When you can have an Italian lunch in a place like this (and yes, it was exactly like this) … you know you are on to something special.
With a group of Dutch ladies we first had an interesting tour of the extensive farm near Gubbio in Umbria. We were driven around in an old open army truck visiting the various animals reared in freedom on the land and the woody hills. We stopped at length in the stables with the young pigs, so very cute!
The moment the little ones are ready, they are allowed outside and will walk around where they want. The bigger pigs were mostly baking in the sunshine, apparently enjoying themselves and totally relaxed. As you can see from the pictures below, one piglet (the one with the stripes) looks like the combination of a ‘cinta senese’ pig and a wild boar. Clearly some interbreeding has occurred and this is very likely because the animals are all outside.
The cinta senese pig has had a real come back. Several years ago you never saw it anywhere because they make few piglets and produce a lot of fat. Their meat is of higher quality though and that is the reason they are now again being bred. You can recongnise them because they are dark with a whitish ring around their belly. The cinta senese is the traditional pig in the centre of Italy (cinta is belt and senese means ‘from Siena’).
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