were/used to be/have always been part of Spannocchia. This was all explained to us later.

So we continued on, chatting all the way, and at some point we noticed a really low, as in maybe knee-high, electric fence. It seemed kind of strange- maybe this is the edge of the property or something?

So we kept walking.

Then, at some point, we started to hear this low-pitched grunting/snorting sound. We looked around to figure out where it was coming from... sounded like pigs! Then we saw them, not too far off in the distance! They were pigs, rooting around in the dirt under the trees! Were they wild? Were they domestic? We weren't really sure. Suddenly that little electric fence seemed REALLY small, and those pigs looked REALLY big! So we decided to turn around here, before they saw us! It kind of felt like we were on the island from "Lost", and we really didn't want to be chased by wild boars!

I think that was about the excitement for the day! We went back, hung out with T, who was feeling better at that point, played some cards- Hell and Wordthief - and just enjoyed the rest of the day!

Oh! And AM got a driving lesson in our cute little rental car! (I think I can say that, now that it has long since been returned in one piece, and we've paid for it and everything!) :)



Go AM!!!