Yesterday, we made the most of the end of our spell of good weather, and went up to the village of Sillico to do the Metato Walk. Metatos are the chestnut drying kilns. This time, we spotted two which were actively smoking - a record for us, but still a shadow of former days. There were chestnuts everywhere, and we saw a mechanised harvester as well as several people doing it the old way.
Fungi abounded, but we saw no Boletus - the porcini mushrooms so prized in Italy. However, we met some fungus-hunters who had had more success ...
(fungus photos to come ...)
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| Hidden treasure, the chestnuts nestling in their prickly coat |
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| Lunch on a chestnut table in front of a metato being used as a shed |
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| In a timeless scene, smoke coils up from an active metato |
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| The smoky scene within ... |
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| The chestnut hoover - the noisy modern way of harvesting ... |
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| ... and the old tranquil way - two gatherers wend their way home |
you are surely amongst the very few people in Barga who have seen the metati in function...I, for one, I have never seen them!
ReplyDeleteYes, I suppose so! The woods - and Sillico itself - were looking great. The villagers are cock-a-hoop about getting rid of that horrible building! It's SO much better now ...
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