Alfianello

In 1883 the largest meteorite ever catalogued in Italy fell on Alfianello: nearly two hundredweight of stone come down from the sky, news that went round the scientific community of the day. Its fragments are now in the great museums of the world, and the family on whose land it landed still uses the word "bolide", fireball, on the labels of its dairy's products. On the first of July 2024 the village got something back: an asteroid was given its name, 20048 Alfianello.

The rest of the story lies lower down, in the mud. The land has always been marshy and never allowed intensive crops, but it is the natural habitat of the pig: swine have been raised here since the Celts arrived, and the rearing became real wealth under the monks, who channelled the water into two main beds and made the place one of the "Cluniac villages". From the Renaissance to the nineteenth century noble families kept rural palaces here with a piggery attached; from that unbroken chain comes the salame di Alfianello, a registered name. On the Oglio, meanwhile, the remains of a pile-dwelling settlement akin to the Remedello culture have come to light, with pots bearing Etruscan inscriptions and a rudimentary plough, and on the river bed, in the great droughts, at least two boats have been glimpsed that nobody has ever dated.