The experience
Exclusive experience in the presence of a tour guide and expert Rice Sommelier dedicated to the discovery of this cereal and the ancient traditions that have made it a celebrity of Piedmontese gastronomy.
You will get to know what is hidden inside the “grange” and “cascine a corte chiusa”, the first farms dedicated to the cultivation and production of rice in the Po Valley and you will walk through the rice paddies, “the checkered sea”, with incredible plays of light between sun and water between Novara and Vercelli.
You will also have the opportunity to get closer to the figure of the mondina (from the verb to clean, to clean), an inseparable protagonist from the work in the rice fields of the past. His job was to stand for whole days with water up to his knees barefoot and with his back bent to remove weeds that grew in the rice fields and disturbed the growth of the rice seedlings. Also impactful were the social complaints about the working conditions to which the tireless workers were subjected. You may even discover that the women in your family were themselves mondine and be proud of the contribution they made to the lands dedicated to the cultivation of rice.
In the rice fields between Novara and Vercelli, in the 90s, in addition to the many varieties already present, the black rice Venere was also born.
Shortly
Tour
Casalbeltrame (NO)
Meeting at the rice farm in Casalbeltrame where we will begin the guided tour with the tour guide and Rice Sommelier to learn all the stages of the rice transformation process, including production in rice paddy, drying and aging. But there is also the production of flour: inside the company you can see the activity of the mill and the millstone.
The visit, closely connected to the farm, continues towards the nearby ‘L Civel Museum, an ethnographic museum of agricultural tools.
Don’t expect the classic ethnographic museum, but a museum with an engaging narrative about how the countryside was worked before mechanization and how rice cultivation has evolved to this day. A real journey through time, from season to season, discovering how the paddy lands change from winter, to spring, to summer, up to the harvest festival in autumn.
Lunch at a local restaurant with cooking show to learn about the many characteristics of rice and the most delicious combinations.
In the afternoon you will have the opportunity to visit a “closed courtyard farmhouse”, or “grange”, in San Pietro Mosezzo. A water mill has been recovered and activated here, which from 1600 until the second half of the 19th century was the only type of plant for cleaning rice. It is also possible to visit the old stables and the dormitory of the mondine.
Let us guide you on your journey to the Roots
Don't miss the opportunity to explore the places that have shaped your origins, request a tailor-made itinerary without obligation
