HUNTERS

On the weekends, it’s not unusual to see groups of car parked alongside the road, at the edge of the woods. These cars belong to the hunters, who are out looking for the cinghiale, or wild boar. Italy is still very much a rural country, and Umbria especially so. When our friend Pino suggested we wander through the woods around S Venanzo in search of porcini, the wild mushrooms, my first thought was “I’m not going into the woods if there might be hunters there too.” I don’t think there’s much chance I could be mistaken for a deer, but if I’m on the ground digging for mushrooms, I could be mistaken for a wild boar!

The other night we kept hearing what we thought were gunshots. We couldn’t figure out what in the world they could be hunting for at night, or how they could possibly see to shoot at it. The mystery was cleared up the next morning when Art talked to the men working on the kitchen. They laughed and said, “No cacciatore” (hunter). Then they explained, as best we could understand, that the noise was caused by the bombola, or LP gas tanks, that were set up to go off every few minutes. This was to keep the cinghiale out of the olive groves, where they could do extensive damage while rooting for the porcini! We aren’t quite sure about how this works, but I will post the question on the SlowTalk message board and see what I can learn.