Piedmont, Lombardy, Liguria, Emilia Romagna and Toscana will be the destinations for a series of regional study trips that, from today until May 9, will see the participation of 61 students on the second year of the three-year undergraduate degree course — from Italy, Canada, Ghana, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, USA, Argentina, Malta, Brazil, Hungary, Mauritania and France — split up into nine different groups.
The trips will allow students to find out more about quality animal and vegetable food production, alternating meetings with producers, many of whom Slow Food presidium leaders, with tours of fields, companies and vineyards and food and wine tastings.
Some itineraries will take in the area of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, Modenese White Cow livestock farms, Parmigiano-Reggiano dairies and traditional vinegar cellars. In Lombardy a group of students will follow an educational course on biodynamics through the fields, gardens and orchards of farms in the region. Students visiting the Valtellina will visit companies involved in the Bitto cheese and Violino di capra cured meat Slow Food presidia and see how traditional Alpine cereals such as buckwheat, rye and barley are grown. Students visiting Milan will see urban redevelopment projects including restaurants with their own gardens and multifunctional farms.
In Piedmont students will discover how the gavi, timorasso, grignolino and barbera grapes are cultivated and vinified in the cellars round Alessandria, Asti and Tortona, while in the Mondovi area they will learn all about Dolcetto red wine, paste di meliga cornmeal biscuits, the maturing of local cheeses and fish farming in the waters of the River Pesio. The Roccaverano-Cossano Belbo-Cortemilia itinerary will focus not only on Robiola cheese, but also on hazelnut cultivation and processing and the local flour milling tradition. Rivers Vara and Aveto, in Liguria, will provide the backdrop for meetings with aromatic herb growers, mushroom gatherers and breeders from the native Cabannina Cow Presidium.