In this chapter is, I believe, the first negative review in this book expressed towards salt. Prior civilizations didn't seem to address any of the health aspects of salt; they just knew that it tasted good, helped preserve stuff, and was an important economic tool. Platina, a fifteenth century author from Italy, however, recognizes the unhealthy side of salt. He writes, "It is not good for the stomach except for arousing the appetite. Its immoderate use also harms the liver, blood, and eyes very much." He also warned people of the hazards of eating too much butter and aged cheese. Smart man, this Platina must have been. These dairy products can't sneak anything past him.

This chapter talked about cheese alot! That was fun. Cheese is pretty cool. The book states that the Romans made a really lot of different types of cheeses. Today, there are close to one thousand types of cheeses. If you want a quick run-though on some cheese names, watch this video:


skip past the first 15 seconds..

I never really thought about the effect that the discovery of North America had on much of Europe. Whever I thought about it, I focused on the obvious places, such as Great Britain, Spain, and other countries on the Atlantic Ocean. I realize now that it proved to be disastrous to places like Italy and the rest of the Mediterannean. Its all kind of eye opening. Its scary how an area can be doing so well, and after just one discovery start to decline so rapidly. It makes me think of those diagrams of a civilizations rise and fall that Mr. Farrell drew on the chalkboard. Those are terrifying...

Salting It Away in the Adriatic

Alright, first things first. In the section about Marco Polo, it mentions "salt cakes." That sounds terrible. I'm usually pretty excited about anything with the word "cake" in it, but a salt cake is something i'd never like to try. It says it was used as currency, though, so maybe they didn't eat it. Most people today don't eat their money.

Anyway: Italy. I may be going there in like 8 or so months. Mom still won't give me a definite yes or no. It seems like the Italians were pretty innovative in their salt harvesting techniques. They thought of that nifty multi-pond system, which was much more effictient than previous methods. It also saved alot of work; very little manpower was needed until the final stage where people scraped the salt off the bottom of the pond. The system that the Italian government devised to regulate salt prices was also pretty smart. They were able to manipulate it in a way to get a large profit, and at the same time keep the people happy.

The whole Marco Polo section confused me a good bit. I never even knew he went to China...and it doesnt mention his travels anywhere else at all.

Thats it for this entry...not too much went down in this chapter.