An Olive Farm in Puglia!

Ciao tutti!

Here it is...  the blog posting with no photos!  As explained previously, I lost my precious camera connector cord!  Tragedy!  I've searched my luggage any number of times & it just can't be found.  (maybe just one more search will find it...)

Anyway, I have been having a decent time on my olive farm experience.  I was here as the only volunteer for about a week and yesterday my WOOFER pal arrived, yay!!  A friend!!  I had been really bored.  I brought two books, Last Man in Tower by Aravind Adiga (just ok) and The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (REALLY good!!) and seem to have read them both in about 4 days.  My hosts here live up in their own isolated home so, I have really been on my own with plenty of time for reading.  The only book I was able to find here to read is something called "Homicide" about a Baltimore P.D. homicide unit, it was the basis for the TV show, The Wire.  I am not interested much at all in "Homicide" but, have been reading it a bit just the same to fend off the boredom.  There is a really awesome 3 level rooftop terrace to do yoga & of course, READ on.  The sea is supposedly 2km away but I have tried 3 times to walk there & have never made it due to houses, gates, a highway...  tomorrow I will borrow a bicycle & actually make it there.

My new Japanese friend is really sweet but pretty quiet.  I'm sure I've been frightening her by asking so many questions, I have been starved for some convo!  My hosts had been rather chilly to me for a while but in the past couple days have really warmed up.  Last night we had some limoncello, tonight... we even played cards.  Almost like we were actually having fun!  Just kidding, we were.

We have been eating a lot of really yummy foods too!  They keep the kitchen locked at night & until they get up in the am, strange but understandable when you consider they run an agritourismo.  Well, me with my food anxiety (not being able to access food when I need it) am very nervous about this locked kitchen.  For this reason I really try to stuff myself at mealtimes.  They have very strange eating hours, today we had lunch at around 4 and dinner at 10:30!  Luckily there are some fruit trees nearby (nespola) & I have found myself eating these tasty fruits in times of hunger fear.

For work I've been doing some gardening and tree pruning (olive and pomegranate); today we began painting a foul smelling organic fungicide on the trunks of all the smaller olive trees.  Then we sat in the "yard" & picked camomile blossoms.  Overall, I am enjoying myself a lot!

Here is a map of my general location, Carovigno.  The heel of the boot:

I hope to find a new camera cable, sorry this posting has been lackluster.  Just a simple bit of information.  :)

xoxo
Anni

Mt. Etna & Tropea!

Ciao amici miei!  

Bad news, nearly the worst!  I have lost the cable that connects my camera to the computer for downloading photos!!!  My most prized possession!  I seem to have left it in the small convent that I stayed at for a couple of days.  I have ransacked all my belongings for it, now I must call the extremely small and kind nun I stayed with to see if she's found it!  So, unfortunately, I will be unable to share photos with you for some unknown period.  The horror!!  Ha ha.  I hope figure something out but, it is likely that I'll be S.O.L. for photo sharing until I return to Rome in June.  Boo!

In better news, the foot problem I've been having... while not 100% is better, about 80%.  Thanks to you all who have lent your kind & wise opinions.  I have narrowed the issue down to a tightness of the tibialis anterior muscle as well as an inability to walk forward into the grandness of my life.  I kid, I kid.  But seriously,  recently I have been doing some serious soul searching about life.  In a good way, I have been really happy lately!

I arrived yesterday to my wwoofing farm assignment in Puglia, the very heel of Italy!  I haven't seen too much of the area but let me tell you, it is beautiful & full of olive trees!  Huge ones!  I walked through the olive trees just before sunset last night feeling totally blissed out, I am in love with Italy!  So, the place I am staying is just gorgeous.  It is an olive farm & agritourismo & I have a whole apartment to myself in this renovated old cassera, traditional puglian country house.  I'd love to show you pictures but... you'll have to wait on the edge of your seat.  I spent the day today blissfully weeding a stone driveway/yard, it was great!  Tonight we are having a huge wind storm & there is talk of rain tomorrow.  We are 2km from the sea & I tried to walk there tonight but darkness & my foot condition prevented my success.  

Here are photos of my Mt. Etna mission as well as my lovely stay on the beach of Tropea in Calabria.  

it is possible to take a gondola up most of the way but... when you like to hike, why not hoof it all the way as Erica & I did!  We happily chatted the whole way up :)

if you are unfamiliar with the "buff" and it's virtues please go to your nearest REI for purchase.  

did anyone see that Werner Herzog movie about Antarctica?  On Etna they have antarctica style vehicles cruising up & down the volcano.

just starting out

i always wish that i could enjoy me some mountain biking...  these dudes are hardcore

we made some young foreign friends on the mission

yeah baby!  this is as close as we were allowed to get to the top.  i was ok with this considering Etna had erupted just a week prior.  

please note, all these people had taken the gondola & then a van up here.  we walked!

pretty crater views

the favorite dancer pose :)  we didn't have a clear day but, at times the clouds would part for a stunning glimpse of the crater.

and it is also possible to stage a primordial climbing out of the steaming crater shot

oh these young Albanian tourists & their jeans & blue shoes...

we descended into this amazing red crater!

and our young friends were busy horsing around, breaking rocks & whatnot

I had carefully ported some special sicilian birthday canoli up for Erica's special day!!

as well as a tiny prosecco :)

and these two were kind enough to haul their screaming baby up the volcano.  He/she must be loving it!!

And then,  I took my bus, ferry, train, bus, train to get to the gorgeous Calabrian beach of Tropea.  I was exhausted from my travel & it was all I could do to lie on the beach for several hours.  The water was a little warmer here & made for a fantastic, cerulean swim!

this view was from the convent I stayed at.  Convent- perfect for me!

what is this thing?  through my marine bio studies I'm sure I used to know...

view from the beach!

footsteps in the sand....

working on my foot tan & my foot photos

ha ha, dept. of mental health

If you are interested here is a link to the website for the place I'll be at for the next couple of weeks.  I may do a photo free (cannot imagine!!!) blog while here in case there are some interesting happenings.

Bellolio in Puglia

and that's all she wrote!  I miss you & wish you were here!
xoxox

Siracusa & Taormina

Ciao tutti!

I continue to have excellent adventures in south Italy!!  I am currently in the town of Matera in Basilicata, supposedly one of the oldest cities in the world!  Sadly, I left Sicilia a few days ago to return to the mainland.  I had a truly fantastic time on the island!  As promised, here are select photos from the charming town of Siracusa that I visited for a day.  Highly photogenic, but then again... isn't all of Italy? :)

piazza del duomo

within the cathedral which was once a greek temple to Athena, on the left you can see an ancient doric column.

visited a castle too!

coastline of Siracusa from the castle

eccolo!

small streets of Siracusa are just oozing charm

the fountain of Aretusa.  Artemis turned her devotee Aretusa into a spring to avoid an obsessed river god.  legend has it, here she is!

colorful laundry billowing in the wind

more laundry, more iron balconies...

went to the local archaeological museum.  so boring!  sometimes these museums are good, sometimes they are deathly boring. 

piazza del duomo al tramonte

quaint scenes of children in the evening light

the lovely fountain in the evening glow

After Siracusa, I took the train on up to Taormina.  I had heard it was a gorgeous town situated on a bluff above the sea.  It was absolutely gorgeous, also absolutely overrun with tourists!!  I found it challenging to be around them after spending so much time away from the hordes of foreigners.  It is so funny how after traveling for a while you start to distance yourself from other tourists.  I know I'm no better than they are but, I do try to blend in as Italian woman, don't I? :)

Yum yum, savoring the oranges I took from samadhi center.  In Sicilia most of the oranges are what we might call "blood oranges" in USA, and they are SOOO good!! 

Etna is beckoning..........  

citrus is also beckoning.....

small Asian children are beckoning as well....  ha ha

the water is absolutely transparent & gorgeous!!

the beach at Gardini-Naxos, it was a windy day

trying to shield myself from furthering "age face" 

a little danurasana

Etna, she is still beckoning!!

the gorgeous isola bella just below taormina

the water was a bit frigid here.  also, there are so many women badgering you to give you a back or foot massage here.  i had never experienced this before.  it was unrelaxing to have to deny them.

WOW!  Ben Harper is playing at the ancient greek theater in town!!!  this would be worth returning to taormina for!!

then I ventured up the hill to the town of Castelmola to seek some of the almond wine I had heard of & catch some (as lonely planet would say) EYE POPPING VIEWS! :)

POP!  I found them!

i am happy!

then i had some almond wine in a penis themed restaurant!  

t

Also, I met a fabulous new friend in Taormina who is traveling about doing WOOFING like myself.  She is American, which I found refreshing & it was like hanging out with an old friend for a few days.  Thanks, Erica!!!  We climbed Mt. Etna on her birthday.  I will attempt to blog post about this ASAP!  She gave me some great ideas about finding volunteer/work opportunities here in Europe.  Now I am all inspired to prolong my overseas adventure as I have been feeling fully unready to return to the USA.  I seem to be having a small scale, early mid-life crisis!  Currently, I am considering moving to Montenegro for the summer season to teach yoga & relax at the beach.  I didn't even know where exactly Montenegro was until last week...  do you?  It sounds wonderful.

I have been having some crazy long travel days making my way to Puglia, south Italy is not as well connected for transport.  The other day I left Taormina at 9:30 on a bus to Messina, took a ferry across the strait, caught a train to Scilla but, missed the stop (due to talking to some Italian man about why I wasn't married & didn't have kids, this is a favorite topic of Italian men!  So much so that I have this great story invented about an amazing Italian boyfriend I have waiting for me in Rome.  No, we don't want kids but we are very happy, he is busy with work so he can't travel with me.  I am starting to believe in my imaginary boyfriend & am looking forward to seeing him!! :)  Anyway, I decided to go to another town after missing that stop, to Tropea, home of amethyst sunsets.  So I then got off at a less ideal station & had to run to catch a bus & then take another train to the small beach town.  I deserved a relax on the beach when I arrived at 3pm.  And today I was in transit from 8 am to 5:30 in a combination of 3 trains and 3 buses.  Whoa!!  I am outdoing myself!

I have also achieved a strange nerve injury today to my lower left leg causing foot drop & steppage gate.  I am unable to dorsiflex my left foot & have been clomping along.  Hoping for a miracle recovery during the night!

Hugs & kisses!  thanks for reading!  xoxo