Donkey Milk

I originally conceived this blog as a clear, straight-forward guide to claiming Italian citizenship jure sanginis. I was inspired by Michael Santulli, from whom I first learned of the possibility of jure sanginis. His blog is a calm, detailed description of a logical process–claiming jure sanguinis through his Italian grandmother at his U.S. consulate. So I started the blog, and it ran away with me. Now here I am in Italy, but I find that my account is neither calm nor especially logical. At least I believe I can claim to be detailed.

And if sometimes I stray from my stated topic, it’s only to remind us why, after all, we wanted to move to Italy in the first place. I am continually amazed by Bella Italia, and by the people who live here. For instance, yesterday evening, Angela, the reporter who wrote the article about us in the local newspaper, drove us up a little ways into the mountains to meet her horse. He’s a tall, black, beautiful 2-year-old Friesian. She chose black because she has fewer allergies to black-haired animals. I should remember that. Axa and I have had some nasty allergies out here in the country this summer.

She boards her horse at an agriturismo whose focus is donkeys. The owner, Danielle, informed me that they had difficulty making a living when they started out, because they focused on donkey milk. Donkey milk. I can only imagine milking a donkey. I thought goat’s milk was exotic. What will we find next? Cat’s milk? Supposedly, donkey milk is more like human milk than even goat’s milk. It has no casein, which is the main allergen in cow’s milk. Danielle says donkey milk tastes like almonds. We’ll have to go back to taste it in a few months.

What do you think?