Why Wheels of Cheese Roll Through Streets of an Italian Town
Vocab level: B1
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Runaway cheese!
But the brightly colored people following are not trying to stop it.
They want to see just how far this pecorino can roll.
...
It's a game called Maiorchino,
and it goes back to the 17th century.
85-year-old Nino doesn't go back that far,
but he is the oldest living player in the town of Novara di Sicilia.
The game never changes. The game is always the same.
The players change, but the system is always the same.
The Maiorchino, the rope, and the rest.
Maiorchino was created after roads were built in the town to accommodate the paths necessary to roll a wheel of cheese.
The aim is to get it to roll the farthest down a 2 kilometer path without it veering off into an alley or a ditch.
It's a very important tradition because you don't lose the origins.
You don't lose the history.
With new people joining the game every year, it's a tradition that will hopefully roll on for many more generations.
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