SomethingSuitablySharp alliteration, neuroscience and sea otters.

Random update – Wwoofing

ciao a tutti...

A long time indeed this time since the last post. In short: I'm still alive, still in Italy, still travelling around mixing it up between working on farms and being a tourist. Still having a bloody good time, in sum.

I have just written for an email to someone pretty much what I want to write here but in Italian so that's no good. This can just be a brief re-cap and I will think of something specific and interesting to write about soon.

After leaving the place in Piacenza that I think I mentioned in my last post, I went to another farm just outside of Bologna. The best word to describe this place is INTENSE...yes all in caps like that. I, as the volunteer, became part of this young family, and that meant working like one of them. Although the work was long and sometimes damn hard I had some awesome experiences along the way. It was just a little hard at moments to stay positive about the whole thing. To illustrate what I'm talking about I will retell the story of a semi-typical day...(names changed)...

As I sleepily and coffee-lackingly stroll in the early morning air from my room to where we have breakfast in the morning I hear a voice calling to me from a window above. "What's that?" I say. "You still want me to feed the animals before we leave?" "Yes Simon, just quickly, then we pack the truck, wait the phone!" replies Magda, the mother and boss of the place. "Yes of course" I half reply, and wander off to give the animals their lot. The sheep are barring already.

After the truck is quickly filled with the essential tools for our work we head off to the fields in which live the cherry trees. Today is the day of pruning, branch bundling and other exciting things like that. The day plays out well and the work, although occasionally becoming menotonous, is interesting, not to speak of the beauty of the work place. One thing is for sure, by the time 5pm rolls round I'm ready for shower, beer, rest etc.

My mind playfully brings up images of these days-end luxuories as we drive home. As we pull into the parking area Magda changes the topic. "OK now Simon, just a few things. We need to cut the grass out front, rake up some things over there...and then just check on the animals please." BAHGHRGHHHH! "But the work day is over!" I can't help thinking.

By the time these "few things" are out of the way its after 7 and the stomach engine is revving beyond the red line. Tonight though, dinner isn't simply there on the table. We're having a BBQ. And I have to, along with Davide their 5 year old son, prepare the fire (proper BBQ, not gas). This would normally be from the outset a cool thing to do, naturally, but after the day of work and more work I have to stretch to find pieces of enthusiasm. The thing with Davide as well is that he loves to control situations around the house. He loves to impart his 5 year old knowledge. Generally this is cute and interesting to be involved in, but tonight, no. "No, no more wood! Those must burn first!" he states firmly after giving me a rundown on fire safety. "OK, OK, let's wait a bit longer." I concede, anxious to get this bloody fire cranking fast.

Eventually, much patience later, we have some BBQ-ready embers and the meat is sizzling. In the meantime Davide and I have constructed a bench on which we can sit and stoke the fire. A good bonding time which made me glad I made the effort to find the necessary patience and enthusiasm. I ate, drunk awesome wine from our cellar, and slept. The end.

This little story pretty well illustrates how things went down at this place. Many cool experiences like being involved in markets and fairs, learning lots about many things from farming to life, cooking/baking italian stuff, meeting many people etc. that came out of being a part of this intense young family. Bologna is a very cool little city as well.

Allora, next stop for me was being a tourist proper again, this time in Florence. Florence, the city which is basically one big open air museum. In the historic centre at least it is like this. Literally at times there would have been only 1 Italian out of every 10 people on the street. It's even harder to find an actual Florintine. I was convinced they didn't actually exist until I met one girl one night whos distant relatives used to be cooks for the Medici family. And she didn't even look italian.

After the shock of all the tourists abated a bit, and with the guidance of an italian who lives there and could point out the "cool" places, I appreciated the city a lot more than just for Michangelo's David and the Uffizi.

Currently I'm at another "farm" close to Siena in Tuscany. I use parenthesis around the word farm because it is more of an agrotourism with large vegetable gardens and fruit trees. It's a very peaceful place and set in some classic tuscan scenery. The work isn't very intense and the people are awesome, so it suits me perfectly at the moment. I actually have time to study italian properly and write other stuff. It's great.

ciao