Little Green Tracs

Pilgrim Preparations in Piestany

It has been almost a week since we arrived in Europe. We spent the first week visiting our 84 year old aunt in Piestany Slovakia, a small spa town about an hour east of Bratislava. In between social visits, we managed to take the train to nearby Trencin to visit the 1,000 year old castle, try out some of the local eateries and cafes, and coffee houses. Yesterday to end our stay we indulged in a mirror pool ( a natural sulphuric thermal mineral water with a temperature of 38 C) and mud bath ( another mineral water pool containing 30 cm thick layer of sulphuric mud of 40 C) in the Irma Spa, one of the many spa establishments in town. Obviously returning to Piestany after our walk in France for another spa treatment is something we should do too.

When we arrived last Tuesday the temperature was hitting the high 20s and along with some humidity and sun, it felt more like 30. But on Friday, the weather changed dramatically, and temperature dropped and we forced to sit outside bundled up to have dinner. Today we will be surprised if it gets over 15 degrees C. But it is still sunny which is a nice change from cloudy Victoria BC.

Piestany is where the west and east meet, where you are as likely to meet Germans alongside Russians, where busty well dressed Slovak & Czech women pass by Arabic women dressed in full burkas. Very little English is spoken here especially by the older folk, but many of the tourist sites usually have somebody that understands some English. More so, many of the younger people do speak English well including the young woman we met on the train heading into Piestany last Tuesday, who was enthralled by our travel stories and the fact we plan to walk through France.

Today we leave Piestany for Switzerland, taking a mid day train first to Vienna, and then later an over night train to Zurich, before finally taking one more train to Thun, arriving sometime before noon on Tuesday. We will spend a couple of nights in Thun visiting some more family before heading to Le Puy France on Thursday.

PS I said I would not be caught taking any photos with my iPad, but I relented. Please excuse the quality.

Slow Food's Salone del Gusto 2010 and The Presidia

Just wrapping up this past week was an important slow food festival - the eighth edition of the Salone del Gusto held this past week at the Lingotto Exhibition Centre in Torino, Italy.

Salone de Gusto is Slow Food's international food exposition that draws over 150,000 visitors every two years. The festival served as a showcase for Slow Food’s most important project in support of small-scale producers: the Presidia. Spread around the exhibition center and divided into geographic regions, were over 200 stands that displayed cheeses, cured meats, breads, sweets, vegetables, fruits, grains and honeys protected by Slow Food.

Small-scale food producers from all if Italy and throughout the world traveled to the event to share their foods, allowing visitors to discover and sample Slow Food Presidia products and cuisines from all over the world, attend some of the numerous Taste Workshops, participate in conferences and learn from chefs in the Theater of Taste program.

Highlights from the festival included the best products of each region in Italy, such as prosciutto from Umbria, beer from Piedmont, olive oil from Sicilia, and cheeses and wines from most every region. Each region hosted its own section of stands, as well as a restaurant where visitors could sit and eat a traditional meal.

The Salone del Gusto is one of the biggest food expos in Europe. 

The Slow Food Presidia is a perfect example of a model of agricultural based on quality that safeguards traditional knowledge and sustainability. Throughout the world, the Presidia bring producers together and give them the support they need to promote their product and access new markets.

The next festival will be held in 2012.

Ciao

        I wonder what Italians think about Fair Trade, Shade Grown, or Organic coffee as they take their daily morning espresso or cappuccino? (See Caffeine Curiosity).

        Well, I hope to find the answer to this question, first hand, and a lot of other questions and curiosities I have about Italian food and culture.

        I love Italian food.  In fact I love it so much that my husband and I will soon embark on an Italian cultural and culinary experience, at ground zero.  We will be challenging ourselves to the philosophy of little green tracs, by putting one foot in front of the other for about 1,000 kilometres from the Italian Alps to Rome.

        Over the course of the next few weeks I plan to share our experiences about my favourite “c” foods that are fond throughout Italy, like cheese, and some foods  which I have already written about (see previous blog entries on chocolate and coffee).  We also plan to experience as much of the local and regional and traditional foods unique to each region.      

        We will not only be travelling in harmony with nature as we walk from town to town or village to village, but we will be respecting and appreciating all the cultural and culinary sights, smells, sounds, and tastes of the foods unique to each region, absorbing the spiritual and religious history that surround us, while being conscience of the impact of our travels and how it might be preserved for local citizens and future green pilgrims.