Time in Tuscany and elsewhere in Italy

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Our time in Italy this time around....

To hear Alicia tell the story (and I've listened to her tell people on Skype) you'd swear we were tortured mercilessly from dusk until dawn with waterboarding, burning blades, and dental drills during our time working on a Tuscan farm near Florence. This is not true.

What did take place during our WOOFing (Working On Organic Farm) was that our hosts were disorganised and not terribly considerate which led to considerable frustration for us.

Our time in Italy consisted of a few days in Rome, then 2 weeks in Florence; most of which was out on the farm, then two nights in Milan. Sadly there's not much to say about our time in Rome or Florence as we both came down with a vicious stomach bug that left us sick and unadventurous. Thankfully we've spent a good deal of time in both wonderful cities before and so it wasn't a disaster.

To start from the beginning: In Rome we did manage to see the excellent Pantheon constructed in the time of Hadrian and made a day trip out to Hadrians' villa near Tivoli.
Word to the wise about the Villa; getting there by public transport (metro and bus) was a total debacle, there's terrible signage and tourist information and we wasted hours of our day and years worth of stress to get there and get home.
The villa was very fine though, constructed on an imperial scale it seemed absurd that a relaxing country residence was needed to even a tenth the size it was. Hadrians Villa also has a number of buildings and monuments in a decent state of preservation which is great to see, it reminded us a little of the Ancient port of Ostia. My highlight at the Villa was in the small museum which had an amazing statue of a Faun made of red marble (who knew there was red marble!?); it was an unexpected rarity and amazing to think it was almost 2,000 years old.

After a limited but fairly successful itinerary of sight-seeing in Rome we made for the train to Florence, we spent one night in Florence where Nick's sickness started to ease off, unfortunately it started to ramp up for Alicia and so we traded one invalid for another.

We did have a chance to enjoy the outside of the beautiful Florence Duomo in fine sunshine before we had to go and meet our hosts who we were helping on their Tuscan farm 30 mins drive out of the city.
The hosts meeting started well with a visit to their extraordinary city centre Florence pad which was a vast open space with a huge skylight and glass floors over the lower level office space. They had a lovely big kitchen too where our host cooked us up some lunch and talked about Italian cuisine.
Alicia was feeling poorly but soldiered through the lunch and talk bravely then our host drove us out to the farm and deposited us there around 5:30pm, this is where our troubles began.....

Just a point of clarification; we found our WOOFing (working on organic farm) host through the HelpX website where hosts advertise where they are, what they've got (e.g. farm with olives), and what they need. We'd asked to work with our host as he had advertised the 'need for people to help on the farm clearing and harvesting the olive grove, gathering and chopping firewood, and learning some real Italian cooking.' This advert sounded great to us and so we made arrangements with the host who reassured us it would be fun, not too laborious.

Our host: Vanni was a decent chap in his late fifties who kept a thousand plates spinning at once whether it was time with his 15 year old son, working, participation in a growing Italian political party, or the million chores required on the Tuscan farm. This meant his organisation and planning on the farming and hosting aspects (the ones that affected us) were poor.

At the farm our host gave us a room with an ensuite which unfortunately was a main thoroughfare of the house and meant people always had to walk through. Also the door to the outside (freezing night air) was always being opened to let people transit through meaning we couldn't keep the room warm.
We were introduced to the couple that spent most of their time on the farm an Italian university student girl (22) Margarita who was daughter of our hosts girlfriend (Anna) and her Spaniard artist boyfriend (32) Ferminio, plus their dog and cat. The young couple were nice and spoke fair English but kept ridiculous hours; staying up all night then sleeping until at least 12:30pm each day!
They do their own thing on the farm, not working like us, mainly whatever they fancy.
The farmhouse was structurally intact but still a bit fast and loose with some windows and doors ill fitted and letting in air. It's also FULL of junk; generations worth of furniture, bookshelves, glasses, and crockery clutter the place terribly.

Our host waved goodbye saying he'd visit us tomorrow and in the meantime we should gather chestnuts and firewood. Within a few minutes of him driving away it occurred to us 'What are we supposed to eat?!' this had not been made clear and so we asked Margarita and Fermino who said we'd have to share their food; this was a bit awkward as they'd bought it from their own pocket and they were nothing to do with the hosting obligations; we felt a bit bad about raiding the food supplies of our new friends who were sorting of living in parallel to the work on the farm and didn't have anything to do with our duties.
Alicia was too sick to care so Nick cobbled together a dubious makeshift meal, we were unable to eat with our new friends as they'd eaten their first meal of the DAY at 7pm and said they didn't intend to eat dinner until much later!
Nick commenced an important love affair this first night; not just with the cat who was adorable, but with Rocket Salad with fresh shaved Parmesan, Balsamic, and Olive Oil. I ate 1-2 of these salads a day for the rest of our time on the farm and love how the Italians have big blocks of fresh Parmesan to shave and carve pieces off, it's delicious.

Our first morning of 'work' on the farm there was no-one about, we couldn't turn on the gas on the stove and had no idea what we can and can't have from the fridge, an awkward start.
We did a little work but really need rake and gloves to be effective with chestnuts, and we are locked out of the tool shed with no idea how to get in!
It is a lovely farm with heaps to do but loads of potential, and just the right size where it's not overwhelmingly vast but still has enough room for everything. It also sits on a hill with fine views over the valley, we'd love to have it for ourselves.
At last at 1pm our housemates awoke and opened the garage for us and explain how to use gas. Alicia was sick and weary and rested and I collected chestnuts with rake and gloves, and firewood from the forest. After an hour collecting firewood in the peace and tranquility of the woods I realised manual labouring gives you a lot of time to think and that manual labourers should really be the best thinkers and philisophers around!

Vanni arrive around 6pm, he seemed guilty about the freezing house and the food debacle, apologised and bought us groceries at the local store, he also managed to get us a heater although there's a major problem with electricity in the farm house: the whole place only has a 3KW supply and so unless you carefully balance which heaters/ cooking appliances/ and water heaters are on you blow the supply and need to trek outside to flip the fuse back on.

That night we had a Rocket salad and nice thin Spanish ham from Sevilla that Fermino had got from family, very salty and delicious. We had a bit of a chat with Margarita and Fermino who are very easy going people. Fermino explained to Alicia his philisophy in life is that 'too much work would stop him doing the things he likes; so he does minimal work' If only that could work for everyone eh?! I stayed up and chatted a bit more after getting the sick and suffering Alicia to bed in our slightly warmer room.

Our next couple of days were of firewood collection in the pretty woods and raking up and collecting all the fallen chestnuts as Alicia slowly recovered vitality and strength.
I listened to some podcasts to distract myself from the mindless work when Alicia's not there to keep me company.

One day Vanni arrived after lunch to drop off some fresh meat he'd bought us and to show us how to drive the newly acquired 4wd. The track we drove on was the worst road ever. He lurched up a perilous track with enormous holes in it and a huge rock which would have destroyed the vehicle if hit. I was amazed to see what a 4wd could do and glad we had the windows and canvas roofs to protect us from the plants that we crashed through and tried to tear us to shreds.
I test drove it around the paddock, the turning circle was awful but the pulling power was remarkable. We then had me drive the vehicle back down the dirt track of death. The vehicle has shocking brakes so I had to leave it in first gear, amazingly to me the 4wd doesn't stall at this slow speed but the gear keeps the car inching along on the shocking bumpy surface and we got down with no real trouble, it was a great experience driving a hardy old 4wd (SJ41) on such a bad, bumpy road.
The 4wd has no petrol but is otherwise now ours to use. Vanni said he'll bring fuel but in the meantime it doesn't serve much purpose. Pressed for time he said goodbye expressing guilt for abandoning us so completely as our 'host'.
I told Alicia our stay is like a computer game where we keep getting equipment and skill upgrades as slowly more activities and tools and freedom and tasks become available to us, I doubt it's what our host planned but it's working out exactly like that.

What has become apparent to us is that Alicia's key reason for wanting to come to this host; the fact they offered to teach real Italian cooking is not going to happen: our hosts don't live with us and Margarita doesn't start cooking until hours after we're asleep. This is a major downer for our Italy trip where Alicia had her heart set on learning some Italian food and cooking. On a positive about Italian food in our farm kitchen they have a cool little Olive Oil pouring can that looks like an old style oil can (like the one used by the tin man). We love the little pouring oil can and will get one for home.
Although we didn't learn much Italian we did get to try a little Spanish! One night Marg/ Fermino showed up at the house with three pals from Spain. We shared some consume from M's soup and fire roasted meats, bread, and peppers with them. Also a giant bottle of Chianti Vanni bought for us at the store which we never could have drunk alone. The wine wasn't too bad, very dry but much better than I recall Chianti. It was a little odd having a Spanish wood fired cuisine night on an Italian farm, but fun.

Our next day with Alicia getting more lively and recovered we did some more chestnut and firewood work then I cooked up a big lunch with Italian sausages (tasty, salty, hearty), capsicum, onion, tomato and pasta which was very good and had my usual rocket and parmesan salad with a splash of olive oil.
Fermino (the Spanish artist) finished making a hand made Didgeridoo which sounds exactly as it should and has an interesting extended opening at the base like an open flower petal, I'm sure he could sell it for decent money.

The first of our 'not what we signed up for' tasks was duly delegated to us a few days into our stay; our host asked us to jetwash and wet vacuum the floors in the downstairs abandoned rooms which are bursting with junk and clutter. It was a sign of things to come as our hosts strayed from the agreed host/ helper agreement of us helping with what they'd advertised online and we started picking up a range of dubious chores.

Going a bit stir crazy on the farm and feeling the need to be free we risked the 4wd fuel light (you could hear fuel sloshing around inside so should be fine) and with a hand drawn map from Fermino drove off to buy some groceries. The 4wd has lousy brakes and a long turning circle which certainly made it a challenge but we made it about 8km on slow narrow country roads with hairpin turns to the COOP in the small town of Sieci. We loaded up on lollies, chocolates, and others things we desired and drove home in the dark praying to the Atheist gods we wouldn't run out of fuel.
We got home ok and enjoyed delicious chicken & penne dish with fresh pesto, pine nuts, and onions & capsicum. I had a couple of beers to celebrate Friday night after a week of 'work' and we retired after watching a little tv on the laptop

The BAD disorganisation which drove us nuts during our stay reared it's ugly head Saturday morning; we were told be ready at 9am to go back to Florence for a city break and days off. We got up had breakfast, packed our bags, then couldn't start any work as we assumed we'd be picked up any minute.....
Vanni ended up arriving after 12pm to say he'd prefer we stay on the farm whilst he and Anna visited over the weekend actually and since we didn't need a city visit we said 'no problem'.

Knowing we were now on the farm for another week we needed groceries so we set out in our little 4wd and got it fueled up. We then made our way to a town called something like Pontassevio, driving through a town called San Franceso on the way ( which amused us and had us singing about where we left our heart). The town was a bit working class but had some good rustic charm with coloured houses on the riverbank and with luck on our side we found our way to the giant CO-OP supermarket. In the supermarket we loaded up on necessities and luxuries. Italy makes you barcode your own fruit and veg when you bag them same as they do in France.
We got all our groceries home and then finished up our day loading some of the largest and heaviest firewood logs into the 4wd trailer (about 30kg and the size of a 3 year old) to bring them back to the house. I managed to get my right pinky finger between the log and the steel trailer and crushed it worse than I've ever crushed any of my fingers in my life. It has a bad blood blister and throbs with pain and makes it hard to type as it's my right pinky which is a major typing finger!

Saturday night and our 'hosts' Vanni and Anna arrived; Anna was expressing dismay at the filth of the house which is nothing to do with us. We had been keeping a high level of kitchen cleanliness within the constraints of having our housemates F/M who are total slobs mess it up, yet we had to listen patiently to Anna bitching about the disgusting kitchen implying we were to blame!
I was feeling like throwing in the towel and giving them a piece of my mind and finishing the WOOFing then and there; we were both very pissed off to be treated like the cause of a problem which is not of our making!
This incident in particular soured our relationship with Anna from the start and Alicia couldn't get over what a bad hostess she was which is why anyone who talks to Alicia about our farm experience will hear nothing but bitching.

With new people in the house that night we managed to blow the 3KW electricity limit for the house whilst I was in the shower and I stood in the dark whilst Alicia found a torch then chatted away to Anna whilst I continued to shower in pitch black wondering when Alicia would deign to save me.... She's a crazy girl who would have demanded an instant rescue if it had happened to her!
With Vanni our host finally on the farm we commenced the Olive grove clearance the next day. It turns out the motorised whipper snipper is broken and out of action so the clearance will all be manual labour with a hand sickle, machetes, hoe, and pitchfork. The task is to clear out the Olive grove of 90 trees of all weeds, brambles, ivy, etc so they can lay collection material under the trees and shake the olives down.
Our first morning of clearance was in rain that got heavier as the day proceeded, we eventually had to retire for lunch and give up for the day as it was too wet. In the afternoon they requested we do some Ikea assembly to get a new kitchen unit done, it took hours and we got a taste of our hostess Anna's 'control freak' as she meddled in what we were doing. With it finally done we were tired and grumpy and it was after 5pm on Sunday night. Not to be thwarted from making our lives miserable Anna requested we help move some furniture around then vacuum the whole house from top to bottom! She then stated that it was too inconvenient having us in the front room (which everyone always needs access through) and that we'd kept it too messy with all our belongings and so we were to be shifted up to the teenagers loft where we'd be “more comfortable and warm”.
This was another major point of frustration with our hosts in that (A) they didn't seem to have any comprehension that a work day should end, and that if you've put in an honest days work, you put down the tools at 5 or 6pm and STOP work. (B) was that Anna didn't seem to know what we'd signed up for as helpers (since Vanni organised it) and so asked us to do spring cleaning jobs like vacuuming floors and steaming mattresses after we'd worked in the fields all day; I suspect if our hosts had their act together they would have been much better. If they'd wanted 'spring cleaners' they could have advertised for this online!

To our astonishment the local tradesman doing work at the house were there until after 6pm on Sunday night; what on EARTH is wrong with the tradesman in Italy?! From what we've seen they usually don't arrive before 4pm and usually don't leave until after 6pm, but to be working on Sunday at all?! Let alone after 4pm? It really does seem there are some major cultural differences in the days and hours we perceive work should be done versus what happens in Tuscanny.

Not particularly enjoying our hosts company now they're at the farm we got to bed for the final night in our downstairs ensuite room before we were shifted to another room that was more out of the way in the house.

Out in the Olive fields the next day we set to work on more clearing. Alicia scythed the grass, brambles, and weeds away from the base of each tree so there's room to put what Vanni described as parachute material under each tree to catch the olives, I worked on clearing away brambles and the vines on tree trunks, specifically to disconnect vines from their roots so they'd die and not hurt the trees anymore. It's staggering how many spiders live in amongst the vine root systems and I was constantly being wary of dozens of small light brown spiders racing away from the vines I dragged and hacked away from the trees.
Alicia had a massive panic attack after dropping her beanie in the long grass and picking it up to find it covered in literally dozens of Ticks!
Alicia hates and fears ticks due to a recent documentary podcast we listened to and so she refused to touch her beanie for half an hour (which I cleared of ticks) she also demanded a full examination of every mm of her head and also wrists/ ankles/ back, etc, lastly she refused to go anywhere near the tree where she'd found the ticks under although I'd guess there were ticks EVERYWHERE in that field.
In spite of all the spiders, ticks, rain, mud, vicious thorny brambles and hard work we quite enjoy clearing the olive grove, it's satisfying chopping and clearing and the results look good too.

Considering we'd started work around 10 and toiled very hard in the rain we were in bad humour when our hosts asked for help cleaning and clearing ashes from the fire places after 6pm! We don't know if it' a culture thing or what but we can't help feeling the work day should have a defined start and end and it shouldn't go on endlessly into the night!
Anna was driving us nuts, she's a bad control freak and tends to come and take over a tasks she's delegated, this can occasionally be used to advantage though if she takes over an undesirable task and you can slip away to do something else! I almost burst into hysterical laughter at the absurdity of the fireplace cleanup; I was shovelling out lots of ash and Anna came out and said we'd probably need to wash it all out (!) she then suggested that maybe it should be shovelled and washed out daily! What a fricking stupid idea! There's a really practical plan for a house where people actually live!?
Needless to say when she moved in with some wet rags to scrub the fireplace I ran for the hills and escaped. Oddly A&V have frequently lamented their failure as hosts and confess their organisation has been poor.

With the long weekend over we were glad to see the end of our frustrating hosts and Margarita and Fermino returned from the city. Whilst we toiled in the olive grove Fermino was pottering around the yard chopping down a tree; Alicia hilariously and cynically suggested that whatever he was working on would be something useless (as opposed to the tangible work we are doing).... Prophetic.... It turns out he'd cut the tree down to build another Didgeridoo!

One of our last days we awoke to heavy rain so had a lie in to wait for better weather then had some breakfast, cleaned the fireplaces and started fires, and set up to read on a lounge and drink hot chocolate since there's nothing else for us to do; unable to get into the Olive grove in this weather. We are weary from working the last 8-9 days straight with no break and so were hoping this might be an impromptu one. Sadly Vanni arrived and decided thoughtlessly to put us to work (he really doesn't seem to have comprehension of the need to have a day off which is part of the original helper agreement or to stop working at a certain time of day). We were tasked with building the disassembled kitchen cabinets downstairs, then shoveling some sand to fix a big puddle in the front yard, and painting a couple of doors.

The weather improved in the afternoon so we did some olives too, after a tiring and fairly long day which culminated in a long painting spell for Alicia we finally got to finish up and Alicia had another bath. I cursed Alicia's black heart for having a bath because once again it used up all the hot water and I had to have a lukewarm shower that made me grumpy.

Our last day on the farm the sun beat down so hot we had to strip off our jumpers and long sleeve tops which left our bare arms to the mercy of brambles and we picked up some nasty wounds. A couple of times I had to extract Alicia who was shouting in pain from the vines of brambles and Alicia had to pull thorns out of my arms like they were hypodermic needles buried in my flesh. We took away a lot of bad punctures, gashes, and scratches from the brambles and a few spider bites too it seems. The only way we can bear to get through a day these days is dosed up on antihistamines which stop all the rashes and bites from driving us bonkers.

We slogged our way through the final trees with fading and energy and curses the big bramble bushes on our final two trees that made it a rough finish. We completed the clearance of 90 olive trees with satisfaction and then returned to the house to get changed, pack our bags and be ready.

On the drive to Florence Vanni asked for feedback and I unloaded ten days of frustration on him. He took it look a man and apologised for being a bad host, and claimed all of Anna's rage was focused at Margarita and him, not us (but it didn't feel that way to us).

We treated ourselves to a lovely meal back in Florence. Our fine restaurant started us with an lovely warm vegetable cake appetiser and champagne aperitif and then delicious pumpkin ravioli for Alicia, a decent roasted suckling pig for Nick, and a nice little bottle of red wine.
We bade prompt farewell to our hosts the next day and checked into a Florence hotel for a final night and enjoyed our last day in Florence.

Talking about the farm in retrospect though we were frustrated by the poor hosting we did largely enjoy our time with a beautiful settings, satisfaction in a job done well on the olive grove, some good eating, and immersion in the small towns and the farm in countryside Italy.

Our next Italy stop was Milan; it was only a transit stop for two nights and we had disgusting overcast weather the whole time so there's not much to say.
You notice the 'model' factor in Milan as quite a few woman are tall and striking, though not many are actually pretty, presumably the city is overrun with models and wannabes.

Eating out in Milan we got seated and our helpful waiter agreed to explain to Alicia what was in each pasta as it was all in Italian; amusingly he also decided to explain what each pasta was and so described briefly what Spaghetti was (thin long strands with a small hole in the middle) to our muffled amusement and then strongly recommended a pasta with lamb in it.
Alicia did go for the lamb pasta after double checking with him he'd indeed said “lamb” and I had a 4 seasons pizza. To our astonishment the waiter came out 5 mins later with a pasta full of Mussels for Alicia; we called him back and admonished him explaining mussels were NOT lamb, he seemed surprised but agreed to take it away and get Alicia another pasta without too much fuss. Alicia ended up with a very nice tomato and cheesy pasta and my pizza was good.

We got to Milan airport and through with no memorable episodes, buying some rolls to eat on the plane on the way, and falling foul of the Easyjet staff who INSISTED we cram all our stuff into one carry on bag each even though it was all food and books anyway which were always going to have to come out on the plane and put me in a bad mood (stupid stupid bastards!!).

So ended our time in Italy, how did the result compare to our best laid plans?

We barely learned anything on the Italian cooking front which was a shame for Alicia, learned a lot and had a GOOD time on the WOOFing despite frustrations, and regret we weren't more healthy to enjoy our last taste of Rome. We'll be back to Italy someday.

Interestingly by being back into 'work' of a sorts it has rejuvenated our desire to travel and so we can now hit Spain with the kind of enthusiasm we had during the early part of our six months.

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Photos

Pantheon
The amazing Pantheon built in Ancient times. The hole designed in the roof does add value

Rome Fountains
Plenty of pretty fountains in Rome

Tiber Bridges
The Tiber may be an ugly river but it's got some pretty bridges near Castelo Santangelo

Castelo Santangelo
The bridge over the Tiber to the Castle

Villa Adriana 2
Vast decorative pools

Tuscan Farmhouse
The farmhouse which runs on a 3kw power supply. we often blew the wretched supply when cooking and heating!

Charm around the Farm
Views around the farm as the sunset were always pretty

Comments

[Mum g]

Tuscany & italy Blog
Your time on the farm would have had me ranting to Vanni, going off my brain at Anna and walking out!! I certainly hope that you spell it out in black and white on the website so that some other poor unsuspecting people don't fall for the very false advertising. However enjoyed your Blog as usual Look forward to the rest of your Spain.Love- Mum