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| the lovely olives |
Ciao tutti!
Greetings from bella Roma! I'm back in Rome for the moment & hard to believe but..... I'm leaving Italy on Thursday! Yikes! I'm feeling ok about my transition but, definitely having a little anxiety about my re-entry to the USA. I have had so many amazing experiences, have met so many wonderful people & have seen so much beauty! I have become an amateur Italian historian (certain parts)! I am truly fortunate to have been able to live & travel here for so long, it's been a real blessing! Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, everyone that has been a part of my Italian adventure, you all have helped me to feel a part of this unique place, thanks for sharing all those smiles & laughs. I will miss everyone & I will miss bella Italia! Aw, getting sappy... I'm feeling extra thankful, because Thanksgiving is in a couple days.
However, I am looking forward to my return to American society, family, friends, etc. It is time for me to rejoin the workforce & feel productive again. There are a lot of things, mainly work related, that have sure been a struggle since I've been away.
So, here I am, staying with my friend Paula, catching up with pals, walking around soaking in the atmosphere of the eternal city & enjoying every last moment. Out & about in the city the past couple days I even ran into a few old friends, like I really lived here at one point! I can now appreciate the fact that I don't need to use a map to get around, I speak the language, I understand the customs, I know how to live in Italy! It makes me feel happy. Today I spent a good deal of time packing my baggage, which has grown considerably heavy & huge!! I've been redistributing weight amongst my 3 bags & using this clever scale device to achieve the perfect 50 lb. bags. (this thing is made particularly for weighing baggage, you hang your bag from it & can change the units of measure. my bags are so heavy I've nearly sprained my wrist lifting them) Honestly, in past travels I've never had to worry to much about bag sizes or weights because I usually travel light. It turns out baggage restrictions can be a real hassle on some of these European flights, sometimes you have to pay from 9-15 euro per kilo, which can add up if you are moving. Anyway, I managed to find the perfect weight distribution & feel relieved.
I'll fly to Dublin on Thursday & will spend a few days there. When I booked my flight a few months ago I decided to arrange myself an Italy decompression time in Ireland, a country I have not been to. At this point I am thinking I was a bit crazy considering I'll have to deal with my silly baggage but, I'm sure it will be worth it & I will be happy to visit Ireland. I am dying to experience that traditional music, pub scene and also to view the ancient Book of Kells & of course to have a real Guinness straight from the source. :)
I'll be missing out on Thanksgiving gatherings but, will certainly take a good moment to feel thankfulness & gratitude for friends, family & life in general. Do some extra eating for me, won't you?
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| small town brick homes, Peccioli |
I spent the last few weeks enjoying the Tuscan countryside, picking olives, taking walks, eating yummy food, chilling out. It was great! I learned so much about olives too! I was often being referred to as the "bimba", meaning, literally "baby". Because, despite being 35, I was considerably younger than the people I was hanging out with. It was cute.
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| miss Holli picking olives |
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| first we lay down these large nets, ten go to town raking or picking down the olives. they fall onto this net & then we pour them into crates |
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| and here they are! it's nice to get a variety of ripeness so that the flavor will be nicely blended. the darker /riper the olive the more sweet the oil. a less sweet, more flavorful oil is desirable, thus better to have lots of green/hard olives! |
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| Tuscan skies. there was a lot of rain while i was there. you may have heard news of flooding in north Italy, this was in Pisa & Carrara, very near to where i had been staying! fortunately, we were up in the hills & had no problems. |
The routine is to harvest the olives & then bring them directly to the press that evening. The press (frantoio) always seemed to be mobbed with people. You'd make an appointment to send your olives through but, invariably, they were always running super late so you'd have to wait around for your turn, sometimes for hours! I only went a few times because my help was not really necessary & also it was really boring & cold to stand around so long. However, I am glad to have seen how it works! The conventional & organic oil pressings are grouped together, separately & all the machines are washed in between to prevent possible chemical contamination. My host was often coming home after midnight after spending a long time hanging out waiting to press her olives. Oy!
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| first you dump the olives into this bin, they go up a conveyor to be washed. during the collecting we try to pick out most of the sticks & leaves |
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| after washing everything is ground up into this paste, including the pits! then it passes through a massive centrifuge. |
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| this is an old school method of grinding up the olives using huge stone wheels! |
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| after being centrifuged again with water this lovely bright yellow-green oil emerges! yay! |
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| all the olives are weighed before pressing & then the oil is weighed afterwards to see what your oil yield was. |
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| here's where I was staying "I Moricci". it was gorgeous. most of the homes in the Tuscan countryside are painted one of these shades: light yellow, beige, cream, light tan or light peach. it may be a law that you have to use only these colors. also note, MOKA, the crazy dog (Weimeranner mix) |
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| old timey tractor |
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| one of my favorite country activities, collecting wild greens from the yard to eat!!! YUM! greens are my favorite & it seems like almost everything is edible. cook with some garlic & drizzle on some fresh olive oil & you've got a treat. |
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| Moka, giving a sly look. I have a vivid memory of her running around with a small wild goat skull in her mouth. She was nuts and enjoyed chewing on my arms but, we were friends. |
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| view from my room |
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| picking some wild parsnip greens |
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| where i stayed |
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| windy country roads through the olive groves |
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| view of the house through the olives |
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| closest tiny town, Fabbrica di Peccioli |
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| fall colors in effect |
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| sunset with typical Tuscan cypress trees |
On my birthday I went to Lucca, a really charming town. The fall colors were excellent! The city is surrounded by medieval walls, once used to protect the town & now are a city park. You will find people strolling, running, picknicking, biking & hanging out up on the walls, it is really beautiful. A popular tourist thing is to rent a bike to take a few loops around the wall which, of course, I did. I really nailed the Lucca experience.
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| entering through the city walls |
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| views of the cathedral |
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| so, this is what 35 looks like. sign me up for a facelift! ha ha, just kidding. (maybe next year) |
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| city walls, weekend stroll |
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| Lucca was once a Roman settlement & beneath this chuch some old Roman ruins have been excavated, pretty cool. pretty OLD! |
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| hometown hero! Giacomo Puccini was from Lucca, composer of famous operas such as Madame Butterfly, La Boheme & Tosca |
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| cathedral |
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| view of Lucca's rooftops & towers from a church bell tower |
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| inside the cathedral, i always love those ceilings |
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| The tomb of Ilaria, young wife one of the Guinigi, ruling family of Lucca. note the realistic look of her outfit, pillows & also her small dog that her feet are resting on. young women used to rub her nose to ensure luck in love & the nose has been nearly rubbed off! |
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| outdoor book stands are common & charming |
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| lots of cool old prints & a cute baby |
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| the tower of the Giungi family, in the background, even has a fancy garden & a bar on top! |
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| this piazza & buildings are built atop an old roman ampitheater |
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| an array of old timey doorbells |
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| Add caption |
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| city walls, linden trees |
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| bit of a rainy day but, i really liked Lucca all the same :) |
Another day, I ventured to Volterra, a medieval Tuscan town. I could see how it would be a pretty town but, too bad, I chose a day of a crazy rainstorm to visit. So, I walked around as much as I could & then visited the Etruscan museum, viewed some alabaster goods (Volterra is famous for alabaster carvings, so expensive I wonder if any are actually sold?), had a coffee... then I took the bus home. I'm sure the views from the hilltop town would have been awesome on a clear day. Volterra is of course home to the Twilight vampires, the Volturi. I think that the only people out in this weather that day were definitely vampires. Did you see that movie? So bad but, still good in some way.
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| Volterra! it was the type of storm & windy day that kept blowing your umbrella inside out. actually, my umbrella broke. |
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| Harleys in the rain... |
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| yes, my friends, persimmon season continues! so yummy. |
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| i heard the Twilight filmmakers approached the town of Volterra to use it as a location for movie filming but Volterra said no. so they filmed in Montepulciano instead. but now Volterra is kicking itself for saying no because they could have really banked on tourism influx from the movies considering how crazy popular they are. just a bit of trivia for you. |
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| some of that alabaster i mentioned. it really is lovely. |
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| good old Pinocchio is originally from Tuscany. |
Gotta go to bed folks, must rest up for my last full day in Italy. I am thinking to view a Vermeer exhibition, have a pizza, weigh my luggage again, have gelato twice...
Have a great week everyone! xoxo
