Life at la Vecchia

I don't know that I could have come to a more peaceful and perfect place for the last three weeks. Atop our hill in Avolasca I am with my head as if in the clouds. Anywhere I look outside of my quaint apartment I see rolling green hills speckled with vineyards and other square plots of farmland that have been tilled or are ripe with their produce.

The most constant sound is the bi-hourly tolling of the belltower, and if you're in the right place you can hear the echo from the other hilltop village belltowers as well. Since we harvested the first round of grapes, the sound of the wine cooler is another constant outside of my kitchen window, reminding me of the intensive process that our delicately picked grapes are now undergoing to become the delicious Rebelot, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Barbara wines that we enjoy at each meal.

Many hours of my days are spent on my own, doing some task such as picking tomatoes, basil, or zucchini. I have soooo much time to think and mull over my life so far and what is to come. Even when working in the vineyard picking grapes I have lots of time to think, sometimes I will engage in a conversation with Lisa, my German friend, but often even working with ten people around the Italian being spoken is so quickly I can't follow it and so I am more or less with my own thoughts anyway.

And while it sounds lonely (and yes sometimes it is) I'm completely 100% happy at every moment. I'd rather come WWOOF for my holidays in the future than go lye on a beach somewhere. I'm getting a tan, eating amazing food, and relaxing because I don't have any real responsibility. I simply wake up when I do in the morning, eventually someone in the family summons me to tell me what I'm doing for the day, and I work away. Often the work is physically challenging, to pick grapes you have to be bent over, you get all scratched up by the vines when you reach in for a bundle of grapes, spiders and wasps are abundant and happy to bite, and the Italian sunshine is beating down on you. If I had to do this work I might mind, but that I'm choosing to do it and am learning about the entire process through doing it I am completely happy to work long hours without pay.

The family that is hosting me is wonderful as well. Annime is originally from Belgium but she came to Italy over 20 years ago and never left. Roberto is originally from here and is the one who convinced Anime to stay. They have a big and diverse farm, bed and breakfast, and restaurant (only open on weekends). They farm grapes, apples, peaches, more apples, pears, and they have a garden which produces all the vegetables and herbs that Annime uses in the restaurant throughout the year.

September is the busy harvesting month here, so the restaurant has been closed and Annime spends most of her time preparing the pasta sauces, jams, herbs, desserts and vegetables that will be used while Roberto oversees the farm and the winemaking.

Winemaking is cool by the way. And it's also not nearly as glamorous as one would think. But I like it, it involves a whole detailed and calculating plan that revolves around more external circumstances than is nice for it to be executed properly. I've learned about the whole series of steps used to make most of the wines they do here. From how to cut, to getting the grapes off of the vines (with a nifty machine) to spending hours transferring the juice away from the peel so some special enzymes can do their work before we transfer the juice back in to mix with the peels again, deepening the color of the red wine. Its a fascinating process and there are so many little steps that can be done in so many minimally different ways that effect the final outcome of the wine. For example with most wine when we pour it into a new tank we pour into the top. But today with pinot noir we had to insert a tube into the bottom of the tank and it filled from there because its bad for the wine to be poured from the top because it gets too much air and bubbles, somehow effecting some of the chemical composition. It's such an art!

As I said, I am completely in love with my time here. I've become good buddies with Matteo (their 9 year old son) and over hot cocoa some days we teach each other Italian and English words that are useful. And we do yoga. Matteo loves yoga :)

Next Friday I take my last trip, to Interlaken, Switzerland, where I'll spend 24 hours before I go to Milan for a flight back to London on Saturday night. And in another 36 hours I'll find myself at Heathrow boarding a flight to bring me back to the US. I don't want this time to be coming to an end. I will absolutely cherish these last few days.

Thankfully I have an open invitation to come back and WWOOF here at La Vecchia Posta whenever I want. Maybe in my job hunt (to begin when I arrive back in the US) I'll find somewhere willing to let me abandon ship for a month to come back and find my solitude on the farm here in Italy. I hope :)