Ciao! My name is Kelly Ewing and I am a senior at the University of Oklahoma. The state I was born in was Virginia, but I grew up in Edmond, Oklahoma. I am studying Early Childhood Education and I have a minor in International Studies. My passion is to work with children overseas. Currently, I have been investing these past 4 years in Kenya, Africa where I have travelled to 5 different times. In Kenya I volunteer my time with a local NGO from Oklahoma. Besides working with children and primary schools in Kenya, I have volunteered in an after-school program in a local slum near Pune, India. It is my desire to teach abroad and that is how I ended up with this program in Italy. My goal is to experience different cultures, observe various schools and teaching approaches across the globe, and learn about the global community. Traveling to Italy with OU's College of Education was the perfect opportunity for me!
TUSCANY'S WILD BOARS
Here in the Tuscany region, there are many wild boars. There are so many wild boars, or cinghiales, in this region that the boar has become a local emblem and an national dish. Wild boar meat is very popular in the Tuscan region. This dish is called the Pappardelle Cinghiale.
(Pappardelle pasta)
Although there are many cinghiales in the Tuscan region, they will not be found roaming Arezzo's streets. These wild boars are most commonly found along Tuscany's countryside and at dusk. Where you can find wild boars in Arezzo are within the tourists shops. There many stuffed animals, postcards, magnets, pens, paintings, etc. with wild boars represented on them. Hunting wild boar in the Tuscan region is a very common hobby and passion for Italian's. Although it varies from year to year, the season for hunting wild boar spans from September to January or February.
In Florence, Italy there is a bronze statue of a wild boar done by the artist Pietro Tacca (1577 - 1640). This statue is called the Porcellino, or piglet, and it has become a tourist attraction. Visitors to Porcellino will place a coin inside the boar's jaws and rub it's snout for good luck. Because of this tradition, the snout of the boar is constantly being polished and shined. You can see in the image above that the pig's snout is gold while the rest of the color on it's body has become dull. So, if you are ever visiting Florence you now know you will need to stop by the Porcellino statue and rub it's snout for good fortune!
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What a great post, Kelly! And it's fun to see you all using a blog to share your experiences in Italy. I teach at OU (online), and am a fan of anything to do with student blogging. Dr. Terri shared the link to this blog at Twitter, and I subscribed.
ReplyDeleteI was especially excited to see your post about the cinghiale since that is such a great mythological topic (I teach mythology). Do you know about the great tradition of the Boar avatar of Vishnu in India? You may have run across that in your studies in India! The word for boar in Sanskrit is Varaha, and you can read about Vishnu's Varaha avatar and also see some great illustrations at Wikipedia: Varaha.
Thanks again for your post, and enjoy Italy! Divertiti in ogni momento!