Albe in Malga - Malga Ritorto
Waking up bright and early when the sun is yet to rise. Meet the owners of an authentic mountain dairy, listen to their stories and go with them to milk the cows. Enjoy the fresh milk's flavor, attend to the traditional cheese making and, why not, taste the curd! Let's discover how do they make butter from cream. Go up to the pasture and learn how to distinguish the wild grasses' spouts. Start your day with cows and animals on the mountain dairy.
Saturday August 22 - Malga Ritorto, Madonna di Campiglio (dawn at 6.15 am)
5.40 am: meeting and departure in loc. Patascoss
It's still dark, the alarm clock rang early today! But it's what real farmers do. Their day begins way before dawn, there's much to do and many animals that needs care! Therefore, it's better not to wait too much and follow our guide from Parco Naturale Adamello Brenta who will bring us (in a half hour) to the mountain hut. Before entering the woods, let's take a glance at the Dolomites: the moon light allows us to distinguish its strong profile!
6.15 am : arrival at MalgaRitorto and meeting with the farmer
Now we're all well awakened! The crisp air of dawn and the intense scent of the woods took away the lethargy of the night. While we're getting closer to the mountain hut, an unmistakable sound reaches us: it's the singing of the rooster! It tells us that the day has really begun... and we are ready to live another farmers day
Francesco welcomes us with his usual good mood and tells us what to do: it's time for the cows to get back into the barn, we have to milk them! He knows them one by one, calls them with their names and he never makes mistakes! Now it's to us: we bring them to their places and ... it's our turn to milk them!
Lots of laughing... but also lots of learning! How much good milk are we collecting! After breakfast Francesco will explain to us the secrets of dairy. What does it mean? We'll soon discover !
7.15 am: breakfast!
Well, today we've really earned our breakfast! What a good smell! Milk, coffee, juices, home made desserts, fresh bread and cheeses!
8.15 am: how to work milk?
We had a good breakfast, let's go back to our day! We have to learn how to process the milk and produce cheese. It'll be a nice surprise to discover how the food we eat is prepared! In the meantime, walking aroung the farm, there's also geese, goats, ponies with creative names (Birillo, Sharon and Stella) and wonderful horses Alin,Sissi and Luna (Norici race). How fun it is to feed and pet them all!
9.30 am: wandering around the mountain hut
The cheese is prepared, the cows are grazing, goats and geeses had their food portion for today, horses are brushed... everything is done! We can go on with our day in the nature with a wonderful walk towards Patascoss! And who knows how much more will we discover with our guide!
10.00 am: What a satisfying day!
We got back to our starting point. Our farmers day has ended! We can get back home tired but happy of having learned so many new things and having took such a close view of a mountain hut
How to reach the meeting destination (loc. Patascoss)
From Madonna di Campiglio follow the mainroad towards Campo Carlo Magno and take the road on your left towards Piana di Nambino and loc. Patascoss.
