The Alpaca farm

Me looking at alpaca fur  Notice my sweater.

Happy alpacas

One of the great things about living in Umbria is visiting various artisans.  I think Umbria is still this magical place because it has nothing the modern world can exploit.  People do things the old way here and the old way still works.  This has drawn other people who want to preserve the old way and so the cycle continues.  Umbria has no natural resources except beauty.  There is farming, a lot of tobacco, but there is no oil, no mining no manufacturing.  The farms are all small and family owned.  Most of the grapes are grown for individual use or small boutique wineries.

This alpaca farm is up the way from us.  When the weather turned cold, I decided I needed a new sweater. We drove back into the hills and discovered this charming man and his farm.  He used to be an economist in Rome, and wanted to get out of the rat race.  In the 80's he bought this property and tried many different ways to make the land produce.  He eventually found alpacas and has been in love with the animals.  I must say they are very sweet.  THey are in the camel family, cousins to llamas but according to him are smarter and sweeter.  They seemed very sweet to me.

If ever you are in the Niccone valley, you should stop in and see them.
http://www.alpaca.it/it/intro.htm