CHIAVARI, Italy – As a kid one of the
things that fascinated me about my father, who was born in Italy, was that he
had been a cowboy when he was in the army. I would listen to his stories of
riding out into the vast hinterlands of America’s west, rounding up wild horses
and turning those bucking broncos into serviceable animals the U.S. Calvary
could use.
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| The Butteri of the Maremma |
He would tell tales of how he learned
to stand up on the bare back of a galloping horse, like the Roman gladiators
did at spectacles held at the Coliseum for the Emperor. And he was proud
of being able to reach down and pick a handkerchief up from the ground while
his horse barreled along at top speed, a trick that required not only skill,
but a large amount of courage as well.
It was all true. He had the photos to
prove it. But it wasn’t until we went to Argentina and were invited to have
lunch at an estancia, outside of Buenos Aires, that I saw it for myself.
It happened quite by chance, my father had been talking about his experiences
in the Calvary, and the next thing I knew we were saddling up for a ride into
the countryside with our host and some of the gauchos.
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| Maremmana Cattle |
I watched as my father, who was in his
seventies, slipped his foot into the stirrup of one of the largest horses I’d
ever seen, take hold of the reins and levitate into the saddle as if gravity
had been suspended. He sat that horse like he had just saddled up the day
before instead of 40 years ago.
It wasn’t until I moved to Italy and
visited a cousin who lives in Lazio, near the border with Tuscany, that all the
cowboy stuff came together. His leg was in a cast, an injury sustained while
riding his horse and that was how I learned about the Italian cowboys of the
Maremma, the butteri. It was then that I realized that my father, city
boy that he was, had spent his early years around horses, and that explained
everything.
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| A Buttero's Life |
Unlike my cousin and
my father, the cowboys of the Maremma work with cows. Big cows, enormous cows
that weigh up to 2,500 lbs and have very large horns, and they do it on
horseback with only a long wooden stick with a hook on one end to help them.
There are not a lot of
butteri left in Italy, but then again there are not a lot of Maremmana cattle
either, only about 7,500 according to the last cattle census, although they are
making a comeback.
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| Not Your Everyday Kind of Cowboy |
Today, men, horses and cattle roam the
thousands of acres of recovered marshlands that run along the coast of Tuscany
and Lazio. Maremmana cattle are raised primarily for their meat, which is sold
in selected butcher shops in Tuscany. It is also on the menu in Tuscan
universities, but difficult to find anywhere else.
It is generally believed by the locals
that saving the cattle will also preserve the century-old traditions of the butteri
and increase related farm jobs. Others think it will promote tourism. One state
owned farm already offers tourists early morning horse rides with the butteri,
and will soon have the cowboys teaching riders how to knot the butteri’s
rope.
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| At the Merca |
The butteri still participate in many
local festivals including the Festival of Sant’Antonio Abate on January 17th
when animals are blessed and paraded in the center of Tarquinia, Tuscania,
Marta and Valentano, in Lazio. In April a rodeo, merca in Italian, is
held at the Roccaccia, not far from Tarquinia as well as in Blera and Monte
Romano in Lazio and Alberese in Tuscany. The Festival of Sant’Antonio Abate is
also celebrated in many other towns in Italy, primarily in rural areas.
Fascinating!!!!
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