Adventures in Porto San Stefano and Venice!

Hello everyone! Jake and I have been house sitting for the last week at Il Poderone. This has provided us the opportunity to see more of beautiful Italy. Last week, we made a day trip to Monte Argentario. This is the same island that we visited for Jake's birthday, but this time we drove to the other side to Porto San Stefano. It was another beautiful day for sightseeing! We have become two pretty skilled wanderers, and stumbled upon this view of the Mediterranean. 

So beautiful!

We had lunch while enjoying a beautiful view of the sea. We also went to the Etruscan city of Orbotello, but it was siesta time, so there wasn't much to do. Overall, it was a relaxing day of sightseeing; we had to save energy and, most importantly, money for our trip to Venice!

Ah, Venezia. Wow, what a city! We were both nervous that we weren't going to be able to make it, but we are both SO glad that we did. We were only able to spare a weekend, making for a bit of a whirlwind tour, but we were able to see most of the city.  

As with most of our trips, we spent our day wandering. I think that it's always more exciting to stumble upon something beautiful by chance. Therefore, we had a lovely 2 days of sauntering through the winding canals of Venice. The only downfall was the weather. Oh, the weather. When it wasn't raining, it was very foggy. This made for an eerie and mystical feeling when walking through the alleys. Regardless, our enthusiasm and excitement could not be quenched!

Jake and I crossing over the Grand Canal. Notice the heavy fog. It was early morning, so the gondolas and water taxis weren't about just yet. 

Most of the canals resembled something like this. It was so nice to be in a city without streets and cars. Some of you may know my track record with crossing streets. For those of you who don't, I will just say that it is not good. The lack of vehicles made a stress-free trip for Jake, who frequently saves me from imminent danger.

Despite our adventurous spirits, there were times when we had to consult a map. It is extremely easy to get lost in Venice. I like to pride myself on a having a good sense of direction, but, after this trip, I have been forced to reconsider. 

We stumbled upon the art studio of Enrico Orlando Martina. Usually, he doesn't open his studio until mid-day, but, by chance, he had decided to open early that day. We had quite a good time with him. He was happy to show us some of his techniques (which were quite impressive) and showed us his extensive collection of painting and sketches. We bought one of his cheaper paintings of a canal in Venice!   

This is a view of the docks near St. Mark's Square. It wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be. I think it is actually a blessing that we were in Venice in November. From what I hear it can be a mob scene during the summer and spring months. 

This was one of the only advertisements on display in St. Mark's Square. George Clooney, he's sexy and he knows it.  

We spent a good amount of time in the Palazzo Ducale, the residence of the Doge of Venice. You can see some of our photos here. The palace was adorned with beautiful Murano glass chandeliers, famously made on the Venetian island of Murano. We didn't catch a good picture of them and I can't find one online, so you are just going to have to take my word for it. They were exquisite. 

One of my favorite parts of our trip was the delicious food! Each day we had a cheap lunch, so that we could eat a nice, guilt-free dinner. We both had a full menu (3 courses and dessert) each night and went home feeling very happy. Obviously, the Venetian specialty is seafood, so we enjoyed a variety of squid, mussels, fish, and clams. Mmm, mmm, mmm.

My hair was in desperate need of attention, so I dragged Jake to a salon. He ended up getting his haircut as well, and I must say that we both look pretty spiffy. I don't think that I have ever had a better haircut in my life. My hairstylist was an artist. 

That's all for now, but I hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas! 

Winding Down & Unwinding

It's been another couple weeks since our last blog, but rest assured- this one's a doozie! At long last, I finished our how-to video about where olive oil comes from. Watch & learn (in HD)!

Watch it on youtube in 720p!

Only after you've watched the video may you drop your jaw at this latest round of flickr photos.

Over a week ago, we were still a full house here at Il Poderone. Bodo invited over his Swiss friend, Marco to come and join us for a few days. Marco interrupted our normal cycle of late evening meals with an afternoon barbeque! Afterward, everyone joined in a friendly Boule tournament. Boule is almost exactly the same game as Petanc/Bocci Ball. Bodo and Michael's team came out on top. As you can see, Bodo plays an aggressive game of Boule.

We did round two in Siena with Sarah. By some otherworldly coincidence, it was again raining. The only two times its rained since we've been in Italy have been when we dared to go into Siena. We saw a different side of the city, including the massively-empty Basilica of San Dominico. We went to a snazzy little restaurant for lunch, where I was lured into enjoying a delicious three-course meal (Happy Birthday to me!).

Mary, Sarah, and I accompanied our long-time coworker, Pietra, to the train station in Florence. She was going home, but the rest of us took the opportunity to wander the beautiful city. This time we managed to see the David. We payed the BOGUS price of eleven euro to tour the small museum (no student discount- denied!) full of young, loudmouth students. 

At the beginning of last week, all of the harvesting was finally finished. We spent our mornings with less-demanding oddjobs- fixing the olive nets, bottling the oil, cleaning up thorn bushes, etc. After the work was done, we would unwind with Italian food and Italian beer.

Campagnatico is only a two or three kilometer walk from Il Poderone. Amazingly, Mary and I had never found time to walk there until the middle of last week, when we went with Sarah. All of the nice, old Tuscan cities are built on hilltops. The hills lend themselves to spectacular views! C'mon, look at the flickr photos.

Thursday morning, we took off in Bodo's Fiat Panda looking for the beach- what we found ended up being oh so much more. After seemingly having gone off course, we found a nature trail leading into what appeared to be the middle of a forest. We walked and walked and walked...but never found a good place to sit and have our lunch in the sun. Eventually, we just gave up and sat down on the trail to eat. After we'd finished, we contemplated going back. Sarah scouted out ahead and found an Italian paradisio that would make Dante weep (I will admit it compares to the beauty of Scotland). The above photo has not been tampered with; it's exactly as we saw it. LOOK AT ALL THE PICTURES!!!

This little gem, what I'm boldly naming Italy's best-kept secret, is located north of Punta Ala along the Mediterranean coast. Click here if you'd like to see it on a map.

You'll really be kicking yourself if you miss these pictures...CLICK!!! If you want to find the beach, remember that Garibaldi will show you the way. If you look hard enough, you can see Elba in the distance.

Thursday night was our last night with Bodo & his papa. Friday afternoon, we dropped off Sarah at the train station.

Mary made this lovely little Christmas tree for our kitchen!

It's just Mary and I in the Italian countryside now, and it's been raining nonstop all weekend. We've some friends in Bodo's three cats...but next week we're making a romantic excursion to the city on the water- Venice!

This is another example of the most-triumphantly-violent, Catholicism-inspired art which populates Europe. The 20-foot painting greets all visitors to San Dominico's Basilica, and depicts the horrific death of St. Peter of Verona. He came to be canonized after saying a prayer while a blade was lodged in between his ears.

Don't wait 'til the last minute to get the holiday shopping done,

-Jake

Tanti Auguri a Jake!!

Tanti Auguri a Jake! Jake turned 24 on the 26th of November, so, naturally, we had a wonderful Italian celebration! We went out for an Italian dinner on the 25th, and enjoyed a host of delicious Italian antipasti and three different kinds of pasta. This is one of the things that I love most about Italy. Where else can you eat six appetizers and three main courses and have it be socially acceptable, even encouraged. Oh, and I didn't mention the scrumptious chocolate cake. Have I mentioned that my jeans are feeling a little tight?

Back to Jake's birthday. Sara (the newest addition to our olive harvesting family) Jake, and I made a day trip to the island of Monte Argentario. It is a short drive from Bodo's farm and is connected to the mainland by a large land bridge. It is a small island, but we really only had time to enjoy one of its many beautiful cities, Porte Ercole. 

We arrived in Porte Ercole and found this lovely pier to enjoy the Italian leftovers from the night before. It is good that we carbo-loaded because soon after we climbed 2 hills of quite considerable sizes.  

Mary and the Birthday Boy after lunch at Porte Ercole. Jake looks so happy because I just promised to buy him all the gelato that he could stomach. 

After lunch, we ventured up hill #1 to find this breathtaking view of the Mediterranean. The weather was perfect (almost too warm!) and there was a nice breeze. Not to mention the beautiful sea in front of us. There wasn't a wave to be seen, just ripples made from sailboats. It was perfect, I must say. 

At the top of the hill was Fort Filippo. It looks deserted and unkept, but it turns out that for a hefty price you can buy apartments inside the fort. Of course, only the super rich can enjoy such luxuries as a hilltop fort mansion, but you would think that they could also afford a gardener. The surrounding area was overgrown with weeds and thorn bushes. It made trespassing on their land rather difficult.   

This was me on the way up hill #2. There were hundreds of stone steps, and as you can see, I was having a rather difficult time with them. There was a beautiful view at the top, but the fort that we wanted to see was closed. Dang! 

After hill #2, we walked along the harbor pier. Here you can see just how blue the Mediterranean is!
*Thank you, Fonte S. Vittoria fizzy water, for being our constant source of hydration over the last month. We didn't think we would ever like you, but we are slowly warming up to the idea of carbonation in our water. 

Handsome birthday picture!

Overall, we had a wonderful day of sightseeing and enjoying the beach. We were both a little homesick for Thanksgiving festivities, but we knew that there were going to be many more to enjoy! The olive harvest is almost over. We have one more field and then we move on to bottling the oil. That's all for now, but I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and weren't swallowed whole by the Black Friday monster. Here are some more photos if you are interested. Arrivederci!

Olives, Grosseto, Florence, and More Olives

Mamma mia! It's about time for a blog! It makes it very difficult to blog when we work all morning, sleep all day, and eat all night. We've learned a few interesting tidbits about the region over the last week. For instance, Alan Rickman (Professor Snape) has a holiday home within a couple miles of our residence in Il Poderone. The next bit is more serious; every year on November 17th, superstitious Italians kill all the black cats they can find. Unless someone is seriously pulling my leg, the number of killed kitties can be in the tens of thousands each year! This madness must end!

This old structure is the beautiful ruin of the Abbey of San Galgano. It was built to a familiar tune- St. Michael came down from heaven and instructed some man to build it. I'm sure you'd like to see more pictures, which can be found on our flickr page.

This is what some historians believe to be the real sword in the stone, in its original location. It's located in a chapel up the hill from the Abbey of San Galgano. Mary read that the sword could possibly be a replica, but regardless it is very old, and this is definitely the stone. I imagine some wealthy old European having the real sword (Excalibur?) passed down to him for generations, choosing to keep it a secret rather than revealing it and claiming their right to the English throne.

Sometimes, when we're not going anywhere for the afternoon, Mary and I are forced to enjoy Tuscan sunsets while we snack on fresh baked bread with freshly pressed olive oil from freshly picked olives. This must be endured until seven or eight o'clock, when we are required to attend magnificent three-course meals before bedtime.

This is the awesome little old tractor I get to drive around the olive fields. As you can see, it predates steering wheels as a means of tractor control. The seat and armrests are made entirely of cold, hard steel and I whacked the crap out of my elbow on it a week ago - still can't touch it. Nonetheless, I still love driving this thing.

A cork tree! This is where wine corks come from; corks are made from the bark of the tree which regrows about every 5 years.

A week or so ago Mary, myself, and our German companions took a day off of work to visit the market in nearby Grosseto. Pictured above is Grosseto's town square, which you would never know existed if you remained outside the walls surrounding the city center.

We hitched a ride to Florence! In Italy, it's Firenze. This city is old, and has all the luxury and grandeur of Paris, except with a lot more marble. I should write a heck of a lot more about Florence, but if you want to see what we were doing, check out these pictures.

This is the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. Not as ornate as the Sienna Duomo, but very old and much, much larger.

On our toward the train station we came across the Piazza ... There was market whose highlight for me, personally, was this sweet shop. Holy cannoli!

We returned to Castiglione della Pescaia to see the sunset with German newcomers Karen and Sara.

After dinner and a little bit of Grappa (Italian grape schnapps), Mary falls asleep watching the Sopranos.

Stay tuned for an entry about our trip for my birthday to the sunny island of Monte Argentario just off the coast in the Mediterranean!

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving!

-Jake

Welcome to Agriturismo!

After leaving Rome, we arrived in Grosseto's railway station with no problems whatsoever! Our new host, Bodo, was right on the platform waiting for us. He took us to the grocery store and then to our new home until Christmas! Bodo's olive farm, Il Poderone, is just outside of Campagnatico in Tuscany's Grosseto region. If anyone would like to take a look around, click here for a map (If you want to learn more about the region, check the "Info" boxes).

On the left is the front door to our lovely little apartment, complete with a kitchen and an awesome shower with plenty of water pressure! We've extensively photographed the residences of Bodo's olive farm, so why not take the time to check out our flickr photos, complete with over 150 pictures of the beautiful Tuscan countryside, including scenic Siena, sunsets, and seaside Castiglione della Pescaia.

These are some of Bodo's olive trees, he keeps them at this height for simple harvesting. They have the pleasant side effect of making the property smell great! Bodo actively harvests his olives, meaning they are picked from the trees as opposed to waiting for them to fall. The result is an amazingly delicious olive oil that is much more visibly green than what I'm used to (as opposed to yellow).

I still haven't explained Agriturismo! Bodo doesn't only use us workawayers for his labor, he employs a trendy new travel system called Agriturismo, which is basically the same thing as workaway. During a harvest, Bodo offers up his residences to groups of people in exchange for labor instead the money that he traditionally charges (Also, everyone gets delicious olive oil). I've got something special in the pipeline to show everyone how the olive picking, pressing, and bottling are done, but not today! It's a lot of work, and a lot of fun.

We had our first weekend off on account of the rain and the wait for new arrivals. It takes more than a couple people to harvest one zillion olives. Another workaway, Simon, never showed-up. Now, if anyone sees or hears anything mysterious, we say, "Oh, it must be Simon." Anywho, a German couple, Dieter and Susanne, arrived shortly after we did and they invited us to join them on a trip to Siena! We've taken hundreds of photos, but in this post I'll stick to the main attractions.

This is the Palazzo Publico, or town hall, in the middle of Siena's seashell-shaped Piazza del Campo. This place is usually packed, but smart tourists go in November. The perimeter of the piazza occasionally puts on a horse race.

Siena Duomo, Cathedral of Siena. Meticulously detailed, this ornate masterpiece is the jewel of Siena's wealth and culture. It is most notable for its unique and iconic implementation of striped black & white marble.

The symbol of Siena, a she-wolf with suckling Romulus and Remus, adorns the entranceway to the cathedral. It is surrounded by other animal symbols of Italy's prominent cities. The lion of Florence is recognizable all over the country.

This was taken beneath Siena Duomo's ornate dome. Literally, no stone has been left untouched here to the detailing of old Siena's artists.

I opportunistically snapped a few shots of the stunning Tuscan countryside out the window of Dieter's car on the way back from Siena. 

After our day in Siena, the real work began. The first day it was still too rainy for olive picking, so Mary and Susanne worked at bottling oil, while Dieter and I fixed a wooden table. Every evening, it becomes one group's turn to prepare a meal for everyone. Mary and I made our staple enchiladas and guacamole, but we've had the chance to enjoy traditional German, Austrian, and Italian meals, as well. As with everywhere we go, these meals are accompanied with freely flowing wine. The liquor of choice in Italy is Grappa- made from grapes like wine but much stronger. There is also always espresso served before dessert. We went on with work for the rest of the week until we were whisked away on another adventure, this time with our Austrian friends, Denes and Micha.

The place we ended up, after a long series of twisting mountain roads, was Saturnia. The town is historically known for its natural hot springs. Infused with sulfur, they provide a... stimulating rotten-egg aroma. I took a dip and enjoyed the steamy spring, supposedly renown for its treatment of arthritis. Afterwards, we went home and enjoyed our last dinner with the Austrian guests.

This was the crew for our first week of olive harvesting: Mary and I are on the left; Dieter & Susanne, the German couple, in the middle; and the Austrians- Sonja, Denes & Micha, Manuela, Barbara, and Roswitha. The Austrians left right after we took this photo, but Dieter and Susanne are staying for another week...

...and they were kind enough to give us a ride to the splendid Mediterranean seaside town of Castiglione della Pescaia.

We split up and went to the market. The first market was mostly junk and fresh food. We continued exploring the town and found a nicer market where Mary bought homemade soap and a scarf, though it was dealing mostly in antiques. There were numerous old Italian Nazi relics and other WWII-era stuff. I asked about a watch, but walked away from its asking price of 2600 euro.

Everyone knows about the rubber-meltingly fast Italian supercars.

This is authentic gelato, which is Italian for the best ice cream I've ever had in my life.

We spent the end of the day at the beach, which we had all to ourselves. The beach stood out to me for its dark, velvety soft sand. We took many more pictures of Castiglione della Pescaia which couldn't fit in this post.

I paid extra to buy this tuna because it had Poseidon on the packaging. What's wrong with me?

Sign in to Google and leave some comments on our blog! Or everyone can continue posting on Mary's facebook, but the blog would look more popular if people would comment... (Thanks, Mom)

Arrivederci,

-Jake