"Pretty wild. Lots of green."

That is a direct quote from Marco, one of my school's interns, while on our way to the Abruzzo cheese farm. He was not wrong. The landscape was beautiful and I was surrounded by nature, nature, and more nature! It reminded me a lot of my old job, plus I got to learn some behind the scenes knowledge on one of my favorite food groups. If the waiting room of heaven is a wine cellar, then the place itself is full of cheese.

We were greeted right off the bus by the owner of the farm, who promised us a little snack before we began the tour. Already, I knew this guy understood what is important in life. (If you're still unsure, the answer is food.) While waiting for it to come out, he showed us the property's fig trees and just started picking them right off the branches and handing them to us. Now I could be wrong, but I'm not sure I knew true happiness until I got to gorge myself on unlimited figs.

have to reach high...

...to get the ripe ones

Mac is enjoying the "fruits" of her labor

so is Adrienne

a photo series entitled "A Fig Surprise" because this is a post full of puns

the snack before the tour was delicious

The first thing we saw was the barn, with the sheep and goats. We were waiting for the milk to be ready to be made into cheese, so we could witness this process.

as the sheep scamper away from my camera, this goat must have left his cares in his other trousers

photogenic cheese maker! as Mac so eloquently put, he was "milking it"

after the first round of cheese is in the forms, they heat the milk again and we get ricotta (literally means "recooked" in Italian)

we visited the sheep dogs' new puppies! soon they will be trained to keep the herd in line!

After the whole tour, we were herded into their restaurant for a cheese tasting and lunch. Mac later remarked that you really had to be quite adventurous because they had some funky cheeses. Perhaps I am just such a big fan of cheese that I don't think of eating it as an adventure, but closer to an average Saturday night. Although, truth be told, the dairy overload and the rest of lunch actually upset my stomach, but there was no way I wasn't going to get down on that much cheese!

despite its mean first bite, this spicy cheese was probably my favorite

two kinds of pasta, one featuring (you guessed it) cheese

an actual meat course! but by the time it came around, I was too full to eat more than a couple bites

Before we left for home, we toured the little village the farm was in. It was a shock compared to the big city we've been living in for the past three weeks. (Has it really been three weeks? Where has time gone?) It was cute, but I much prefer the hustle and bustle of Roma.

Mac checking out the local 'chiesa'

straight out of a postcard!

Al contadino non far sapere quanto è buono il formaggio con le pere, Italian proverb: Don't tell a peasant how well cheese goes with pears