Capre Chindemi

If there were a reality show named, "So you think you're hardcore?" Capre Chindemi just might win.  Gaia and Matteo don't go for days without food and water like some "reality" television show hosts, but they do have a helicopter bring them their provisions.  Because there are no roads to Capre Chindemi, and when it pours like today, they don't question whether they really want to hike down the Piedmont mountain slope on which they're perched, they just do it.

Capre Chindemi is located an hour's hike straight up a mountain from Cinzago in northern Italy.  From their home the view is a spectacular southeastern panorama of Lago Maggiore and the city of Cannobio.  Sets of binoculars sit on their table to spy on the streets and rooftops below, but the majority of every day of every year is dedicated to their herd of 50 goats and the cheese they make from their goats' milk.

Along with the herd of ladies, this couple lives with their two daughters, one of whom is away on a beach vacation with grandma, the other here, playing on her own, talks to me in Italian.  The only words I can respond to her are, "Nonno capito!"  But undeterred, she simply repeats herself, only louder.

The family also tends three rustic cows, thick-ankled for moving about on the precarious pastures, two pigs that recycle the kitchen scraps and whey and that will provide food in the winter, and two dogs, one of which enjoys pouncing on and barking wildly at rocks.  At first I thought she was hounding out moles, but I was informed that this dog, Blanca, is just crazy.  I have never before said that an experience was too hardcore for me, but this is, well... more impressive than any lifestyle I've seen before.