Seggiano

I apologize for the incredibly long absence of a blog update! Internet access has of course been sparse and lots has happened! After the two weeks I spent at the previous farm my mom and sister came out to Italy for a wonderful visit! It was so great to see family and we had ourselves quite the whirlwind adventure! In ten days we managed to see Florence, Venice, Siena, Assisi, and Rome. One of the highlights was attending the Roma vs. Lazio soccer game, also known as The Derby, once we got to Rome. There is a huge rivalry between the two teams as they are from the same region (Rome is in the region of Lazio) and it was really fun and a bit insane! Each side has its own songs that they sing throughout the game and the fans enjoy getting rather vulgar and excited. We loved it. Even though our team lost (we bought Roma t-shirts and everything!) we still had a great time. My mom and I also managed to attend Easter Mass at The Vatican which was pretty special to be with so many people from around the world celebrating the Resurrection, but I have to admit that I found something was off when we survived the craziest soccer game of the year with no problems but somehow ended up almost crushed by the communion line at Mass! We all also made a stop at Casa Faustina to meet up with Giordano and Tamara who were thrilled to meet some of my family and vice versa. I have a feeling we will all be heading back there someday for a more relaxing Italian vacation...

After mom and Betsy headed home I arrived at my final WWOOF location - Castello di Potentino in Seggiano, Tuscany. For the past month I have been working at this restored Renaissance castle run by a wonderful British family. They make fantastic, 5-star wine and are also really fun! There are other wwoofers here as well so it's been great to have our own community. We spend most days walking up and down the 20,000 vines, de-budding, weeding, and training the vines. There was also a week when I weed whacked for 7 hours a day, for 5 days straight - I felt proud of myself for not getting seriously injured while operating that sort of equipment! (I tend to be rather accident prone..) On our off time (2 whole days a week!) we spend cooking, watching old movies, or reading books from their massive library. I'd say all of us wwoofers are all much more cultured after our stay at the castle!

The time has flown by here but I've enjoyed it thoroughly. I've learned to make pasta from scratch, have led my fellow wwoofers in a few gnocchi making sessions, written some silly poems performed after dinner, gotten quite a film education, taken walks to the beautiful nearby river, picked wildflowers that are blooming all around, and learned a ton about wine production. It's been the perfect place to end my working vacation here in Italy.

On Monday I head back to Florence to meet up with my old college roommate Maddie who flies in to Italy on Tuesday. We have quite the tour of Europe planned and I absolutely cannot wait to see her. Our itinerary is as follows:

Cinque Terre for 3 days
Naples/Sorrento/Capri/Pompeii for 6 days or so
Warsaw, Poland for 3 days (especially a visit to Aushwitz)
Berlin for 2 days
Paris for 2 days
Normandy for 2 days for the 65th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion
back to italy for a day before I fly back to the states!

It should be a fantastic end to this amazing journey. I'm sure Ill update more soon, but until then, thanks for checking in!

Sorry no pictures yet but as soon as I get to a proper computer Ill post some!