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Published: July 31st 2009
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Enzo at the market
Selling our beautiful produce and bake goods in Dolce Aqua Mama mia! Aspetta! Aspetta means wait, and it is the most commonly spoken word in this household. I always intend to count how many times it is said, but then it just seems too daunting. Also aspettiamo (we wait), and many other versions. Everything is happening so fast! I can understand quite a bit of Italian but am not great when it comes to speaking, and bought a book to learn more, and intend to continue my studies when I get back home. It really is a beautiful language and isn't so difficult if you try. My current vocabulary mostly consists of the names of fruits and vegetables and curse words. Many, many curse words. I'll tell you why with cinque Fs.
Family
I am living in an Italian stereotype. The mother, Silvana, cooks and cleans all day while humming Italian songs, and says cute Italian phrases like "mamma mia" and "oh dio", and yells at her sons and husband constantly. My favorites are "che cavolo" and "ma va" which literally translated mean "what cabbage" and "but it goes". She doesn't speak a word of english but it's not too difficult to understand her most of the time
because she uses a lot of repetition and sign language. She doesn't let me do laundry or wash dishes (yay) and is always asking if I want something to eat. She is rather self deprecating because at every meal she apologizes for the food being so bad when it is amazing (more details on that later). She also has a way of making everything a problem. For example, one night she was complaining that the dining room table was too narrow and the next she started an argument about when Italians families are supposed to eat dinner. The father, Enzo, is a really nice man that works constantly even though he is 60. There are 4 sons- Lorenzo is 15, and Alberto, Stefano, and Marco are all in their 20s. Lorenzo, or Lori for short, is such a sweetie. Alberto is into biking and climbing, and has the best English of all of them. Stefano is a train conductor and would be a frat boy if he went to college. Marco is never around because he has a girlfriend. There is a little dog named Spillo and a cat named Ming or Mino, and they are so jealous of each
Dolce Aqua
In the water after the market. other. The boys rarely help with the farming, or anything really, so it's like the WWOOFers are the good kids in the family.
As you can imagine, meal times are rather crazy with all these boys, and also now 3 WWOOFers. But everyone is so friendly, I really feel like part of the family. This is a small town, outside of Bra, called Rivolta which a part of La Morra. If you're part of the family, then you get to meat everyone in town, also. Which brings me to fun...
Fun
I have been mountain biking, rock climbing on real rocks in the mountains and in an indoor gym, playing ping pong, hiking in the mountains, and swimming at the beach. With the young guys in the house, it's easy to find something to do, and they always include us and invite us to do all of the above plus go out every night. There is a local bar about 3 minutes walk away, but everyone drives there. It's basically about 10 or so 20 something Italian guys sitting around drinking, cursing, smoking, and speaking Italian. Rather boring. But we sometimes go to parks or friends
Dolche Aqua
A beautiful town and a beautiful beach. houses, and I much prefer the biking and climbing crowd, where many of them speak some English and most are shirtless. Monday was our free day and mom and dad took Henni and I to the mountains for an incredibly scenic hike will mountains, marmots, sheep, streams, lakes, and rivers. I think I may stay an extra day more then planned because I want another day in the mountains. It's difficult to choose what to do in my free time- sleep, study Italian, play ping pong? I hope you all appreciate the time I am taking to write this...Anyway, hanging out with all these guys teaches you many curse words...
Fancullo
This is the F-word in English and Italian and it is used quite often. Then there is mannaggia, which is damn, and cazzo and minchia, which have several meanings. But this is all you really need to know to talk to these guys. Well, most. But everyone in the family uses them quite often, although Silvana usually chooses the more mild ones. The local dialect, Piedmontese, has a lot of french in it and I have been learning a it of that as well. I also
Lori
My new little brother in the amaca. love the filler words here, like allora and bu (which sounds like they are going to say boat but then stop, and I don't know how to spell it).
Farm
We grow everything here. Watermelon, cantaloupe, plums, figs, grapes, eggplants, green beans, tomatoes, zucchini, cabbage, lettuce, leeks, onions, potatoes, and more. And we can eat anything anytime. Work is usually harvesting something or watering something for a few hours in the morning and then a few hours in the evening. I love it. I think my favorite is picking green beans, or fragolini. We are also building a greenhouse with solar panels on it. On Friday, we start baking cookies and bread using stone ground organic flour of all kinds in a wood burning oven. Enzo bakes all weekend until 1 am, and then Silvana gets up to finish. I don't know how they do it, in addition to all the other work they do. On the weekend we go to markets to sell the produce, bread, and cookies. Which brings me to food...
Food
The food in the house is mostly grown here, including eggs. Only meat and dairy products and somethings like
Building
Hennie and Enzo mixing cemet for the wall for the solar greenhouse thing. olive oil are from other places, but it is always from Peidmonte. The 3 of us WWOOFer girls are vegetarians, which causes much grief with Silvana, but the fresh fruit and vegetables are so good. In this area of Italy, they eat a lot of raw meat, especially veal. Gross.
The markets are amazing. We leave super early and drive on these amazing mountainous roads towards the sea. A good way to learn Italian is to have a line of pushy people asking for bread and produce. I had no training,, so it was crazy at first, but I really enjoy selling things that I harvested or baked. So satisfying. The other booth are maybe the best part. Every kind of food imaginable to meats, cheeses, wines, oils, jams, pastas, etc. We can eat everything in our booth, but also can have as much money and time to explore the other booths and the town. The markets are also usually near the beach, so we can take a few hours to lay around or go swimming. My favorite place has been DolceAqua, sweet water, which is really close to the french border, and really charming little town with old
Climbing
Bouldering in the montains. I was terrible at it, because I have no finger/lower arm strength. streets and a beautiful beach. There was the most charming and beautiful 13 y/o boy at one of the booths who I spend a few hours talking to. If he was 10 years older, I don't think I would be coming home. His mother is french and his father Italian, so he lives in Italy and goes to school in France, and knows both languages, and also speaks English really well for only studying it for 2 years. He was telling us that the french and Italian mentalities are precious, because they value material things over personalities.
Allora
That's most of it. on Tuesday I go to Cinque Terre for a hiking and swimming vacation, and then I got to another farm. I still haven't decided what to do after, but I may come back here and I maychange my ticket to come home on august 26 th. I'll keep you updated. Ciao!
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Chris
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Living the dream!!!