Chuck & Jeannie Blethen 2010
Slow Food USA/Asheville Convivium
First stop - Milano
.. And a few sightseeing stops like the Milano Cathedral
And on to
Arriving in Malpensa (Milano) Airport
We arrive at the Registration point in Torino
Registration line at Terra Madre
Opening ceremony
Artisans & craftsmen sell their wares on the floor
...and farmers display some of their bounty.
Grape Pommace Cheese
Grape Pommace Cheese?
Yes!!
Valle d'aosta Exhibit
Valle d'aosta Exhibit Just look at the presentation!
Sausages, oh, my!
Entrance to the Salone del Gusto
Seeds from other countries in the main hall
Porcetta Italian style
5000 attendees are served lunch all local and organically grown
Meeting Terra Madre Delegates from around the world
An old friend of David Kendall shows up Emil Underberg from Germany
Jeannie enjoys tasting the Italian-made Biodynamic wines
Everyone was asked to sign the poster about biodiversity
The large hall where the various sessions were held
Simultaneous translators in their booths beside the meetings
Volunteers hand out headphones for the simultaneous translations each session had to have separate headsets
Many Delegates were dressed in their traditional costumes
A map showing the breadth of Slow Food around the world
Tasting honey
Learning about the many varieties of apples
One of Slow Food s political campaigns is against GMOs
Another one of Slow Food s political campaigns is against land grabbing by large corporations
And another is against over-fishing by large corporations
Bus 24 s spontaneous dinner at the great hall before the closing ceremony
The closing ceremony at the end of Terra Madre 2010
Vandana Shiva was a featured speaker at Terra Madre 2010 she does not like Monsanto!
Slow Food Founder, Carlo Petrini
Dancing after the closing ceremony
Next stop for us was Valle d Aosta about 80 miles north of Torino
Here was the real Mountain Fire in the Italian Alps at sunset!
The Alps greet us on our first morning in the mountains
There are castles on every bend of the river that flows through the valley
All of the roofs are covered with 2 inch thick slate
Typical breakfast at La Vrille Bed & Breakfast
Chuck checking out the grapes growing on steep slopes in Valle d Aosta
One evening we have dinner with Barbara Swell s daughter, Annie de Bacco, and her husband Gianluca
A bird s eye view of the La Vrille B&B totally self-sustaining
One of La Vrille s steep slope vineyards
A co-op winery of eleven communities
We visit Gianluca Macchi, Executive Director of CERVIM, Centre for the Research, Study, Protection, Co-ordination and Advancement of Mountain Viticulture
Here we review a steep slope vineyard that has been terraced without retaining walls
Andreoli Engineering has designed a special crawler, the UT60 evo, for working on the steep slope vineyards of the Italian Alps
Here we visit the highest vineyard/ winery in Europe at 8029 feet above sea level. It is no problem to grow grapes in our mountain counties with a mere 2000-4000 feet of elevation!
Here we visit a chocolate and art market in downtown Aosta
All of these items are made of chocolate!
Our only souvenir from our trip a friendship bowl from Valle d Aosta
Next stop Valtellina, about 90 miles northeast of Milano
Isabella & Emanuele, owners of Ar PE PE Winery
Isabella talking with her vineyard harvesters on their steep slope vineyard
This steep slope vineyard requires a towing system with baskets similar to a ski lift to get the grapes to the winery via trucks waiting on the road above
Here you can see the baskets used to bring the grapes up to the waiting truck
Harvest baskets brought up the mountain from the vineyard on the ski lift are transferred to back-pack baskets for the final trek to the waiting truck
Here we visit a value-added market in downtown Sondrio. The man is showing us an antique bee hive
Grapes, apple orchards, and olive trees cover every available patch of land
Some of the vineyards growing on some of Valtellina s 2500 kilometers of hand built stone wall terraces
Vineyards and orchards reach up to the tree line
The Italians practice integrated, intensive farming fields of potatoes, vineyards and cows grazing along side each other.
Preparing to make Passito (special sweet wine) in the field
Departing Sondrio via train to Milano
Milano Central Station then by bus to Malpensa airport
Malpensa Airport our point of departure from Italy
JFK welcomes us back to the USA
Thank you Slow Food USA! Thank you Slow Food Asheville! Thank you to all of the members and volunteers who helped us raise the airfare in the Mountain Fire fund raiser event in Spring Creek!