Po Valley Story

Well, part of me wanted to leap up, turn around excitedly, and launch right in: “This is the wonderful enchanted land of Italian rice. We’re passing through its heart right now. Rice has been cultivated here since before 1475. It was probably first brought here from Spain, where it had previously been introduced by the Arabs. Until only recently the fields were planted and harvested by hand; the montadini, or casual laborers from the hills who came in to do that work, led terribly hard lives, immortalized in the 1954 film classic Bitter Rice. The fields are still hand-weeded, still home to frogs and to egrets and other birds, still alive with the gurgle of water.” But I didn’t say anything. Outside the sky looked incredibly big, and the roads and dikes tiny in comparison. It was a calm landscape, timeless.