In order to arrive at Agritourism Doganella, we had to pass a driveway with large stone pine trees on both sides. Due to to trees’ shallow roots, it felt more like driving on a potato field than on a road. Anyway, it’s always a pleasure to pass under such lovely trees which almost formed a roof above the road. After about 200 metres we arrived at a bend leading between two houses where we could see a sign indicating how to arrive at the guesthouse. Next, we met the owners, Alvido Brillo and his wife. Alvido told us about the beginning of his life when his mother wasn’t able to nurse him, feeding him donkey’s milk instead since it’s quite close to human breast milk. History repeated itself recently when a niece of his was born prematurely and her mother wasn’t able to nurse her. Instead, Alvido brought milk from one of his goats to his little niece, who started growing normally. In fact, Alvido is breeding a small flock of goats consisting of six goats, one male goat and 5-6 kids. This contributes to show the passion Alvido feels for animals, which he has been breeding since he was a young boy.
For the last seven years, he has been raising goats which enriches the atmosphere of the agrotourism and his life, but earlier he worked only with sheep, keeping an enormous herd of 1000 sheep. He’s 77 years old and he has fond memories of spending 7 hours a day, 4 in the morning and 3 in the evening milking the sheep by hand. There were also three donkeys in a separate enclosure, one of which was only a few days old and which approached us in order to get caressed.
During his life, he has won numerous prizes and certificates of merit from local and national organisations for pastoralism and for participating at fairs.
Towards the evening, it was time to milk the goats. Then, Alvido put feed in a trough, next he let the goats enter and start eating by first passing their heads through a metal structure, which was attached to the trough. When all of them had entered, he locked the structure such that they had to stay put. Then, he milked them one by one, filling a kettle with milk. When he was finished, the goats were released.
Having a large supply of pumpkins, he divided a couple of them with an axe and gave them to the kids, while he fed the goats with fodder.
Afterwards, Alvido kindly invited us to enter their kitchen where he started making goat’s cheese from the fresh milk. He told us about his life as a shepherd and he showed us his prizes hanging in the living room. It was a great pleasure meeting Alvido and his wife Oriana, who is in charge of the guesthouse.
For those who are interested in archaeology, there is an Etruscan building on the property, open for being visited by all their guests.
