Mamma mia, I love San Potito!

I woke up this morning to chirping birds, as usual, and to the all familiar sound of rain. It was quite refreshing considering the hot, humid weather we've had since I've been here. Don't misunderstand me, I'm loving the sunshine, it's just easier to appreciate the rain after a couple of really hot days! Once I realized it was raining I knew our task for the day would consist of chopping pruned branches into firewood. Not the most desirable job but I must admit I enjoyed it.

It didn't take long for the rain to pass and the ground to dry just in time for a little work in the garden before lunch. After yet another satisfying lunch Liz and I decided it would be a good day to walk to San Potito Sannitico, one of the neighboring towns to our farm, in search of gelato ;) Not only were we successful in our search for gelato we got to explore one of the cutest little towns I've ever seen! Every corner we turned and street we ventured down offered yet another photo opportunity. Needless to say I snapped lots of photos. Here are few that I think capture the essence of the town.

Oh, one thing to note, in San Potito there are a handful of really neat murals on some of the cities walls. They were drawn by one of Rosanna's nephews a couple of years ago and are pretty amazing.

OK ciao ciao for now! Love from beautiful, southern Italia!

Sono andata a fare una passeggiata.

Went for a walk last night, here are a few pictures of the southern Italian countryside. Molto bello.

One of the pictures is of Liz, the other WWOOFer, standing in a two way country road. Tiny!! How there aren't more accidents here is beyond me.

There are also a couple of the dairy farm across the way from us. In one of them you can kind of make out cheese being hung to age. Yummy! Apparently they give you samples if you go over and visit...might be heading that way tomorrow!

In another picture you can see one of the two towns that are up in the mountains just south of us as well as the highest peak (can't remember the names at the moment) in the Campagna region.

OK off to work in the garden!! Weeding, weeding, weeding....

In aprile: non ti scoprire. In maggio: adagio.

Buona sera from my first farm San Cassiano!

Well I arrived with relative ease, minus one connection. I had to change trains in a small town, only having fifteen minutes to so, and I hadn't yet purchased by ticket for that train. Thankfully, with a bit of luck, and a really nice girl who helped carry my bag so I could run (I must have looked panicked!) I was able to make it!

I was collected at the station by the owner of the farm, Rossana, and a fellow WWOOFer named Liz. From there we took a short drive back to the farm, which is located between two small towns, Piedimonte Matese and San Potito Sannitico. It's so beautiful here. The farm sits in a valley surrounded by mountains (which I'm hoping we get to go visit) and you can see for miles on a clear day.

On the farm they have a little bit of everything including: a massive synergistic vegetable garden, fruit trees (including olives), pigs (which I'm kind of scared of!), horses, and ducklings (they're the cutest). The farm also doubles as an agriturismo, essentially a B&B, and everything they grow they use in their restaurant. People are always coming and going for lunch and dinner and breakfast as well if they are staying in one of the rooms.

The farm is basically run by Rossana's two sons, Vittorio and Andrea, and Rossana owns their kitchen. She does most of the cooking; impressive considering the amount of people that come on average.

A typical day thus far goes something like this: wake up around 7:30 for breakfast (basically coffee), work until lunch which happens around two, relax for an hour or two, maybe head back out for a couple more hours of work and then we're free as birds until dinner at ten. Yes, I said TEN! I remember eating late last time, but I don't remember it being this late! Needless to say, the food is good. To good if you know what I mean.

The weather could not be better - the past three days have been in the mid eighties! The crazy thing is you still see Italians walking around in down jackets and pants. It's insanity! How are they not hot?! I approprialely learned this new phrase today: In aprile, non ti scoprire. In maggio, adagio.  Essentially it translate as, "In April, keep covered. In May, slowly take off layers." Italians. Who cares if it's April, it's hot!!

Well I'll leave you with that and a few pictures from around the farm. Love you all and hope everyone is doing well!

Benvenuti a Roma.

One of the many things I love about Rome is that its history is written in the architecture- and you can't help but notice it because it's everywhere you go. It's not only in the obvious places like the Colosseum, Saint Peter's Basilica and Vatican City, the Panteon...it's also in the cobble stoned streets, the plentiful piazze, the hundreds of mind boggling statues and fountains, churches, museums and everyday modern buildings that were built to include existing ruins.  It is beautiful; and the more you stop and think about the actual act of building these structures the more impressive they become. It's crazy!! I love it!!!!

I spent most of my time in Rome just "roaming" around town (ha, dad joke - sorry couldn't resist!). I befriended a couple of French boys, Tom and Sebastian, who I shared a hostel room with and tagged along with them for a day of adventuring. Tom spoke a little English and Sebastian spoke Italian so between the three of us we were able to communicate. We started or day in Vatican city for most of the day where we were surprised by a appearance from the Pope!
We could tell something was going on as we approached the piazza because of the masses of people, which also explains the bumper to bumper bus ride over. 

After the excitement of the visit died down we self toured the Basilica and decided to pay the five euros to walk five hundred some stairs to the top. I posted a couple pictures of the view and of the walk up. The higher up you climb the walls begins to slant inward towards the stair case and force you to lean sideways (you can see it in one of the pictures I posted earlier). The view from the top was 360° of Rome as far as the eye could see. Pretty rad. 

The remaining of the day we wandered around from site to site, and I revisited the Colosseum and Trevi Fountain by night with another friend I made! The following day was similar, although I was solo this time and made a conscious mistake to not bring a map. Of course I got lost and by the time I figured out where I was and how to get back to my hostel my feet had paid the price. Needless to say, I ended the day with some pretty gnarly blisties!

And that pretty much sums up Rome. Today I travel to my first farm near a small town called San Potito Sannitico.  Super excited! My fingers are crossed for a stress free day of travel...

Ciao ragazzi, a dopo!

Bella vita.

A day in pictures until I get some time to write!

God bless Dramamine.

Ciao a tutti!

I finally made it to Rome and my appropriately named hostel, Funny Palace, after a LONG day of travel! With the aide of my good friend Dramamine I blissfully slept through my first flight to JFK. Well not really blissfully, more like a half conscious, head bobbing sleep, but the important thing is I didn't get sick. And if you know me I should be thanking my lucky stars, especially considering how smoothly my international leg went.

Landing in Rome felt like reconnecting with an old friend and I was immediately overwhelmed with happiness as I was greeted by the loud, dramatic and beautiful cadences of the Italian language. I navigated the airport, bought a bus ticket, endured a thirty minute bus ride to the Termini and from there followed cobbled streets all the way to my hostel (just a five minute walk).

All in all a pretty good day of travel. Now time for a quick nap, some café and adventuring.

Much love from Roma!

Capri, the most expensive rock you will ever land on.

Sleep was minimal the night before we headed to Capri as images of Maggie and I cruising the coast on Vespas danced through our heads.  You can only imagine the disappointed on our faces when our business was rejected due to lack of experience.  Apparently in Capri safety is first, unlike the rest of Italy's va bene attitude.  Booo to you man who rejected us.  You will be sorry when we come back and rent a scooter from someone else!!  Yes, we are a little bitter.  Instead we splurged on a ghetto, convertible Fiat taxi driven by an old, conniving man who was persistent about showing us the whole island in the comfort of his back seat.  Only the rich and famous could afford the whole island tour. 

We enjoyed our fifteen minutes of hair blowing fame (actually we felt like stupid tourist schmucks once the ride began...but hey, when in Rome) all the way to the grotta Azzurra.  Here we partook in more money sucking tourist schemes by taking a five minute row boat ride driven by singing Italian men into the sparkling blue grotto.  The white limestone combined with the white sand lights the water on blue fire.  Take a minute and imagine it because our pictures don't really do justice.  Although the trip was only five minutes and more money than we are willing to admit it was worth it.  Our only regret was not defying the 30 grumbling Italian men that would have attacked us had we gone for a swim (swimming was strictly forbidden!!). 

Already haven spent more money on the taxi and boat ride combined than we did in the first month and a half of our trip we decided to take the autobus back to Capri where for the rest of the day we let ourselves get lost in the alleyways and beauty of the island.  Unless you literally are rich and famous this island is a one and done place.  Next time we plan to visit Ischia, another nearby island, that is said to be less expensive, less touristy, more beautiful and with beaches you can actually visit without a name like Brad or Angelina.  Ciao Capri.  Ci vediamo dopo...or not!

Capri and the marina grande

Above the grotta Azzurra

Quequing it up tourist style.

Wow, BELLA. 

If we ever come back to Capri it will be to swim here.  No one will stop us!  And maybe we will know a little more Italian so we can yell back at the 'guards.' 

Attenzione a teste (mind your head).

Wisteria at its finest and purplest. 

Capri in primavera

Soaking up the sole and vista.  Nice panorama. 

VIP only.

Belle stronze.  Haha.

Steve Murray's casa. 

Just a stroll down designer lane.  Prada anyone?