Toscana - food and locals

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24th
Bologna - Pisa - Orciatico
We decided to take the toll roads so we could get to Orciatico quickly. What the kids didn’t know was that we had organised four nights in an apartment in a small village in Tuscany. But instead of ending up in Orciatico we headed for Pisa - the leaning tower.
Anton
Pisa was busy. We were starving again - 2 o’clock and we still hadn’t had lunch (for the second time in a row). We found a car park full of tourists and a cafe. Pizza and gnocchi and we were ready to go. Broken leg and mum stayed in the car park. Broken leg got to see the top of the tower while Dad, Blake and I went for a walk to see it up close. Unfortunately it started to rain - Dad said it would only be light. But it got heavier and heavier. I was in a t-shirt, shorts and jandals. The tower - well it was just a leaning tower. It looked like he knew the bottom was on a lean so he tried to fix it further up. There were lots of shops around the tower, a guy mowing the lawns (it reminded me of cricket), and hawkers. They were trying to sell us umbrellas. Dad told them “no” but on the way home the rain got heavier so Blake and I put newspapers over our heads. Dad said we looked like homeless people. I suppose we are though.
Mum and Dad told us a story about finding a campsite in a small little village somewhere - so back on the road again. When we finally got to the little village we stopped and asked a guy if he knew where the place was. He asked another guy who asked another guy who called someone and then said ‘one moment please’. Then we got to meet Jill who rents out the apartments. We finally found out that our treat was staying in our own house.
The village Orciatico is on the side of a hill so everything is on a slope. Hugo is parked down the hill so there’s a walk to get anything we’ve forgotten. Our apartment is on the top of a villa. We have two floors; two bedrooms, bathroom, lounge/kitchen/bedroom and our own patio looking out over Tuscany. The ceilings have old wooden beams and concrete tiles. The windows have shutters and our lounge has an open fire. It hasn’t rained here in four months. Even today is blue sky and sunny. So I don’t think we’ll need the fire for warmth. Just for cooking our marshmallows.
I get to sleep in my own bed tonight without any other brother.
25th October
Day trip to Volterra by Mason
We drove in the campervan to a village called Volterra. We saw four pheasants on the way. The road was really windy, steep and bouncy. I stayed in the Laundromat with Mum because I couldn’t walk up the hill to the town.
When I was at the Bologna camping ground I was pulling a wheelie for about 15 metres and my back wheel, when I was trying to straighten up, slipped on some lose gravel and my bike turned sideways but I didn’t. The bike pulled me down and I put my leg down to stop me and the bike turned into my leg and pushed me down to the ground. I ripped it out of my leg and pushed it back up and the bike then fell back down into the same spot again. I now have a bruise from half way down my thigh to above my hip. The colours are; yellow, purple, black and red. It’s not the easiest spot to ice or rub arnica into.
Because of this I couldn’t walk up the hill to Volterra. I can only just walk up to the top floor of our house using the handrail. Dad said I look like an old man because I have to stick my bum out and hunch over so I don’t stretch my leg so much.
The Laundromat in Volterra is really nice and I got to read a book about Italian sports cars. Mum can’t spell Lamborghini. Anton said that volterra was really nice. And I had to fold up all the washing by myself because Dad left me on my own to buy food.
We didn’t have lunch again until 2 o’clock. It was all dads’ fault.
26th October
Orciatico
We had an awesome day today. We stayed at home and chilled out. We finally got some cricket practice in. We went down to the soccer field and next to it was an astro turf tennis court/summer soccer and we bowled into the net and Dad gave us some throw downs and he bowled to us. I bowled to Mum and she played it on into her thigh then she quit.
After cricket practice we went to Jill’s. Jill is a Kiwi but she’s lived in Italy for 22 years and she rents out apartments. Mum had made a banana cake so we took that. Jill gave us tiramisu which she had made. It was beautiful - creamy and delicious. Lots of coffee. Mum loved it. FLavio Jill’s husband is cool. He reminded me of Poppa. He speaks a little English and it was fun listening to him speak Italian to us and working out what he said.
Behind their house people were picking olives. Dad, Blake, Mason and I went and picked them as well. You pick them and drop them on the ground because there’s a net on the ground to catch them. You have to pick 10 kilos to get 1.5 kilos of oil and the pickings by hand so that’s why it’s so expensive. Every olive is treated with care - they don’t waste anything.
Then Flavio took us to where they press the olives. We went in his Mercedes C220. It is a lot faster than Hugo. Blake loved it. The first thing they do is separate the leaves from the olives, then the olives are washed crushed, water, oil and stuff separated and then you have the olive oil. 70% water, 15% oil. Then the man got us to taste it. He said we had to put it on our tongue, breath in through our mouth and out through our nose. At first it’s smooth and fresh then it becomes peppery as it goes down your throat. My face went bright red. We tasted fresh oil and last year’s oil, the last years oil tasted smoother and softer.
Gareth’s speal
Finally I got to pick olives in a field with the kids and an Italian family. They thought it was a great joke us just bowling up and getting stuck in. I couldn’t understand a word they said to me, lucky we could call on Jill to interpret.
The olive pressing was really interesting; it takes a lot of machinery to extract the oil. Alfa Laval which is the same as the milking machine company in NZ made the ones we looked at. The oil is extracted by spinning the olive pulp in a drum at about 6600rpm.
The locals in the village just hang out and talk all day, it’s like a big family and you can always hear voices coming from the streets below or around the corner. On Saturday evening there were about 12 locals all in the square having chat, they are all in their 60’s and over. It made me think that maybe living a lot closer to each other gives them more to live for and enjoy. This could be why the Italians live one of the longest lives in the world, and of course the olive oil.
Driving in Europe.
The first time you drive on the right hand side of the road it feels like you’re looking in a mirror. What I mean by this as everything is opposite. I have driven on the wrong side of the road a couple of times, mainly when I’m distracted and just returned to the road after a stop. That usually gets the heart racing and I have to concentrate every time I drive. We use some phrases like “right is right” and Sherie often says” I’m in the middle”.
I have never flown a plane but driving on the motorways over here could be the closest I get. Depending on which country you’re in I get to drive at around 120 to 140 km. The motor ways are built up so you are always looking down on houses, farms, paddocks and trees. I get the feeling I’m flying at tree top level, skimming over the earth. Then you drive over massive valleys and rivers when you are literally hundreds of meters off the ground. It seems to take no time at all to travel 100 km and with all the traffic going the same way it’s just a matter of timing your passing manoeuvres past the thousands of trucks.
27th October - by Mason
Orciatico
We went out for an early cricket practice, did some batting, bowling and catching. Mum is getting better, but she still bowls slowly. But it’s ok because she bowls the hard ball to me. We went back to Hugo and drove off to a restaurant for lunch. I had spaghetti alla carbonara and so did Blake. Dad had pork, Anton had gnocchi, and mum had ravioli. It was all absolutely delicious. For the rest of the afternoon we drove around looking to do some shopping but we bought nothing.
We went back to our house and mum and dad looked at my bruise. It still didn’t look good and it was a little bit swollen. Mum rang Jill and asked if we could go to the Doctor. He was right next to our house. The Doctor looked at it and growled mum and sent us to the hospital. Luckily Jill was with us because she took us to hospital. I got straight in and they gave me a wheelchair. Then I got seen by a Paediatrician. He spoke English and laughed when he saw my bruise. He told mum that a lot of people come for a lot less than what I had. He said that people from down under a tough. Then a radiologist took pictures of my kidneys, liver, gall bladder and lots of other things. He laughed when I told him that I did it when I was doing a wheelie. Then a surgeon saw me and he was really nice, he didn’t speak English so he spoke through Jill. He said that the fluid would be absorbed by my body and that a cream would break up the haematoma. Then I saw the Paediatrician again - he said that I needed to do nothing for four days. (NO more cricket.) We didn’t tell him that I had been practicing cricket for two days and walking up and down hills. I was scared at first when the doctor told me to go to hospital but the people at the hospital were really nice and I felt safe because I had mum and Jill with me. We got home at 23.30.
28th October
WE stayed in Orciatico again today so that I wouldn’t have to move too much. We did school work in the morning, watched documentaries in the afternoon. Then for dinner we went to a restaurant with FLavio and Jill. We had the best pizza I have ever tasted. They had a thin base and twice the amount of cheese and bacon you normally get. Dessert was delicious. Mum didn’t order one but when she saw FLavio she wanted one too. Flavio gave us all really cool presents. Anton got a pin of the 1990 soccer world cup, Blake got the pin of the company that makes the really cool three wheel car things and I got an Italian badge, it has three jets on it and they fly when it’s a really special occasion like when they won the FIFA world cup. Jill gave mum a really pretty necklace and Flavio gave dad a pin for the police here. Flavio use to be a police officer. They also gave us some fossils. They are oyster shells that were found in Orciatico. When you see how high up Orciatico is and how far it is from the sea you know how old these shells must be. FLavio said that I have to come back to Italy, Orciatico for my honeymoon - I said yep.
On the way home we saw little frogs jumping across the road.
29th October
Today was really boring because we were in the car for 7 hours. Tomorrow will be really boring too because we are back in the car for another 6 hours.

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Photos

Leaning Tower
the two hughes that got to see it.

Poppas car
Looking for firewood - the boys found your car Pop

Broken Legs broken leg
This was before it started looking bad.

Orciatico
The view from our kitchen window