A HIGHLAND cow born in Italy has had a Scottish birthday party – complete with a piper.
Calf Gino was born on November 28 in a community garden in the city of Turin, the home of Juventus football club and car company Fiat.
Staff at Orti Generali celebrated the birth of the coo with a Scottish-themed party, with staff dressed in kilts, Highland cow cakes, whisky tiramisu, Highland dancing and bagpipe tunes.
Orti Generali bought two Highland cows in September, Tina and Baboo, with Gino born just weeks later. The trio now graze in the garden, which was once waste land. The organisation took over the abandoned land, which was strewn with litter and debris, and transformed it into a citizen-led garden project.
Its 160 vegetable gardens are cultivated by the local community, with a kiosk selling vegetarian and vegan products grown on the land, and a farm.
Highland cows are well-adapted to cold and foggy winters, and their ability to graze on grass and weeds helps keep the small park in order.
Stefano Olivari, founder of Orti Generali, said: “They become a public resource. The grazing animals carry out by themselves and by their nature what would be an expensive public service.”
Gino was named in a public vote. People were asked to choose between Gino, for Turin-born First World War hero Gino Lisa, Scottino to evoke Scotland or William after William Wallace.
He was officially named at the party on Thursday. A piper to welcome the guests was followed by a Caledonian-themed lunch.
The party wrapped up with traditional Highland dancing thanks to local group Clivis Torino, which has been operating in Turin for the past 30 years.
Francesco Tresso, green spaces councillor for Turin, said: “Things like Orti Generali represent for the city an example of virtuous planning, which permit us to maintain and explore new forms of urban agriculture in a renewed vision of the city fabric in context of the fact that by 2050, cities will house 70 per cent of the world’s population.
“Forms of eco-pasture are already present in other green areas of the city and ... the birth of the new calf is a great sign that we can consolidate this direction.”
