On Your Bikes!

EXCLUSIVE – Yesterday was the second day in the month-long bike and boat journey down the River Po undertaken by 180 students from the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Viaggio nel Po (Journey along the Po), a pioneering Italian TV documentary in which the famous film director and novelist Mario Soldati traveled down the river ‘in search of genuine foods’,

After setting out from the source of the river on the slopes of Monviso on Wednesday, yesterday morningthe party made its way through heavy rain to the village of Staffarda to attend lectures by Professors Pier Carlo Grimaldi and Ambrogio Ardoni on oral and written traditions and anthropology in the Cistercian Abbey of Santa Maria.

15 kilometers further on, they stopped for lunch in the small town of Moretta before traveling another 13.2 kilometers to Racconigi, where they were greeted by the town councilors and listened to a brief talk on the royal farms of Pollenzo and Racconigi by Mirella Macèra, local representative of the Italian Ministry for Culture and the Environment, and her colleague Mario Monasterolo.

A group of students from the university’s Slow Food convivium are broadcasting the journey by Web TV, interspersing live coverage with interviews and clips from previous activities, such as the Cheese 2007 event which was held in Bra, headquarters of the Slow Food movement, last week.

For Web TV and updates from the students:

http://condotta.studentiunisg.it/

To contact the convivium:

[email protected]

Photo: the Abbey of Staffarda