Sheep on the road in Abruzzo

Things are quiet here on the hill so I'm going to show you a few more images from our recent trip to Abruzzo.  It's an agricultural state, as you can see by this view across the hills.

It's also home to many flocks of sheep, which we would see on the hills as we drove around.  But just before we left we were treated to a close-up view of a flock.  Turning a corner on the road back to Valle this is what we saw ahead of us: two modern-day shepherds and their trusty black sheep dog driving a flock along the road.    

The man as the back has a long stick that he uses to taps the sheep to keep them going forward and the black dog runs back and forth at the rear of the flock to round up stragglers.

He has his job cut out for him as there are a lot of baby sheep wandering off each side of the road.  Below you can see that he has two large white dogs to help.  They are the guardian dogs though (looking remarkably like sheep when they walk with the herd) and they don't drive the sheep forward.

I was so excited that I got out of the car and ran up to the back of the flock.  After a while it was apparent that they were simply going to continue along the road.  We could see a car from the other side slowly driving through and the sheep simply moved aside to let it through.  

Finally we got our nerve up to creep along beside the sheep, getting a good look at the sweet little lambkins and their rougher coated ewes.   

This woman is just watching the passing parade.  It's all part of the country experience in Abruzzo, Italy.