'Oh-Oh, Ay-Ay!' Riding to an Italian Rhythm on the Transumanza

'On the twice-yearly journey to move grazing animals between summer and winter pastures, a writer finds a deep connection to an ancient tradition.

“Expect four days of sacrifices,” Carmelina Colantuono told me a week before I left New Jersey to travel with her family and their 300 podolica cows from Puglia, where the cattle pass the colder months, to their home in the Molise region of Italy. I was joining an eager band of cowboys, herders and pilgrims, some on horseback, some on foot, who wanted to experience her family’s 110-mile transumanza, the twice-yearly journey undertaken around the world to move grazing animals between winter and summer pastures.

In Italy the transumanza proceeds along tratturi, lanes etched into the land by herdsmen, cows and other livestock over two millenniums. As an unbroken link to the culture’s agricultural past, the network of tratturi — “Almost a silent grassy river / on the footsteps of the ancient fathers,” as the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio described them — has a unique emotional resonance for Italians.

A few stretches have been turned into roads, but elsewhere the routes remain as they’ve always been, wending through forests, across rivers and alongside planted fields. The tratturi exist outside any tourist itinerary, so the sacrifices for us modern journeyers, Carmelina explained, involve few options for comfortable sleeping, “and some days we can’t even manage to wash ourselves.”

On a sunny Wednesday morning in May I arrived at the family’s outpost in San Marco in Lamis, Puglia, at the foot of the Garganos mountains. Bright red poppies and gigantic, neatly rolled haystacks dotted the fields. A hawk circled slowly above. I was ready to sleep rough, skip showers and share in any other sacrifice required, the better to plug into the improvisational spirit of the transumanza.

Most farmers now transport livestock between summer and winter homes in vans, but there’s much to be gained from doing things the old-fashioned way, as the Colantuonos do. For one thing, the long journey at the cows’ pace is a salve to the spirit of the accompanying humans, a retreat from the mechanized pace of modern life, a chance to connect to both nature and the past — all while immersed in spectacular Italian scenery.

The transumanza practiced by the Colantuonos — Carmelina, her parents, three of her four brothers and two cousins — has developed a following as one that’s particularly authentic, having been passed down for five generations. Three documentary teams, two Italian and one from France, were shooting the trip, along with several photographers. The family had invited 25 or so others, including me.

Our ultimate destination, the Colantuono family’s farm in Molise, is in a town called Frosolone, known for its artisan knife-making tradition. Molise, the second least populated region of Italy, lies just below Abruzzo, in the Apennine Mountains of south-central Italy. The region’s stunning, rugged land has been relatively untouched by development. Here and there are well-preserved ruins of the Samnites, fierce adversaries of the Romans who for centuries remained proudly independent in their mountain stronghold. But with little industry and iffy transportation, the economy has long been stalled, and the human capital is continuously depleted by emigration. While so much of Italy groans under the weight of mass tourism, in Molise a little of the spillover would go a long way. . .

Then came lunch, served under a tent by Colantuono cousins and in-laws: an antipasto of salamis, bread and the flavorful cheese called caciocavallo made from the milk of the podolicas, followed by bowls of cavatelli with tomato and pork sauce, plates of roast veal, potatoes and salad, and chocolate cake, pastries and espresso. An array of locals was there to see us off. As dessert was served, lively music filled the tent, played on guitar, traditional horn and tambourine by three amateur musicians who’d be making the trip.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/16/travel/italy-puglia-molise-cattle-drive.html?