Help exchange in Rogliano

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September 28th 2008

Published: September 29th 2008

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Down and out in Millport and Arran

Undergound aqueduct

Featuring my fine left leg and arm

My first help-exchange and the first time I've been to Italy. I flew out from Stansted, arriving at Lamezia airport to meet Keith, my host and Hannah another helper. Any worries I had were unjustified - he was not a murderer, weirdo or sex-pest. Just a normal down-to-earth guy.

We had about a 40min drive through stunning scenery to his house, located just outside the village of Rogliano. What a place - see photo above but I can't do it justice. Surrounded by rolling hills and a smattering of sleepy looking villages, it's like stepping back in time. Well, until you see the traffic. What a nightmare!

Maria, Keiths wife, was waiting for us when we arrived. She showed us to our rooms. Hannah was inside and I had a little log-cabin-esque extension outside - bonus! Lunch was served soon after, my first decent meal since Dinner the day before. Don''t sleep in Stansted. Just don't. We had a wide variety: Firittata, fresh veg and Salad, and these amazing vegetable fritters which were like food-sex. I snatched the plate and sprinted up the nearest tree, stuffing my face and throwing chestnuts at anyone who came near. It would be

Clipping feathers

My tits, featuring some bird.....and Joey - the chicken!

some days before anyone spoke to me again....

We started work at 9am the following day, I cleared apples from under the tree. Filling many crates with the good ones. Anything else went in two wheelbarrows for the pigs. Figs, apples, walnuts, tomatos...there is a seemingly endless supply of fresh food, ready to eat off the tree/bush/vine in most cases. I've developed quite a taste for figs - skin and all! Something I'll sadly miss when I leave. This has certainly been a culinary experience. I've went from hating spicy food to cutting fresh chillis into soup and pasta, sometimes with amusingly delayed consequences. Top tip: If you squeeze a chilli out with your fingers don't use it to rub your eye hours later! New things I've tried: Rabbit, Figs and Walnuts fresh off the tree, proper spaghetti carbonara, fresh wine which tastes like the nectar of the gods. I wish I had kept a food journal, I can't remember the half of it. Oh, and the regular supply of crisp, ice-cold lager aint half bad either.

They have a few animals around. Two dogs - Billy and Rocky, come on walks in the hills with me, they

Rogliano Village

All narrow alleys - very picturesque

are my favorites. I've never met dogs like them, Billy scales a wall so he can eat figs off the top of the tree and Rocky cracks walnuts with suprisisng ease. Two sheep, Bella and Matilda, are regularlly seen on their hind legs eating leaves and fruit from the trees. In addition, they have Hens, roosters, chicks and a couple of rabbits. The latter provided by Maria 's brother. Maria has a typically large and close-knit Italian family. Meeting them was quite an intimidating experience, they are effervescent, but always entertaining.

Going from an airless building on a souless RAF station to the south of Italy been a hugely positive experience. If the next year is even half as good as the last few weeks here then i'll count myself a lucky man.

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