Happy, happy pigs.

Today was super-busy and action packed, and I have to be up early tomorrow, so I'll try to let the pics do most of the talking.

This guy was impressive. A local special around Umbria is whole roasted pig stuffed with fennel, garlic, pig feet, and liver, slow roasted for 6 hours until it's juicy tender and surrounded by crispy delightful skin.

Above, he's sewing the stuffed pig to a metal rod which will be used to roast it at 150C. Just know that this guy had just deboned this whole pig in under five minutes. I'm interning there this weekend, so Florence will have to wait...

Then we visited a several-hundred year old olive oil prodecer, who took us through their processing area, museum, and gave us a tasting of their products.

Then off to an Orvieto D.O.C. winery. The guy above is a doctor... who happens to utilize his degree for wine production. I'll be interning with him later on too. (very excited about that)

Then lunch at a farm restauraunt. A bit rainy, but the countryside here is gourgeous.

They brought what seemed an endless array of bruchetta, above is salumi and procuitto on fried flatbread, and radiccio and cheese. More followed...

Then roasted chicken, sausage, and ribs. And salad, thank goodness!

Classic tiramisu! And of course, tons of table wines and espresso.

Then we went to "The Park of Monsters", which is really a crazy assembly of sculptures in the woods, in the middle of nowhere, built by a Prince in the 1500's as a token of affection for his beloved. Above, I'm standing in the "Gate to Hell".

Another crazy structure from the park.

Then we went to Chef Polegri's house for dinner. He gave his restaurant staff the day off, closed the restaurant (on a Friday!) to have them cook for us! His farm is awesome, olive groves, grapes, fruit trees... yum.

And the veiw from his backyard.

And his several-hundred year old farmhouse. Lucky guy, right?

And that's all for today. I have to get some sleep now!

Dolce dorme! Buena notte!