Milk

I love mozzarella cheese. On my pizza, in my salad or just on its own. But I had never seen it being made. Until today! Because today, as part of a trip with farmers, we went to a buffalo-farm. I would do the translations, since the tourguide is quite a softspoken man and would not be able to get over the din of the factory. Besides, my Italian is just a tiny bit better than his!

As if the heat wasn't enough (I know, I know), we had to dress up in coats, shoey thingies and hats. Then we were ushered into an area where they were cooking the cheese, for lack of a better explanation, at ninety degrees Celsius (water boils at 100). Needless to say, every bit of water I hadn't lost during the night, was lost there.

It was very interesting to see though. I could touch the cheese when it was still warm and it was very elastic. It isn't until it has cooled down that it becomes the stringy cheese it is. After the cheesemaking we went to see the producers of the milk: the buffaloes! Apparently their milk is twice as good as cow's milk, twice the amount of good stuff in it. Besides, they only eat half the amount a cow would, live and produce longer and are generally better than cows. It makes you wonder why not all cattle farmers have converted! The milk however, tasted great, a bit sweeter than cow's milk, but very nice. I could drink that more often.

During the afternoon we took the inland route to Assisi. Basically it meant taking the mountain roads of the Apenines. Not too steep, but very very bendy and curvy. Beautiful scenery though. We had a bit of trouble finding the hotel, basically because my guide insisted the hotel was located closer to a church, when in fact it wasn't. It also involved the second hazardous drive of the day: driving backwards in a one-way street, then taking a very narrow turn with only inches to spare! The first time had been in the morning, when we (again because of the guide) had taken a wrong turn and had to drive through a very narrow street to get to where he wanted to go. The police gave us permission though, since turning the coach was no option!

Anyway, we arrived, the airconditioning is working, dinner was good, my mosquito bites are killing me and I'm off to bed!

Photos are not possible right now, sorry, I will post one soon...