What page are you on?

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page"

- St. Augustine

A Vegan's Nightmare

Today I witnessed the slaughter of a huge pig. Only in Italy would I experience something like this. This morning Lina mentioned something about killing a pig and i could photograph it. I figured it was something they had hunted and killed and they were just going to cut it up. I go over my relatives house and am waiting inside. Pierluca tells me to come outside. I walk out the back door and there are four men and a giant live pig. One of the guys, Zio Michele(who i think is partly insane),is sharpening the knife blades. They have a wrope tide around the pig and around a pole with one man holding it tight. Antonio walks over to the pig and gives it a hard smack on its rear. The pig is squeeling as if it knew its fate. With one man holding the pig tight with the rope, Antonio puts the blade to the pigs throught. The pig is squeeling madly and begins to poop. This is insane! The pig is shaking and squeeling while blood spills out of his throught and then finally it dies. Next they shave all the hair of the pig and clean it off with hot water. They then hook it by it's legs and hang it upside down to draine the blood. Then it's a big slit right down the middle. One of the older guys, with a huge knife, cuts the head right off. Then they hang up the head and liver with a hook and start cleaning it out. I forgot to mention the whole time they did this with their bare hands! Two women started to clean off the guts and save the good parts. What a sight to see. And of course once they were finished we ate lunch. Pasta then some meat followed by steak, and then some more meat. Mama Mia!!! What a day! I photographed the whole thing except the sliting the throat part. Here I am getting the real italian experience, what tourist that goes to Italy gets to witness something like that?
Later they will make proscuitto with it and other meat things.

Ciao for now.

Part of the Family Tree: La Famiglia di Nonno Pasquale

My mother's father's family:
La Famiglia Gentile

Bisnonno Guisseppe & Bisnonna Catarina
(greatgrandfather) (greatgrandmother)

Zio Angelo
Zia Antonietta
Zia Rosina
Zia Lucia
Zia Grazia
Zio Raffaele
Zio Rocco
Zia Felicina
Nonno Pasquale

First Week

Italy is going great and I am having a blast. I have only been here a week and have seen so much and met so many relatives. Guardia Lombardi is such a beautiful town with so much history. Sunday I went with my mother's cousin Pietro and we went to to the cemetery were my greatgrandfather and greatgrandmother, then we went to see were the house was that my grandfather grew up in. I have been photographing every experience and have started to create a family tree. Everything about this place is amazing, the land and the people are beautiful. From where I am staying it is all hills and valleys and I can see for miles. Since I am shooting only film I will not be able to post any photos on my website, but look forward to getting to work on them when i get back, but that is not for awhile.
Ciao!

This is the blog where i will be wrighting about my experiences in Italia.