Roberta's story: at just 17 years old, she decided to live in the mountains and produce cheese

YOUNG AND ANCIENT TRADES –

Every day, more and more people decide to change their lives and careers, despite having a well-paid job and an established career. They reinvent themselves as farmers, from lawyers, engineers, or managers . This important choice highlights the need to escape the stress of daily life in the city and rediscover the beauty and serenity of a life in contact with nature. However, this choice isn't always limited to adults: there's also Roberta, a very young 17-year-old girl who decided she wanted to live in the mountains producing cheese.

ALSO READ: Returning to Cultivate the Land: Antonio's Story

ROBERTA'S STORY –

Roberta's genuine passion, as we read in La Stampa , began at the age of 15 when she decided to go to the mountain pastures to tend 200 cows. She stayed in the mountains for three months and has now decided that, in June, after the schools are out , she will move to a new mountain pasture in the Castelmagno mountains, this time with a herd of her own: her mother Floriana and father Beppe have bought her 20 goats.

Roberta is a cheerful girl who has always had clear ideas about her future: she was in fifth grade when she decided she wanted to learn how to make cheese . Three years ago, at a fair, she had a fortunate encounter with a girl from Savigliano, a town in the Cuneo plain, who, together with her parents, runs a farm with 200 cows.

Hence the decision to immerse herself in that land and in that work, which requires so much sacrifice but which she loves so much. It doesn't matter if in the mountains there's often no cell service and no internet: by 9 p.m., people are already so tired they go to sleep. Work begins at dawn in the morning, and milking is done by hand.

THE REDISCOVERY OF AGRICULTURE AND ANCIENT CRAFTS –

A young woman who goes against the grain and who, once again, reminds us of the need to re-evaluate ancient crafts and artisanal trades that can bring jobs and economic growth.

( Cover image source: La Stampa )

TO KNOW MORE: In San Floro, Calabria, a family garden for the protection and conservation of the land.