For many centuries, the pig has been considered a source of fundamental sustenance in the whole of the Padana Plain. And still today the rite of killing the pig is lived out as a hard day’s work starting at dawn. But it is also seen as a day of celebration, or rather a day of Atonement. Being able to take part in this rite, the bleeding and the skinning, obviously turns one’s blood cold for those who are not used to it. The pig’s pink skin is so like that of the human skin. As the butcher works around the pallid and pink skin of the pig, amongst the fumes of boiling water used to remove the thin, clear down and the bright redness of the blood, a terrible scene of Medieval torture and torment comes to mind.