LA ROCCHETTA Newest Article Unknown 5/18/2016

In my last blog post, I said that my next stop was Rome, which is technically true. But I changed my mind and I'm not going to make this post about Rome, since I ended up returning to Rome quite a few times throughout the rest of my trip. I'll just make a big consolidated post of all my doings in Rome later. For now, we will move straight to the next farm--La Rocchetta.

This farm I was so, so excited about, and as I was sending out emails from my farm in Sardinia hoping to find a WWOOF host near Rome, I was just giddy that this farm had an availability. After a two week stay, I was glad to report that while some aspects of the stay were difficut, others positively exceeded my expectations. 

For my one-night stay in Rome, I grabbed pizza for dinner and did the same the next morning for breakfast, then went to board the train to my farm, supposedly an hour north of Rome. I was to get off at Attigliano-Bomarzo.

After getting off the train, I was picked up from the station by a middle-aged American woman and her son. Her American accent hit my ears like music--that's when I realized how homesick I had been. Both Michelle and her husband Claudio were successful journalists, now retired. They moved into their current home over 15 years ago. Michelle pointed out nearby towns as we passed them. She said that many towns in the area were built on hilltops, and so was their own home. From the top of the hill, they had an amazing view of the surrounding countryside.

From their house, you could see vast expanses of farmland as well as small clusters of buildings on the hilltops.

To get you acquianted with the place, I'll link you to their website. Explore it if you have the chance, it'll give you a sense of how just freaking awesome this place is, and how excited I was to be WWOOFing there.

That was my room! Definitely the biggest space I've stayed in so far. It was an attic. The only bummer was that there wasn't wifi in the room itself. Michelle and Claudio's room was right below mine. 

Michelle owned a phenomenal amount of books, both in English and Italian, and recommended a huge stack to me right off the bat. I didn't get to read a lot, being so busy throughout the day, but if I had stayed longer I would've been all up in their personal library.

First day of work, Michelle took me to a pastry shop in town to have capuccinos and what she considers the best walnut pastry in the world. I had to agree with her, this being the only walnut pastry I've ever had. While at the pastry shop, Michelle took the time to explain to me their current situation, which was a bit complicated.

Claudio had recently been diagnosed with Parkinson's, and his health had been dropping precipitously. When Michelle had agreed to let me WWOOF here, Claudio was perfectly fine. But now things were different, and she told me that the usual activities in the house (mainly cooking, painting, and whatnot) were likely to be put on hold for Claudio's health.

I told her that I was there to be helpful. I had really looked forward to cooking with Claudio, but that was unlikely to happen at this point. Still, I was happy to just be there, and I didn't need a boatload of interesting activities to be content. 

What ended up being my main project throughout my stay was keeping their heating system going. Every morning I needed to gather wood and kindling for two separate fires--one in the kitchen and one for what was referred to as the "orange beast." It was a very involved process, involving thorough cleaning both before and after lighting the fires, and usually I was finished and soot-covered in time for lunch.

When I wasn't lighting fires, I was stacking firewood (as pictured above), and chilling out with their beautiful doggy Gaia.

And pruning monstrous rose bushes.

And playing with their cat, who likes to inconviniently place himself onto things that I need to move.

And, despite Claudio's hiatus from the kitchen, still learning how to cook great Italian food. On the left is a raddichio risotto, which Claudio made a great effort to cook for me, and on the right is Spaghetti alla Carbonara, which Michelle had picked up and was happy to teach me.

Sometimes it was a bit tough dealing with all the emotions flooding the household from such huge changes. I think as a WWOOFer, I toed the line between providing helpful labor and being an unnecessary presence. In retrospect, I still haven't quite decided yet. More photos coming soon!

SARDINIA PT 2 Unknown 3/23/2016

This is a rundown of my daily schedule on this farm: wake up around 8:15. Have breakfast, usually oatmeal or toast with their amazing array of honeys, which they get from a nearby bee farm. OR, sometimes they had amaretti cookies, which are sugary, citrusy almond cookies that are soft and cakey on the inside. We leave the house around 9, and drive to Piero's mother's house. There, we would greet his mother, and decide what needed to be done for the day. 

On the days leading up to a delivery, we would get up an hour earlier to start harvesting. Those were the hardest days, and we would work all day and take few breaks. But eating oranges is a good way to stay energized and hydrated while working!

Having coffee every other hour works pretty well, too.

The deal at this farm was one day off per week. It wasn't a regular schedule with weekends, so I needed to ask ahead of time to get a day off. On my days off I tried to take advantage of the setting and just explore the area. 

I borrowed one of their bikes, an old one with a consistently flattened tired, and rode to the neighboring town Villaputzu for the day. I went to the bakery, as recommended by my host and the other WWOOFers, for lunch. A filling sandwich with proscuitto and cheese set me back about 2 euros, so both my stomach and wallet were happy.

At this point on my trip, my computer battery stopped working... so I was also using my day off to try and find a computer store. But in the end I couldn't find one that catered to Apple products, so I gave up on that.

Did you know that almost all shops and restaurants in Italy are closed in the afternoon? Like from 1 or 2 to 5PM, everyday. That's so awesome to me. It seems much better for shop owners and employees.

On my other day off, I took a trip to the beach. The beeaaccchhhh.

I just... love the beach. I was happy to lie in the sand all day.

I had my first Italian pizza from Italy here! It was the thin-crusted variety, stretched out super flat and huge so it looks like you are consuming a ridiculous amount of food, but it's really not so much. I was surprised when we ordered 6 extra large pizzas for 6 people, but quickly discovered that wolfing down my extra large wasn't a challenge at all. 

Usually after dinner, there wasn't much to do but listen to music and watch the fire. That's pretty much what I did (besides sulk about my broken computer).

One of the other WWOOFers started a collection of misfit fruits. I love it.

That's all I've got about this beautiful place! In hindsight, I probably should have just stayed longer at this farm. I had already agreed to my next farm though, I was still very excited to get to my next stop--Rome!

SARDINIA PT 1 Unknown 3/09/2016

Here is Farm #5 on my WWOOFing trip, and my favorite of all the places that I've been. It's a farm that grows and sells citrus fruits and olives, located just outside of Villaputzu--a small town on the southeast coast of Sardinia. Sardinia is an Italian island located in the Mediterranean Sea, south of Corsica.

That's the house in which I stayed, along with two other WWOOFers, the host, and his huge Rottweiler. The orange farm itself is located a few miles away from the house.

My host was a cool dude, his name was Piero and he liked his chocolate dark and his metal heavy. Pretty interesting guy, and he was always happy to talk to me about Sardinian and Italian culture. And when we went to a coffee bar and I ordered a capuccino at 4:00 in the afternoon, he totally called me out for being a tourist. Apparently Italians only drink that stuff in the morning. Good to know!

I was blown away by how damn beautiful this island was. The weather was perfect and sunny and not rainy at all. Which was enjoyable (since England and northern France were dank), but also worrying because there hadn't been rain on the island in a long time.

Work was mostly, as you might have guessed, harvesting oranges. It was pretty straightforward and relaxed. And we could eat as many oranges as we wanted. Nothing beats a fresh, juicy orange that was still chilled from the night before.

Harvesting was always a pretty social event. Piero would invite his friends and family to come and help out. They would all be speaking Italian, of course, and honestly I didn't really (try to) learn much during my stay. I got some basics down, of course, but not much beyond that. I'm just glad my host spoke English.

When we didn't need to harvest, some days we would work on other things, like cleaning mirto berries, which they make a strong, fruity alcohol with. Or separating wheat from barley.

On those days we would usually work at Piero's mother's house, just a 5 minute drive from his house.

Lunch was usually something quick and filling, like a pasta or something. One of the other WWOOFers was from Tuscany, and she was great at cooking, in addition to being a very pleasant person.

More photos in the next post!