Re: Anyone else here from Italy, or am I the only one?

Posted by Dan on July 28, 2002 at 12:58:22 from (66.25.38.146):

In Reply to: Anyone else here from Italy, or am I the only one? posted by Graham 'Roberto' Lane on July 26, 2002 at 10:31:06:

Just got back from my first trip to Italy, and we loved it. I was surprised to see the number of small farms and the way that they were well kept. We went from Rome to Milan to Zurich to Paris, and I saw a great number of fields where grain had been harvested, and the straw had been round-baled. What is the round bales of straw used for?
I also saw quite a bit of hay, but almost no cattle in Italy. Lots of sunflowers, wheat, corn, sorghum?, vineyards and olive groves, very few vegetables. I expected to see a lot of tomatos.
What few tractors I saw from the train looked to be fairly new and good sized. Farms looked fairly prosperous, I guess that's an indication of the European farm subsidies we keep hearing about.
Farms in Switzerland looked picture perfect (in keeping with everything else in the country), farms in France tended to be not as well kept, but bigger. Saw quite a bit of cattle in Switzerland and France, along with sheep and goats.
Most farms were well kept, fence lines were clean and very little junk machinery or cars sitting around. No trailer houses at all! Most small towns had fields practically in town, it was funny to see small apartment buildings backing up to grain fields.
Farms looked fairly prosperous, I guess that's an indication of the European farm subsidies we keep hearing about. Considering how many small farms & farmers there are, no wonder the politicians pay a lot of attention to them.
Was surprised to note that you could see a lot of farmland from the top of the Eiffel Tower.
Kind of makes you embarrassed over how land prices and taxes have killed farming here in the U.S. close to our big cities, and the overall level of upkeep here falls way short of what I saw there. I suspect that there is a lot of zoning or land use restrictions in Europe that enables the small farms to survive.
Graham, we'd enjoy whatever observations you care to share.
ciao

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• Re: Re: Anyone else here from Italy, or am I the only one? Bill 13:30:31 07/31/02 (0)

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