Travel Story «I live here... its no big deal»

Italy | 0 Comments 16 October 2008 - Last Update 20 October 2008

Every day I wake up and have to pinch myself!

This update is long overdue!

    A few weeks ago I went out to the Tuscan countryside with Rosalba as promised. We went to her husband's family's vinyard.  Its a smallish vinyard by Tuscan standards, but they still make their own wine and oilve oil.  WE drove through rolling hills to Perugia and then up the mountian to the vinyard. I can't begin to tell you how beautiful it was! From the top of the vinyard, where I feed the goats, I could see the sea!

    I helped move one batch of wine into and another vat and then another batch into smaller containers to finish aging, all the while squeezing the grapes to get every drop out of them! It amy sound simple but it was a lot of work! So lunch was in order! In Tusacany lunch is an event! We had two different types of pasta, sausages, almost a whole lamb, salad, focaccia, and a special type of bruscheta. Then dessert! All of this was of course accompanied with wine they had made there!

    After lunch I was asked if I wanted to relax. I think they were all impressed by how much the little american girl could eat. They just kept handing me things and i kept eating them! Of course I was all for relaxing, but I was suprised when they led me to a couch, handed me a blanket, and said " bouna notte!" After a meal like that, I'd like to see you turn down a nap! They let me sleep untill I woke up two hours later.  At that point I had missed most of the crushing of a new batch, but I jumped in to help finish it off so that I could say I had done it once!

    I can't believe how luck I was to be set up with someone like Rosalba! We meet about once a week, she cooks me fantastic food, we talk, and I try my hardest to do the dishes! Just being around her, her family, and her friends is helping my Italian so much! I still have trouble thinking in Italian to responde, but now I can follow a converation so much easier! Chris and Helen thank you so much!