Final Blog Post with Dog Photos (Katherine)

One of the highlights of this course for me was tasting the connections between what we learned in class and what I ate. For example, we discussed the how the hilly or mountainous terrain in most of Italy dictated what crops and livestock were suitable to the different regions we visited. In Abruzzo, we visited a sheep farm in a hilly area that was suited to grazing. We ate sheep milk gelato made at that farm, and made our own sheep milk cheese. Actually making and tasting the food that has sustained the local population for centuries was fascinating, especially after reading how “one of the most consistent and widespread forces of environmental degradation in the ancient Mediterranean basin” was grazing and deforestation (Pan’s Travail reading, 77). From the sheep farmer, we learned that now, forest is overtaking meadows, because there is so much less grazing now than there was historically. This is one example of how Italy’s landscape has shaped culture on the peninsula, especially through food.

Another important facet of Italian culture I witnessed firsthand was regionality, the importance of local traditions in the context of a broader national culture. To me it seemed each town or city had its own traditional bread, wine, pasta shape, dessert, etc. At the meals I had bread (most of them), I noticed differences in taste, texture, and salt level between each kitchen. In fact, bread and grain have been not just pillars of culture, but pillars of society here for a very long time. The Romans treated bread as a matter of national security (Dinner in Rome reading, 26), then the Catholic church further cemented its importance by using bread ceremonially. As we discussed in class, of the many ways Catholicism has shaped Italian culture, ensuring the continued importance of bread, wine, and olive oil through rituals like communion is the throughline we tasted most often on this trip. Food is far from the only element of Italian cultural history I learned about over the past month, but I think it’s likely the one I will be remembering. Case in point, here is one lovely meal I had, and photos of some good livestock dogs who helped make my meals possible.