Mountains and the Sea, Liguria

I next arrived at Casa del Sole, in a quiet valley south of Genova. Liguria is a very mountainous state and includes the cinque terre, and has many rivers and creeks reaching long fingered into the mountains creating these village dotted valleys. The farm, Casa del Sole, was a terraced farm close to two beach towns called Chiavari and Levanto. In the large three story house lived Massimo and Marco. Massimo, who owns the house and farm was a vegetarian who almost practiced a form of yoga and was usually singing operatically. He had farmed for about 25 years doing most work by hand. Marco was a recently arrived vegan and activist working with Massimo. His experience farming amounted to less than mine but knew about anything there was to know about trains in Italy, and had a super vocabulary which greatly increased my knowledge of Italian. 

We had some awesome vegan meals, I took a few trips to the beach, and learned so much about so many summer crops.  I also got some great vegan recipes and made the famous Genoan pesto (pesto genovese) with home made pasta. We would go to an organic market every Friday that Massimo had organized in a neighborhood of Genoa. We would prepare all the previous day for the market and then spend many hot hours under the umbrella selling and chatting to customers. The variety we had was spectactular :) 

Il Rosmarino, Veneto

At Dino's place in Cortona I met Nicoletta from the Venice area who told me about a Wwoof farm there. I went a week to visit the farm called Il Rosmarino and to see Venice. The farm was one of the last agricultural properties in an area that has been industrializing. They produced grains, fruits, and vegetables and had horses and donkeys. While I was there they were hosting a summer day camp for kids. It was a place with very interesting social dynamics, and in the week I was there I just began to figure out how everything was organized. They produced huge quantities of fruits and veggies which they sold at a market in Venice and in Mogliano. I made great friends while here. Above are Amir, Nicoletta, and Nelo. We were a very diverse bunch of all ages and places. Aside from helping with the farm work, I helped with the kids at the market and painted new signs for the farm.

Venice proper is a magical city, beautiful old buildings, tiny streets, plazas, canals, boats, bridges, etc.. Full of tourists, yes, expensive yes, but it gives you an idea of how cities felt like before we made cars the center of attention. Right outside of Venice are smaller cities with industry, factories, warehouses, ports, shopping centers and all the cement and confusion of modern developments that has not entered Venice. The area is also a place that has always recieved immigrants (legal or not) from the east: albanians, romanians, afghans, turks, iranians, ... and these immigrants are those who work on the farm, for example.

Arts and Culture in the hay

After Cinque Terre, it was off to Tuscany. I stayed at a farm that was below Cortona, on the gentle slopes at the foot of the hill. This place had olives and a small vineyard, so this time of year there was less to do on the agricultural side. The place was run by Dino, a 50 something year old ex doctor who was a farmer, and artist, organizer, and cook among many other talents. It functioned as a informal arts center and would host festas, sculpture exhibits in the olive grove, and bands or dancers to come perform. The old farm house had many rooms, two kitchens, a small stage and practice room, and a room with about 10 bunks beds. These were used by musicians and dancers who would stop by and stay on their way to performances or just to visit Dino. I stayed in a little room detached from the house with a big bunk bed and used a composting toilet and a solar panel heated shower. Also living at the house was Alessia, an actress and dancer, and Fabio, a dancer. They were both in their late twenties and working more or less freelance.
Dino was very interested in creating almost no waste, and reusing everything possible....organic waste, paper, plastic, metal, everything was separated or saved for later use (often in sculpture!).
From the farm, it was possible to walk through the countryside to Cortona in about 45 minutes where I went to visit the UGA Cortona campus and meet up with some friends who were there for the summer. Cortona is a very beautiful Tuscan hill town, swarming with American college students, English tourists, but also the local Italians. The views in this part of the country are vast and beautiful.
On the first night I arrived, I watched Dino and other actors perform in competition of short one act plays, strange modern theater stuff, but very strong too, even though I couldn't yet understand all the Italian. A few days later, a group of french improv dancers performed for us in the fields and orchards of the farm. This too was very Dada art like, strange beautiful but full of humor. At another point I accompanied a Milanese couple who stayed with us to Perugia where they performed on the streets. They played blues folk and made me nostalgic for muggy summer nights on a porch. The list of art events that occurred go on, but are too many to describe here!
Pictures above include pictures from the farm, from different festas, the cat, Dino, from my visit to florence, the cortona countryside, and a local monastery Le Celle.

Short Vacation

After the Agritourism I set off to Cinque Terre to meet up with Belen and Carlos. We rented a place in La Spezia which is a nearby city with a naval base.

Cinque Terre consists of 5 small towns situated on rocky cliffs with mediterranean plants and the blue sea. There are trails connecting all 5 but you can also go by train. As in most places in Liguria, traveling by car takes longer because the roads are so convoluted to get around all the mountains, so trains are really fast and direct.

It is a very touristy place, but with the natural beauty, its evident why.

We spent some time on the less crowded rocky beaches, and took slow strolls through the towns.

At this point, its sounds like my trip here has been all fun and sun and gelato. In reality, traveling and being on farms has its downside, like everything.

things like:

-being fined 5 euro for not validating a ticket (twice)

-expensive tourist prices

-long tourist lines

-getting around the train station with my huge backpack to catch a train

-losing the bus ticket

-late trains

-touring hours by myself (gets old after a while, gelato by yourself just isn't the same)

-no air conditioning on train

-waiting for host family to pick me up without knowing what they look like

-talking to creepy men because I thought they might be my host (twice)

-Being stuck at a random station at night because the train conductors were on strike

-Missing the last bus back, having to walk and hitch a ride

-walking on the side of the road because no one picks up hitch hikers

-Ants, wasps, mosquitoes, nettles, poison ivy, splinters, cuts, bruises, and blisters.

These stories all end well though, a few moments of stress or discomfort, but I always trust that its will work out, its just a matter of inconvenience. I did finally get a family who felt bad for me to give me a ride, after which I rode my bike and then walked the last bit back to the farm in the moonlight.

Agritourism and a Starling

After the farm outside Rome, I headed up to Orvieto for the day and then on to an agritourism run by a german-italian family. Orvieto is a very beautiful medieval fortress town, that of course, as many towns here, started as an etruscan town. The duomo is beautifully detailed and i also went up to an old bell tower for a great view.
The Agritourism was near Torre Alfina, an old medieval castle, and stiuated on a hill next to a forest preserve. The weather here was much cooler and windier because of the higher elevation. I also got to take trips to Lago di Bolsena (great for swimming) and the city of Bolsena and other towns nearby. We went to Bolsena for the Festa di corpus dominus where they had a religious procession and designs made with flowers all along the streets.
The family (Fabrizio and Monika) had two younger kids Leon and Flavia. Flavia who was nine was very eager for a playmate and toured me around picking cherries biking to the village to get gelato and picking flowers in the neighboring fields. The family also had a pet starling, piruleto, who we would let out after dinner to fly around and sit on our heads and shoulders.
The agritourism was more tourism than agriculture, and had 6 apartments for vacationers (mostly germans) plus the family's room, and my gypsy caravan where I stayed. Yes, a gypsy caravan. It was all wood in side with a bed in the back, and table with benches, closet, cabinets, and a wood burning stove. I spent many a pleasant evening listening to bad italian pop radio, looking out over the evening near the warm stove. My work consisted of working in the small garden, weeding, pruning, cooking, cleaning, building a fence, mucking the chicken and bunny shed, and other odd jobs restoring furniture and cleaning bottles for reuse.

As I had spent about a month in Italy by now, I was able to deduce a few things about italian culture, and the experiences that make me think, 'I am in Italy'

-espresso and moka
-biscotti.. mmmmm!!!
-zipping around in vintage cars through the countryside. And everyone drives fast :)
-finding castles and caves, stone wall and old foutains on a daily basis
-poppies and eating cherries
-Men not at work is a typical sight. They are always chatting, on the phone, smoking or taking coffee, i wonder how anything gets done!
-wearing jeans and long sleeves in the heat of midday.
-Slabs of proscuitto which stays out and gets sliced away bit by bit. Also, slabs of cheese.
-cats, feral and pet cats are everywhere. I saw a 2 dead cats so far
-gardens! everyone seems to have a vegetable garden tucked away on some piece of land. true urban farming
-sweet whole milk
-salads. Italians of this area love salads
-pulley systems, things hanging, shelves hooks and wires. Italians love to hang things up. Maybe thats how pinocchio started.
-breakfast is almost negligible, lunches are more weighty and dinners take the biggest role.
-wine at lunch, wine at dinner. water and wine are interchangeable

Looking Back a Bit

Alas, it has been a while since I have written, not from lack of internet, but a lack of will. Sometimes you have to savor things before you digest them.

I stayed at Sandro's farm in Fara-Sabina for about two weeks, with intermittent trips to Rome. While I was there, a pair of ducks had ducklings and I got to see several of them actually hatching! They were the sweetest little scared things there ever was, and the parents were fiercely protective. As often happens, one little yellow duckling didn't make it, and we had to bury it in the spot on the farm under the eucalyptus trees where all the pets of bygone days have their resting place.

The food while there was great, fresh eggs every day, greens from the fields, milk from the neighboring dairy, tons of olive oil, wine, and homemade limoncello. Also, the typical italian expresso make with those little upright coffee makers (and lots of sugar). Sandro's neighbor Rossana who is about 70 would always come over with some pretense, but really to chat and have some company. Mostly though, she talked. and talked and talked. Even if I didnt understand much, I was happy to lend an ear and listen to her gossip and when i was your age stories.

Speaking of Italian, my language ablilities are improving, probably two steps forward and one step backwards, and often I dont remember if its something I heard or learned or if im just using my spanish knowlege and making it up. Thats the difficulty of romance languages.

In terms of farm work, I planted zucchini, helped layed out a row of plastic for weed control, mucked the chicken house, planted eggplant, lettuce and peppers, layed out irrigation, and all other sorts of outdoorsy work.

The unfortunate thing about traveling around this summer is that I never get to see my crops grow, and I won't reap the fruits of my labor.

Back to Rome

While Sandro conducts business here in Rome, I have spent the day at the Vatican Museum. The amount of artwork and rooms and passages and frescoes and giftshops and people is just overwhelming! Such beautiful works, classic medieval rennaissance and contemporary. It's a maze of wonders that makes you wonder... however did the popes get all this money? The answer I'm sure is not as pretty as the works inside. By the end, you really just want to rest your eyes :)