Today is now

The last few dated entries come from my diary. Computers weren't a normal feature in Tuscan farms, so I often found myself writing in my diary instead. I wanted to publish them to have a more complete picture of my time in Italy, and to share them with my traveling companions - who will definitely enjoy reminiscing about our time there.

22/11/2010 Stations

D-day, departure day. I'm sitting at Pontassieve station smiling about so many good memories here in Italy. The work - main reason why we came - seems to fade into the distance as I remember nights out, endless bottles of wine and cans of beer. Seems strange that this day has finally arrived. It feels weird being on my own already. Clara and Rob are still at Casa Cares, unlucky that for once, the weather's good today. I miss them already. Funny how we ended up traveling with Rob for a whole month, and consequently, have become very close. Last night will be hard to forget, we drank in our room and had facemasks on - Rob obviously getting sucked into yet another regrettable offending of his masculinity. We played ring of fire and the name game, and I was delighted to finally guess one, Mel B, while the others went through various rounds.
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Asked for a coffee in Terontola station, found a fly in it. Couldn't finish my coffee.
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Just had to pay 25€ to get to the airpoirt from Perugia train station. It doesn't seem to be well connected, despite the airport's motto being "Yes, we work". Probably reassuring travelers that it is indeed an operating departure point and not an abandoned warehouse still in construction.
My flight seems to be the only one today.

19/11/2010 Reggello

Another day off, Paul said we could "take off tomorrow", and for a moment we thought we were being chucked out. We went to Reggello to leave the house for once. Apparently Reggello is the Città del olio, the city of oil - but there really wasn't much in terms of specialised shops. I was hoping for cute stalls selling regional produce. I guess the town's reputation is due to the sheer quantity of olive trees in the area - LOADS. We saw some, neatly organised on terraces, stretching for miles on end - almost looked like an Inca pyramid.
On the way back the fog began to settle and we tried not to get runover by the fast cards, especially on the bends. Everyone went to a pizzeria to avoid the daily soup, but Clara and me were agreed that sitting in a restaurant with the Americans was the last thing we wanted to be doing. A good choice, they were talking about Volvos for most of the meal apparently. We just stayed in our room having a chat - my favourite moments of the trip. She listens to my stupid paranoias and always knows what to say - fountain of wisdom she is.
Everyone arrived at our room, thinking we would party here - even Raymond's dad turned up... We took the "party" elsewhere - to the basement, and proceeded to play ring of fire with nine people and copious amounts of booze. Everyone was pretty drunk afterwards. I pushed Ethan outside and he collapsed backwards, and then walked into the room with his hand covered in blood. Rob was pretty wasted, having had to down the middle drink - he went so pale whilst doing it. And Raymond was upset, running outside like an emo, smoking by the terrace banister. I think I took it a little too far by constantly repeating: "Dear diary, you're my best friend".
I can't believe I've only got one weekend left in Italy. It's been so much fun. Traveling with Rob has been great despite the money thing - he really makes me laugh. And it's funny that we haven't known him for that long but we've grown so close to him - and funny we met in vendanges.

15/11/2010 Reggello

Not in the best state to write, it's proving rather difficult actually. We're waiting for the bus to Reggello at St. Ellero. We've been on the same spot for nearly 3 hours. Clara left her handbag on the train we've just managed to recover it, but the camera is missing - with all the pictures. It's maybe worse than losing your wallet. We're all feeling pretty worse for wear.

12/11/2010

It was raining this morning, to our great joy -and to Roberto's chagrin. The harvest seems to be a bit poor this year. We walked to Montespertoli; apparently the wine capital of Tuscany - you really wouldn't have guessed. There was hardly anyone in sight, shops were shut and I really couldn't see all that many wineries - not like in Montalcino. We just missed the 'vino novello' festival (7-8 Nov), and the 'olio nuovo' festival is this weekend, but it's hard to imagine the town (if it can be called that) at all lively.
We went straight to the first cafe we saw. It was a pasticceria (and a good one at that, according to Roberto). We sat on some stools and had a couple of lattes, and were treated to home-made pannetone and chocolate crêpes. "Test please", said the only acceptable-looking Italian I've seen yet. Pannetone is not really one of my faves, but this one was fresh and juicy. We stayed for quite a while, getting stuffed. Looked at the postcards but none of them were that nice. Bought some more pressies in the bakery and walked back. The sky was quite clear and it'd stopped raining, so we knew there was work waiting for us. We started at 3. It wasn't that bad, there was barely enough time to do much. Only thing is i didn't have time to change into my wellies and put my foot in a puddle as soon as we started.
We're staying tomorrow Saturday in the end. Rob's feeling better and the work keeps getting interrupted, so it's not so bad at all. Plus, we've found that if we cook, we eat well, and I sure do enjoy it. Roberto is pretty insufferable - extremely stubborn and speaks to us as he would to a retarded 4 year-old. Clara says I get too worked up about it, it's true, but he does drive me nuts. He tried teaching me how to make tortilla the other night... I mean, come on. And he has the tendency to say "Claro!", when we ask really not-so-obvious questions. He also wanted to teach me how to eat my piece of pizza, but I refused to follow his advice. It doesn't need more olive oil for fuck's sakes.

11/11/2010 Certaldo

Woke up in the middle of the night with Roberto coming into our room, crying in outrage that Rob shouldn't be there. He asked why his room wasn't good enough and why he hadn't been told about Rob's move. He added there would be problems with the police were they to find him sleeping on the floor... The real reason is that Roberto can't allow boys and girls sleeping in the same room if they're not married. Needs to get out into the city as Rob said today.
The work today was ok - I kept thinking/telling myself I was there by choice, and that worked pretty well. The biscuits also helped, and my music. We don't knoe whether to leave Saturday or Sunday - we reckon they work here on Saturdays...
We're a sad bunch. Rob's been ill with a mixture of asthma, cold and diarrhoea - he's stayed at home for 2 days, sleeping. Clara got a branch in her eye and it was crying all night, and she couldn't open it this morning. I would be panicking and going crazy - she kept her cool.
The cat jumped on my lap at this point and I lost all concentration.

10/11/2010 Certaldo

I think I've worked out how to deal with the work - I tend to think "I don't have to be here, this is voluntary, and it's shit, so I want to leave" - but if I stay positive and think that in a couple of months I'll be at home missing the whole experience, then the work gets a lot easier to endure. It's pretty logical really, but hours on end of olive-picking can get you thinking, well, not clearly. It rained a bit in the morning today, so Roberto decided to show us around. This place is amazing, there is a wool workshop (and a shop selling its products: socks, hats, scarves...), a herb-packing workshop, milk workshop (also making cheese, yogurt, etc), bread (we saw Paula putting several loaves in the massive ovens). They also bottle juice and tomato puree, make their own pasta... they have jersey cows and milking cows (and a bull), and goats (and Billy - the male goat, with a very long beard). He also showed us the frantoio (mill) - so apparently the oil is produced when the olives are crushed continously and an enzyme is released.
I just cracked up laughing remembering a moment in the fields today. Rob was feeling very poorly and was sent to bed - I said I had some paracetamol he could take, but amazingly, Roberto had never heard of paracetamol and thought I could give Rob some parasites. Just remembering his puzzled expression gives me the giggles.
So Rob is sleeping here tonight because Roberto's sheets seem to be either full of dust or very damp - he can't breathe properly at night.
The sunset today was breath-taking. There was a storm just before 5, and when that cleared there was a beautiful light and a strong wind that made the clouds move very quickly and change shape and colour constantly. There were dark blues juxtaposed with light yellows, deep pinks with pastel oranges...
I seem to be annoying everyone with the light still on, so I'll say good night.

09/11/2010 Certaldo

We're at a new farm - Poggio Antico, first started by Franciscan monks in the 1200s and still going - without the monks, although still with some religious fervour. There's a prayer room on the ground floor of our little house, with chairs gathered around a stove, and spiritual song books and Bibles. There's also a print of Jesus directly above Clara's bed and Roberto's collection of DVDs ranges from Ghandi to Maria Teresa, with the life of Moses chucked in for good measure. At least he doesn't (he as in Roberto, not Moses) encourage us to partake in these activities in any way. There was no work today as it was pouring it down for the entirety of the day. Roberto took us to Certaldo station, encouraging instead we do some tourism - he even wanted to give us some train fare money, Rob should have accepted!
It looks like it's raining tomorrow aswell - Roberto has suggested Pisa, and my head instantly shot up thinking "Hell's yeah" - after we'd just had a conversation about how we should stay at the ranch, preventing further spending.
Only have one more week and a half in Italy.

06/11/2010 Cortona

This part of the world really is beautiful. We're exploring Cortona today. The sun is shining and rarely have I seen colours this vivid. Autumn has to be my favourite season. There are trees with leaves so yellow they look like they irradiate light. Then there's the reds, browns and smoky greens, always broken up by the greyish leaves of the olive trees. Cortona is pretty unique. It doesn't have the touristy that less charming Italian towns seem to have acquired. There are a couple of cafes in the main square, but one you move away from the centre the buildings are mostly residential. Beautiful houses wit verandas and terraces, chimneys and green shutters. Even now, beginning of November, the sun still warms you up.

01/11/2010 Perugia

First of November and no work. We got up late and hungover from the Halloween party, and thinking we'd have the day off. Enrico told Steve to "gather his team". Just as we were walking out the door it started to rain and we all jumped up in joy and sat on the steps looking at the hills and the many colours in the trees.

30/10/2010 Perugia

Steve lost a tooth yesterday, on his birthday. Must have been because of his fall from the tree. It was a good birthday, although we were paying for all the drinks and receiving abuse for being Spanish.

27/10/2010 Perugia

Steve and Rob are here. They were getting bored at the B&B and increasingly freaked out by Mario's night-time xilophone performances. As always, I feel responsible for them now. It's hardly pumpin' here. Although we livened up last night and played ring of fire at the boys' - on the mezzanine. Enrico joined us for a game of Shithead. Looks like wine solves all boredom. The hangover today was a bit of a killer but we laughed a lot in the fields and Steve provided us with plenty of entertainment, including falling off one of the olive trees.

15/10/2010 Siena

We've been very bad backpackers - taxi from the station to the hotel and taxi again from the hotel to the (nearer) bus station. Having a coffee at Piazza del Campo (twice) cannot be called economizing either. And the shops haven't failed to catch our attention. Still, we have been fairly disciplined, we had a pizza slice for dinner (2.50€) and bought lunch at the supermarket today (2.90€). We were hoping to stop this inadequate spending tomorrow, and instead feel worthy after a hard day of olive-picking, but we've just been told Sunday is rest day, and the idea of spending the day amidst olive trees with not much to do is not exactly appealing. This is the time when I wish we'd brought a car - we have to depend on someone else if we want to go a bit further afield to take us and bring us back. We're off to the supermarket now (driven there by Ralf) to stock up on wine for the week - might be our only release from Deutchsland.