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Published: July 29th 2010
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From my window
The pool and some veggies Remember how I was in Germany and missed Italy and was excited to return? Turns out I came back to Italy only to still be in Germany. Let me explain. Much of Trentino Alto Adige (NE Italy) used to be part of Austria until after WWI, when it was given to Italy as sort of a way to punish Austria. So, the architecture here is quite German and people often speak also German. I knew all this from last summer when I was in Bolzano, but I had no idea how different living with a more German family would be.
The farm is called Maso Plaz and is Val di Non and it is beautiful, peaceful, and quite different from any other WWOOF place I´ve been. They produce fruits and vegetables like the others, but here it seems almost a hobby rather than a way to make a living. They mostly produce for the house but they also supposedly sell the surplus to a store, although I´ve never actually seen this happen or harvested anything for this purpose. It´s located in Arsio, a town so small you could miss it if you blinked on the bus and I´m pretty sure
The pool
so natural a fresh there isn´t even a bar or any kind of store here. If you walk 30 minutes up from this town, you will come to a cluster of old houses on a sort of gentle sloping part of the mountain, and here is home. The gardens and the house are so organized and neat- very unitalian. There are lots of useless but beautiful ornamental plants and flowers. There´s even a little chapel that´s been here for ages. There´s a swimming pool that has fresh mountain water running through it all day and night which is wonderfully refreshing after work. Work is quite easy and unhurried, and has mostly been harvesting, weeding, and planting. The toughest thing was building a dry stone wall which was like a jigsaw puzzle but with pieces that weren´t meant to go together. Hannah and I went a little crazy with frustration sometimes. But everything is gentle here- the weeds are pretty flowers that come easily from the soft soil, it´s never too hot, I´m not covered in bruises and scrapes and bites, and we only work a few hours a day. There are two dogs: Lilly is little and always seems about to die because she´s
Maso Plaz
A bit of the farm and house 19 years old, and Rolfi is a big baby who loves to be pet and wants you to hold his hand every time you touch him. There are many hiking trails with no particular destination that we can take from the house, or go to a nearby town where you can find a few stores and a playground or two. Oh, and the apples. This area of Italy produces something like 30 percent of Europe´s apples, so there are trees everywhere you turn. These towns are really small. So small that the symbols on the maps by the names include an apple and a fountain, because that´s really all that´s there. But there is amazing public transportation so we´ve been able to explore quite a lot in our spare time, including towns, canyons, lakes, and mountains. The weather was beautiful at first but since there has been rain, cold, and wind, but I feel good about it because I finally got to wear all the cold weather clothes I´ve been lugging around all summer.
The family is very South Tyrolian, with their dialect, food, and unitalian ways. There´s a couple with 3 sons in their 20s, but the sons
Exploring
Out in the fields with Rolfi are never here. For a while it was Luis, Priska, and also her spookily quiet (apparently due to the meds meant to keep him quiet) father also because his wife was in the hospital, but now it´s just Luis, me, and Hannah an English WWOOFer. Priska is wonderful and quite Italian with here facial expressions and enthusiasm. Luis is very German- impossible to read....and just not Italian. He complains about Italians but says maddona and dai (extremely Italian). And this guy doesn´t miss a thing that you say or do and he loves to meet people and talk about everything under the sun. He cracks us up with some of the things he says in English like "We cannot sustain this smell" when talking about the dog. And sometimes he just goes on youtube and clicks on random things. Hannah and I died laughing one afternoon when we saw this proper German man sitting in front of the computer with a grin on his face and his toes tapping while watching a dancing cartoon gummy bear dancing and singing a gummy bear song. "It´s the latest on youtube!" He´s an excellent cook, like his wife, and I quite like the
dry stone wall
quite a frustrating puzzle food here. It´s strange, though: the only time I´ve eaten pasta is the one time I cooked it. There´s lots of studel and knödel (pretty much boiled bread balls with different ingredients added in) but then more yummy vegetable and cheese creations, and polenta soup for the cold weather. The only problem is that Hannah and I are obsessed with food and always hungry, and as these aren´t real Italians they don´t force-feed us or even ask if we´ve had enough food (which is actually a nice break for me). But as this is here first WWOOF place, she didn´t realize that you can just help yourself to food, so thank goodness I came and gave her perspective and saved her from starvation (her words).
Let me take you on a tour of real Italy, which has become all the more clear with this constant contrast. Basically, it´s senza sensa, without sense. If you want to find a trail, for example, to a particular destination, it´s impossible. Even if you´ve seen it in a tourist brochure, seen signs, asked people in person...just forget about it. It either doesn´t exist or will be impossible to find. Maybe you think you
Arsio
The whole town almost fits in this picture can, so you walk in search of it. You think this must be it and follow a marked path and end up on a random street or on a logging road or in a pile of manure. But I´m used to this. Poor Hannah had culture shock when she realized this is how Italy is. Then say you are able to find a place with proper paths. Like in a national park, but you want to take the bus back home. That might be a problem because they will sell you a ticket but they won´t tell you that the bus you need is right in front of you, and then they´ll tell you after it´s left that you were supposed to take it. But, this is where the good side of Italy comes in. A random bus driver will welcome you onto his bus, take you for coffee, and then take you home all the while having a wonderful Italian conversation with you. And the dairy farmer neighbors will ask you to come over and talk and talk and take you on a tour (poor cows) and tell you about their life and ask about you and where you´re
Apples and Mountains
It´s what this area is all about from. And the father will say "Look at this beautiful blond" and embarrass his son who needs a wife to escape home. They´ll insist you come again and see the cows being milked. Other random neighbors will show up bearing gifts of food and strike up conversations. Random people will contact you on CouchSurfing and want to meet up and take you to a lake and sing you traditional mountain songs in the Trentino dialect. Groups of people hiking by will stop for a few minutes to hear your story and teach you something about them and the area. So, it´s crazy, but beautiful and friendly, just like I said before.
Tomorrow I start a weekend couchsurfing tour with Hannah, ending in Milan where I´ll pick up my brother Alex!
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