Tuscany

Today was an adventure. I did some research on riding in tuscany and I found a little farm named la Fattoria il Poeta located about 30 miles from Florence. So this morning I hopped on a train and arrived in a little town at the bottom of a very large hill in hopes of finding "la fattoria," and Antonetta, a woman I had talked with about going horseback riding. After wandering the dangerously small streets I was found by a kind man in a truck who had spied me from the farm and descended the hill to help me find my way up.

Once I arrived I was greeted by Antonetta, her daughter, Monica and many of their animals.

After a cold glass of water I ascended the hill farther with Antonetta to meet Linda, the lovely brown horse pictured above. Anotonetta explained that Linda is a Bardigianos, a breed of horse that originated in Italy to navigate the steep and rocky hills. I couldn't believe that I was actually in Tuscany with two women who only spoke Italian and a horse whose ancestors were created for the sole purpose of exploring this countryside. Thus we saddled up and began our climb into the bountiful tuscan countryside.

We rode for over two hours without seeing anyone else except one lone farmer loading his truck. However at the top of these steep hills we encountered many little areas housing cows, sheep, olive trees, fig trees and vineyards. The hills were quiet and peaceful yet there were obvious signs of the farmers that lived and worked on them. It was an example of how different farming can be from the factory farms located in the United States. I don't know if all of Italy is free of factory farming, but I know that the farms I saw on this trip were examples of how farmers can have symbiotic relationships with their surroundings.