Gettin Twiggy with it

September 28, 2011
Gettin Twiggy with it comes from our time spent liberating the olive trees... We got lots of twigs stuck in our hair.

Our last few days at the farm flew by and we enjoyed every minute. We continued to have amazing meals and indulge on all the home cooked fresh food. Over our time on the farm we never had the same meal twice and although they all had similar ingredients they tasted different from the one before. Although our way of contributing to the meals was to do the dishes, by our last night we were having cooking lessons from Kirstie and found out some of the secrets to her delicious food. We both feel very inspired to cook when we get home, and hope we can figure out how to make it taste the same.

We worked on liberating the olive trees the past three mornings. We tackled the trees that seemed to be fully engulfed in vines, blackberry's, and rose bushes. All the prickers did not bowed well for our arms and legs, which looked like they had been in a serious cat fight. But it was extremely satisfying to find the olive tree after clearing away all the other vegetation. Our last tree we worked on for two hours, and the vegetation around it had been growing into a thick mess for over 28 years (before Kirstie moved to the farm). Kirstie was rather impressed that two young American girls plowed through so much work on the olive trees.

We also continued our other chores of feeding the animals, walking the dogs (who became our new best friends) and watering the garden. On our last day we also helped stack a massive wood pile, which we are sure will make Jorie's dad very proud.

Two afternoons we went on adventures... On Monday we hitched a ride into San Casciano (the closest big town) with Kirstie and Granny/Robin. San Casciano is a cute town with lots of fun streets and lots of local social life. It was nice to be in a non-touristy town for a change. On Tuesday we tried to tackle the Italian bus system again and go to Siena. Kirstie packed us the best lunch to eat on our journey. Getting there was smooth without a problem, however, getting home was more challenging. We got back after dark again and we had yet another angel help us, this time it was Pascal, as he picked us up at the bottom of the hill so we wouldn't have to walk in the dark.

Anyways, Siena was amazing, it was our favorite city in Italy (I should say so far because we are on our way to Rome now). The city is built on more of a hilly landscape which allows you to have views of the city and countryside. The streets are narrow and winding with tall stone buildings with shutters. There are lots of plazas, but the most notable is Piazza del Campo which is built like an amphitheater with a clock tower as the focal point. It was great people watching on the plaza- people laying on the incline looking up at the clock tower, kids playing kick the can, and tons of people with gelato. We of course couldn't resist the gelato and it's a good thing we didn't because it was the best ice cream so far this trip! The Siena Duome Cathedral was incredible and we can go as far to say it was the most impressive church, both inside and outside, that we have seen. We were in awe of the detail and the spectacular art work. We went nuts with the camera but the pictures don't do it justice. This church should be on people's bucket lists....

Our last afternoon at the farm we did some more print making, had some cooking lessons, and enjoyed Granny and Kirstie's company.

The whole week was a dream come true, it was the perfect way to see Italy. We had an amazing deal on the farm- we lived in paradise with a wonderful family and outstanding food in exchange for 4 hours of work a day. This morning we left the farm heavier, both our bags from added olive oil and our bodies from indulging on olive oil. We were sad to leave but hope to make it back to the farm for olive harvest season someday.


More lessons from traveling:
- Finding someone to take your picture is a serious art.... We have had so much trouble with picture taking in Italy. We practically did an entire photo shoot with one women to only discover later that she infect never pushed the button. The key is so look for people with a similar camera, but even that doesn't aways work.
- Italian men are not shy about starring.... We've even been getting honks from tour bus drivers. Also, While in a Internet Cafe we had a man take pictures of us on his iPhone... This creeped us out.

Lessons from Granny:
- a baguette is actually called a "husband banger"
- a joke: "what did the bra say to the hat?", "You go on ahead and I'll give these two girls a lift"