Draghunting near Milan

The Draghunting season is under way at the villa Calvi di Monte Solaro near Milan.La Villa Calvi of Monte Solaro, home to the hunting of Milanese society for hunting on horseback, still serves its original purpose as a holiday spot in Milanese aristocracy. It was built in the seventeenth century and belonged to several noble families and, ultimately, to the Calvi family, but in 1948 became a possession of the current owners Count Radice Fossati Confalonieri. A gloomy day welcomed large group of riders ready to face the rolling countryside and colourful woods, which extend between the Seveso and Lambro to the western edge of Brianza. It is not a blood sport as a group of dogs (usually foxhounds or beagles) chase a scent that has been laid (dragged) over a terrain before the hunt. The scent, usually a combination of aniseed oils and possibly animal meats, is dragged along the terrain by a volunteer for any distance up to several miles to a designated finish line before the hounds are released at the start line by their owners.Sixty hunters took part as the scent was laid down over a number of obstacles for an event which started out in the 1980s amongst the hosts Count Ludovico Bettoni, who was Master of the Brescia region hunt and friends.Under the orders of MFHGi.Bi, Litta Modignani, the team was composed of Pietro Di Nola, field master, and Whippers Leopold Stork Mozzoni, Biasia Paolino, Alessandro Berlingieri and Filippo Pirera with their full pack of foxhounds.