Last night was my birthday dinner at Localita il Piano. How wonderful. We ate in the open air again and after our meal Adolfo and Ben came out playing happy birthday on the accordion and Darcy came out with a custardy dessert. Like a mixture of panna cotta and creme brulee. But light and fluffy. Everyone had a personal sized panna cotta, but mine was adorned with a diadem of one candle. Darcy also brought out all of her collected specialty wines. An apple wine, a cherry leaf wine, and more. She then gave me as a gift, a package of zucchini seeds and winter squash seeds with red bow! I love these people. So kind to me.
Setting up for the last dinner
Me receiving my birthday wishes (Thanks for taking pictures Olga!) Adolfo on accordion
Yummy Panna Cotta ish dessert.
I might have hated it though, clearly
Adolfo plays all night long
Last night on the farm
I really enjoyed my time here. Its a stunning place to be with stunning people who have gone to great lengths to be show such great hospitality to me and the others too. I can't believe my time here has come to an end. Here, I have some more pictures that I am posting from my stay. Too much to share in such a small space.
Brick Oven
In the trunk of Bianca Neve (Snow White), Nona's (Grandma, Adolfo's mother) Fiat Panda
Olga with Ben
Son (Left) Mother (Right)
Dinner on the patio
Pre-fried zucchini flowers stuff with ricotta, thyme, chives, and sage
Series of Darcy with Ben
View of Localita il Piano from La Torre. House in the center, barn on the left, surrounded by groves and orchards.
View of Piedipaterno form La Torre
La Torre
On the hike to La Torre
I am sore. My hands are sore. After being in Italy for 2 1/2 weeks I left for Barcelona to meet my mother today. Today was extremely hectic up until arriving in Spain. I woke up early, had breakfast (thank you Kristen for making me a birthday breakfast!) and hiked down the mountain to Piedipaterno and was ready to catch the 7:52 bus to Spoleto, which was as usual, promptly early and left at 7:39. I made it Spoleto a bit after 8 and got a train ticket to Roma Termini. As I sat, waiting for the train, I listened to the mourning doves, they remind me of my Mimi and Papa's farm in Florida. These two woman, mother and daughter (elderly and middle aged) scratched lotto tickets (also reminding me of my Mimi and Papa) for an hour and then found 20 Euros on the ground. Funny. I sat there grinning at the sound of their squeaky and smoke coated voices. Still in the pattern of the the "two 8th notes, one quarter note, and one 8th note" of the Italian language. And unexpected earthquake then shook the ground beneath my feet. Yes that's right. An earthquake. It happened people. Randomly. I looked up at the screens that display the arrival and departure train times and they were also swaying. The few locals pacing the shaded platforms smoked their cigarettes (Paul Malls mostly) unfazed by this occurrence that had my jaw on the ground. I know they are supposedly common in Umbria but that surely didn't take they shock out of me, that's for sure. Aside from earth quakes, typical Italy is predictably unpredictable. Either you are 10 or 15 min early, or you are on time but don't even care to stop for passengers and drive and full speed pass the bus stop (buses did this to me on occasion), or trains are so late that you miss your flight. Take a wild guess as to which one landed me with a lovely day in Italy. Yep, the latter of the list. My train to Roma was 45 min late. You're right, this would not have happened if I left plenty of buffer time to just sit in the airport and wait, but that isn't so easy when you use public transportation. Getting from one place to another may be easy but you are limited to what times are available. Many other things made this day interesting and funny after the fact like fat 8yr old boy in a cheerleading shirt with pom poms on it. But I finally arrived in the BCN airport, later than planned. I can't get over how clean and efficient this airport is. I mean wow. Rome really has a lot of work to do before I ever consider stepping foot in that airport again. I've been up too long. But I'm glad I'm in the hotel room now. Ciao to Italia and Hola to España!
I have loved every minute of it. It’s a place where you can’t ever imagine modern buildings or a paved road and the people here work hard at keeping it that way. Jobs and tasks on the farm are constantly changing because there is a lot to do. They are working on installing a new vineyard. So after we installed the irrigation lines, we installed more posts (made from tree trunks) and counter posts for extra support. We have cleared the path to Piedipaterno so it is much easier to walk into town. Irrigating the orchards is quite hard work. You work with heavy hoses on steep sloped orchards that are about a 30-35 degree incline. It’s taken about three days to finish irrigating. A lot of acreage. Digging trenches, cutting out the blackberry vines, removing huge rocks from the fields and placing in a pile (they used these to build their house and they have some places not finished). Darcy and Adolfo do their best to use all local materials. My job, every evening, is to feed the animals and milk the goats. Apparently I am one of the best they have seen. Who knew I would be such a good goat milker? I then take the milk to the kitchen and runt it through a filter to remove any grass and dirt then store it in big mason jars in the fridge. I’m proud to say I am just as good as Adolfo.
Saturday was our day off, because we had two new additions to the group arriving that day. Alexandra and Michael, from a farm 3hrs outside of Sydney, Australia. Myself with some others decided on our day off to go to Vallo di Nera, a neighboring hill town. It was about a 45-minute hike. Another charming town. We hiked along a river that is dammed in between Piedipaterno and Vallo di Nera for trout farming. It’s really the only fish available here. Seafood is very rare here even though the ocean is only 1½ hrs away because the roads are not wide enough for transporting and they roads are always winding through valleys. It rained this day and I liked it. We hiked to Vallo di Nera, partly in rain and sun. The river was so cold, coming right from the mountain streams; it must have been close to freezing. No feeling in my feet.
Piedipaterno, on the road to Vallo di Nera
A street in Vallo di Nera
Me in Vallo di Nera, photo thanks to Kristen
ice cold mountain river next to Piedipaterno
Sunday was a special treat. Sunday night, myself along with Jacek and Olga went with Adolfo, Ben, and Darcy to a town outside of Terni called Torre Osino (Little Bear Tower) because it has been the festival of San Sebastiano during the week and Sunday night, an Italian band (all friends of Adolfo’s) played traditional Umbrian music. They dance and play and sing music extremely specific to the region. They sing in a local dialect that most Italians don’t even understand outside of Umbria. Accordion, violin, upright base, mandolin, guitar, tambourine, and wooden spoons. They played for hours in the towns main piazza. We danced the local dances, some group dances and some partner dances. Ben loved dancing in Darcy’s arms the whole night. Everyone was listing and watching and dancing on the church steps or on the street. Everything ending around 1am. Darcy gave me so many cool facts about the area’s we drove through the little towns on the way home. Like there are Asian and French mummies in a cave near by that were people walking the silk road and never made it home after the Crusades. We past the largest waterfall in Europe, and the mom and pop pharmacies give you their home phone number just in case you need something in the middle of the night. We drove through little towns having tiny village festivals late at night that were illuminated by candles. Candles everywhere. The streets; lined with them. The mountainsides covered. A cave above the town flickering with an orange glow. Stunning. This place is stunning. Even in the dark. It is stunning. We got back to Localita Il Piano around 2 and had to get up early for work the next morning. Not easy.
Monday we continued working but that night was wonderful. We ate a garlic polenta with a tomato and sausage sauce, cucumbers with just a bit of their own goat milk yogurt with dill and mint, tomato and basil salad, Capocollo (like proscuitto but from the back of the pig’s neck instead of the thigh) with melon, and of coarse their red wine. The best part was that we ate outside. This is not the first time we did it but being able to open up their huge doors and move the table out onto their veranda running the length of their house that overlooks the garden, olive groves and mountains is just incredible. The weather is cool enough be not cold. While we cleaned dishes, Adolfo played the accordion. Incredible, he plays anything on that accordion. A Tango, Jazz, Classical, a Waltz, Opera, Christmas Carols, Traditional Italian Songs, and the favorite, a combination of The Spangled Banner and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
Eating outside/Ben's high chair/Darcy and Kristen
Another perfect meal
Although the work may be challenging, it is so rewarding to see the work that I did make such a difference in these peoples lives. Like I said, I have loved every minute.
I am up dating this by bumming wifi off a hotel in Spoleto. But my experiences so far have been absolutely incredible. I was dropped off by the bus from Spoleto, on the side of the road, literally. I went down a long gravel/dirt/mountain road that lead to the farm house. Beautiful. The Appenine mountains surrounding me. I met the other wwoofers (the other peple working on the farm with me). Mami (from Japan), Kristen (from Florida), Jacek (like Yatzek) and Olga ( with Jacek from Poland). Total two guys and three girls working with Adolfo and Darcy, the farm owners.
We are put to work but the tasks on the farm are all things the Darcy and Adolfo do with us. So far we have been working on installing irrigation in what is going to be a new vineyard, feeding the animals (chickens, donkeys, horses, a sheep, some goats, geese.) We also have been irrigating other young orchards that are in need of water. I also milked a goat, my favorite so far. Ha. The goat milk here is plentiful. Jar after jar after jar. I made goat cheese mozzarella, riccota, and lemon cheese spread. I seeded 10 different types of tomatoes (Darcy has 40 types in her garden, perfect I know). The food here of coarse is fresh from the farm or traded from other local farms. Paterno (the town this is closest to) has 11 people. Adolfo, Darcy, and their son Ben make up three of them. All the others are Adolfo's relatives, except for one random guy who moved there. I don't have much time to update with details so that is why I am basically spitting this out.
We also had a party on Tuesday for Adolfo's birthday. The family came in and we had pizza from their outdoor brick oven, to die for. Toppings: zucchini, squash, tomato, chard, mozzarella, zucchini flowers, anchovies, potatoes, basil, and some other spices, and i know there were more but I cannot remember them all. What a classic Italian night with big family and good food and wine. Played ping pong. Had quail eggs with umbrian black truffle. The man that brought them has quails and a truffle hunting dog. So bringing this extremely expensive delicacy was free for him.
Yesterday evening we went into some of the orchards to pick some plums, a few apples, and some type of cherry. Ben came along with Adolfo and the other wwoofers. We all really get along well and have had a great time exchanging language and culture. Polish, Italian, English, Japanese. It's all meshing here at Localita il Piano! I am going to add a few photos that will do a lot of the talking for me. I see why God made the world and said, "It is good."
All of us volunteering on the farm!
I will post more picture when I have internet, readily available in several days.
Today is Ferragosto, Assumption Day, the day that celebrates the Assumption of Mary in the Roman Catholic Church. I wake up to a sunny day today. Temperature still perfectly around 80. Revisited some of the views that were cloudy yesterday. Thinking of heading to Orvieto (another town) sometime today. I am sitting on the steps of Santa Eufemia, listening to the cellist. Stunning, almost silent. His sound reverberates with such elegance off these Romanesque walls. I forget how much I love music sometimes.
I walked to il stazione and purchased my ticket to Orvieto. I had to change stations and was a little confused by having received a strange looking ticket. I asked help from a woman who turned out to be Amercian. Woman: Mid to late 30s, curly brunette, from Philly, psychologist, acupuncturist, headed to a yoga retreat for 5 days in Siena, odd. I never caught her name, but we became travel buddies, as we both had to change trains at the same station (Orte).
I arrived in Orvieto and took a bus to il centro storico (Line 1, €1). The free funicular was broken. Saw beautiful hills and mountains (Umbria sure is perfect) and headed into town (around 2pm).
Walk past a church, don't know the name, but when I entered it was entirely empty. The aroma of sweet incense still lingered in the air from the high mass of Ferragosto. The smell almost flashed images of the devout, paying every ounce of their attention to il prete (priest), saying their "Padre Nostro". I then wanted to see the Duomo of Orvieto.
Magnificent, almost Moorish. Those who came to pray were so easily interrupted by the 1/3 slew (a measurement of people that I now feel should be used often) of tourists illegally taking photos (me included).
The Medieval Quarter lent me beautiful scenes of centuries old rooftops that rested on walls so different from that in Spoleto. The walls in Orvieto are rough, a medium shade of brown, a bit orange actually. Like the color Burnt Sienna. Maybe it should be called Burnt Orvieto? Took bus back to il stazione. Waiting on Binario Due (Platform 2).
Shin splints. Deoderant? I feel like Asian tourists are so innocent. I honestly don't know what I mean by that. I change trains in Orte. Waiting for train to Spoleto, its almost 7pm. The sun is casting wonderful light on the hills and I can hear the crickets already. On the train to Spoleto, I saw a cinema playing Step Up 3D on screen 4. Honestly, no one can ever escape the influence of America. Good? Bad? Hmmm. Heading to Localita il Piano tomorrow.
Walked around some more. Went to a cafe on top of the hill over looking the Umbrian valleys. My waitress was a devout Catholic, Cecilia from Mexico. With Spanish being our common language, it was great practice and made good conversation.
Met a couple of American Music Students. Matt, Isaac, and Anna. Matt and Isaac are learning to be orchestra conductors and Anna is a cellist. They invited me to a brass orchestra concert at the Teatro Nuovo Spoleto. On another note, the Italian language is beautiful, unique, and powerful. It's musicality sounds like two or three 8th notes, followed by a dotted quarter note, and ending with another 8th note. Almost like they are always singing Cantate Domino, but with a bit more attitude.
Woke up to the sound of pigeons and locals outside my window on via Garibaldi. Its cloudy and rainy, but perfect. Have been walking around all morning and afternoon. Sat in front of Chiesa Santa Eufemia to rest. Italian tourists love their capris. Both men and women.
Via Garibaldi
Santa Eufemia
There are small touches of modernity in the town and it works really well actually. It blends right with the old.
