Time for a little exploration!

Hi Everyone!

We now have been on our second farm for a little over a week and are happy to say that things have been going very well in comparision to our last place! We are a little bit tired of getting up at 5:30am in order to throw on some clothes and shovel some cold leftover pasta (our spectaclar breakfast) down our throats before heading out to the vinyards. The work isnt very hard and each new vinyard is differnt and beautiful so there is a change of scenary at least =) Other than that our work days have been full of grape-throwing wars, water fights, old men professing their love for us, many many breaks, breath taking views, LOTS of bugs, and four leaf clover hunts. After work, we return to the house and set the table for lunch (there are usually around 10 of us eatting). Lunch consists of a 2 hour long feast on pasta, fresh bread, home grown tomatoes, watermelon, and olive oil and wine both made here (makes me hungry again just thinking about it!!) and by the time we are so stuffed we can barely keep our eyes open we do the dishes and then make our way up to the room to do some reading and napping. Once it gets cooler, around 6, we have been almost religously walking to our barbench up the road for ice cream, watermelon, reading, and relaxing.

On Saturday we were invited to the wedding of one of Lizandro's (one of the guys that works here with us) friends. We started the day by sleeping in for the first time in a LONG time and then just kinda hung out by the pool and relaxed so that we could save up our energy for what we were told was going to be quite the party. 400 people were invited and we were warned before hand that we would be spending the night so we werent really sure what to expect. Anyway, after getting dressed up for the first time since Barcelona, we left the house around 4:30 to make our way to the ceremony. On the way, we stopped at a bar along the side of the road (Lizando said that after 30 minutes in the car a drink was necessary, haha) and were treated to some delicious sparkeling wine and the typical spread of peanuts and potatoe chips of the bars here. Then we jumped back into the van and were off. The ceremony was held at city hall and there were tons of people crowded inside and out in the courtyard waiting for the annoucement of bride and groom. Once they came out, people threw TONS of rice and flower petals at them and insead of walking down into a limo or something, the bride got into a wheelbarrow (the groom is a farmer and it was a special little unique twist for them) and he wheeled her down the street so that they were no longer visible and we started off to the reception. Of course, on the way back to the car we just HAD to stop for a celebratory drink, so a big group of around 13 of us crowded into a little bar and toasted to the bride and groom. It didnt take very long before we were at the couple's house which was a huge goregous old house on top of a mountain with an extraordinary view. The reception was pretty much like any other, music, dancing, food, and drinking. There was an interesting ritual they do here where every once in a while someone in the party will start yelling "wife" in italian and once everyone else joins in the couple find each other and have to kiss. The other thing they do here is make a special white wine drink that they filter through fire and add some other alcohol and fruit to all the while singing over and over "wine, wine, no water, we only want the wine!" in italian (obviously). It was one of the warmest and tastiest drinks I (Chelsea) have ever had and it was a nice change of pace from the red wine that was being passed around for the rest of the party. Around 2 in the morning we decided we were done dancing and ready for bed so I got a little snack (there was still TONS of food leftover because everyone had brought some sort of dish and there was more food in the kitchen than I have ever seen in my life) and we headed down to the van to sleep. In the morning, we woke up but stayed pretty quiet because Lizario was alseep below us in the van and we didnt want to wake him up. but we were either too loud or it was too hot in there for him because he got up and left. the only problem was was that he didnt say anything before he left so we werent sure if we were going to be leaving soon and should just stay in the van or if we should head up the road and walk back to the house. We decided to stay in the van and Char went to work trying to finish her book and I fell back to sleep, but I guess we were both waiting on each other because 2 hours we were still in the van when Lizandro ran up saying we needed to get out so that he could leave to go feed some cow. We asked him if we could go with him and if he could drop us in town instead, since we were planning on meeting up with Amber (Char's sister) who was coming to Lucca to hang out with us for a few days.

Sunday was the day of being lost for us. Lizando dropped us off in front of the "walls" in Lucca (the town is surrounded by these really tall walls that kept it safe back in the day and there is a pathway along the top of them on which you can walk circularly around the entire town). He told us to walk half way around the wall and that we would end up being able to see the train station, which is where we were planning on meeting Amber. We walked, and walked, and walked, and finally decided that we needed to get off the wall and go further into the town to find the train station... but alas, we found nothing and continued to walk. We asked 2 people for directions and attempted, as best as we could, to follow their directions but STILL couldnt figure it out. Finally we ran into some backpackers who spoke English and as it turns out the train station is actually OUTSIDE the walls so we then attempted to get out. Thing is that i guess they wanted to keep people in just as much as they wanted to keep people out back in the day because we couldnt for the life of us figure out how to get out. FNALLY, we found out that there is a little cave like entryway that you have to get to from below the wall that takes you curving through the wall and finally spits you out outside. As soon as we got out we head 2 women talking in English about the train station, so we decided to act quickly and ask for directions before we started to wander around again. One of the women pointed us in the direction of the "train station" but once we walked to where she had pointed it turned out that it wasnt there and was actually in completely the opposite direction so we turned around and walked back the direction we had come and finally ran into the station. Next came the even more frustrating part... Amber hadnt been able to get to a computer to tell us the exact time that she would be arriving on the train so we were hoping to just hang out at the train station and see her as she walked out. SO we first walked to the internet cafe by the station and checked her email to see if she had a train confirmation. she didnt but we did find the confirmation for her hostel so we wrote down the name and address and phone number just in case. then we walked to the tourist information booth and got directions pointed out to us on a map to the hostel. we went back to the train station and sat for about an hour and then decided to call the hostel to see if Amber had checked in yet to see if she had already gotten to Lucca earlier in the day and we had missed her. but the phone number on the website was wrong and we couldnt get ahold of them, so I decided to walk to the hostel while Char waited at the station just in case. So I walked to the hostel, but she hadnt checked in yet so I left a note and the man at the counter told me that there had been a train strike and it was possible that Amber wouldnt be able to make it after all. On my way back to Char I picked up some sandwitches (it was 4:30 at this point and we hadnt eatten all day) and we decided to wait until 6 and then head back to the farm. At 6:15 we still hadnt seen her so we decided to get a taxi back home, which turned out to be almost the worst part of the day. Char gave the woman the name of the farm we are staying at (houses here have names and numbers) and the woman gave the directions to a different driver who spoke absolutely no english. as we were driving NOTHING looked familiar and we felt like we were going in the completely wrong direction. when the driver finally stopped we didnt recognize the place and decided to ask him to turn around and take us back to the train station so we could call someone to have them come pick us up from the farm. but he drove up a little way to turn around and we finally spotted our road and I cant even explain how relieved we were (the trip would have been 60 eruo which is about $90 if we had had to go back to the train station).

Later that night, we got a call from Amber saying that indeed there had been a strike and she had had to take a bus instead of the train and it had dropped her off some where else so we made plans to meet up the next day instead. she took the bus up to the farm and arrived as we were finishing up lunch. it was SOOOO good to see her and made us all VERY happy! we indroduced her to everyone and gave her belly some good food and then showed her around. then we went up to our room and played some cards and chatted. then sunshine, one of the other wwoofers, walked in with THE PACKAGE! char's mom had sent her a package almost 2 weeks ago and she had been waiting and waiting for it to arrive because it had taken way more than the time it should have. so we got to open it up and see all the goodies and pictures and it seemed as though everything was finally going right for us! we decided to take amber up to "our spot" for ice cream and afterward decided to get a few beers and talk about the last month of our travels. we kinda made friends with the local old guys although we couldnt understand a single thing they were saying and one of them gave Amber a really good cigar which she was VERY happy about =) after, we walked back home and cooked some pasta and then it was around 11 so we headed off to bed and had a mini sleep over with Amber.

Now for the exciting news about our future travels. We will no longer be staying at this farm until Sunday nor will we be going to the new farm on monday. We have decided to stop wwoofing and to start "beach days." We convinced Amber to travel with us until Monday and will be traveling to Pisa tomorrow morning, Florence on the 16th, and then the Cinque Terre around the 19th. After we part with Amber, Char and I will either be going to an island that is a part of the Arcipelago Toscano to take in the beach and beer and relax or we will be going to Rome and then taking a flight over to Greece for a week. We dont have entirely set plans which is a nice feeling but we will definately be doing more us time and less worry about being places at set times.

we love, love, LOVE you all and miss you incredibly! we have a little less than a month less of our trip left and cant wait to see you and share our pictures and stories! xoxoxo!!

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