Bella Firenze & more!

Ciao amici miei!!

How are you?  Have you been voting for Obama this fine day?  I've been nervous all day about the election, I am 6-8 hours ahead of you.  Here's hoping for the very best from you Americans! :)

I'm feeling super happy at the moment, I just had the most awesome dinner & conversation with an Italian grandpa.  (I am volunteering on an olive farm out in the country that is owned by a lovely couple.  Most everyone was out running errands & such this evening, so I had dinner with the grandpa.  He & his wife come out to stay & help with the olive harvest, they are great!)  Anyway, the guy only speaks Italian & we have had minimal conversation so far.  He mostly pantomimes to me & smiles so I was thinking we would have a pretty quiet dinner.  Not so!  We started talking all about our families & careers & aspirations.  He was a medical doctor & was interested in knowing about chiropractic.  Then we talked all about my experience with my chiropractic job bomb in Rome, the Italian mentality, lack of knowledge about chiropractic, how I don't like always having to defend chiropractic, how I am feeling dissatisfied with my career lately (jeez, not like I have been working for a while.  maybe that is the problem, right??)...  etc.  It got really deep!  He proceeded to give me a super duper pep talk about staying optimistic & enjoying the good & bad life throws at you, enjoying life's grand potential in general.  It was really uplifting!!  It's nice to have some perspective from a wise one who has lived so much more of life than I have.  I wanted you to share in my life is beautiful moment.  We should cherish them  & we should all have the opportunity to have an inspiring talk with a smiling Italian babbo.  :)  

I am really enjoying myself here in the Tuscan countryside.  Nothing much to do but pick olives, it is good for my piece of mind & I am feeling clear & relaxed.  The other day I worked with a wonderful group of people including three couples aged over seventy.  They were so sweet & so able & active doing this outdoor work, I was amazed.  One 90 year old guy was up on the ladder sawing branches like a madman all day, it was inspiring!!!  Also, when I arrived there was another American gal volunteering with me.  She was another inspiring person, a really intelligent & interesting farmer from Maine.  She & I had a lot of intriguing conversations about farming, cooking, vegetarianism, etc.  She had been in Italy for a "Slow Food" conference in Torino, pretty cool!  Thanks Holli! Now it is just me here, nice & peaceful.  

Here are a couple of pics from when I visited a friend up in Masserano, Piemonte.  I met him down in Sicilia in April & popped in to visit he & his cats while I was up in the region.  It was great to see Federico, he gave me a copy of a book he has written, in Italian, & I hope to read it soon (dictionary in hand I'm sure).  Grazie!

pretty church dome in Masserano

me & Federico pretending we are movie stars.  (aren't we though?)

And then, it was off to bella Firenze for a day.  I was set to meet my American pal Erica there & had a day to myself to explore one of my favorite Italian cities.  Hell, one of my favorite cities in the world! It was a gorgeous sunny day so I walked around & took some photos, then I visited the Basilica di Santa Croce.  It is a church visited by Miss Lucy Honeychurch in A Room with a View, one of my favorite books/movies of youth.

ponte vecchio

Italians have a tradition of placing a lock on a bridge to symbolize everlasting love

statue of Giotto, first of the Renaissance artists, outside the Uffizi

copy of the David outside the Palazzo Vecchio in Piazza della Signoria

Piazza della Signoria is gorgeous.  It has been known as the political hub of Florence and center of the Florentine republic.  It was here that the rreformative prophet Savonarola carried out the historic "Bonfire of the Vanities" during the Renaissance in which he burned all type of sinful items including works of art & poetry in his campaign of religious renewal.  It was also here that he was later publicly hanged & burned.  Whoa!

one of the Medici lions

my favorite sculpture, Perseus, by Cellini.  apparently the casting of this bronze failed many times.  in this successful attempt Cellini had to feed a bunch of his metal pots & pans into the fire to finish it it off.  it was successful but some of the toes were missing & had to be added later.  thanks to my favorite tour guide Rick Steves for that story :)

it's fantastic!  look at that blood gushing from Medusa!

note the street performer (?) dressed as a sculpture

the Neptune fountain by Ammanati

the rape of the Sabine women by Giambologna, carved of the largest block of marble ever shipped to Florence from Ferrara

I know I've blogged about these guys in Florence before but, these sculptures are so nice I thought they deserved a repeat.  My interest in Florence began when I read The Agony & the Ecstasy, a historical fiction biography of Michelangelo.  This is Santa Croce, the largest Franciscan church in the world, it houses the tombs of many famous Italians.

Piazza di Santa Croce

statue of Dante Alighieri

another fierce Medici lion

Gallileo's tomb, scientific revolutionary!

tomb of Michelangelo, the three figures represent his three loves: sculpture, architecture & painting

tomb of Dante, most famous for writing the Divine Comedy, a masterpiece that I have yet to read.  his body actually isn't here because he was exiled from Florence.

relief of the Annunciation by Donatello

strange, but interesting, there was a leather workshop within the church.  you could watch these folks making some of the finely crafted leather goods that Florence is famous for

famous frescoes by Giotto

you can see where at one point a tomb or something was stuck to the wall, removing part of the precious fresco

unfortunately, but not unexpected due to the frequent restorations in progress everywhere, the whole front of the church is being elaborately restored.  i learned that this particular restoration is being funded entirely by a Japanese philanthropist.  

chapel by Brunelleschi

Florence's duomo, never ceases to amaze.  

Ghiberti's fantastic bronze "gates of paradise" doors to the duomo's baptistry.  the detail is mindboggling!

bell tower designed by Giotto, the guy does it all!

Thanks for humoring me with all my Florence nerdiness, I do love that Renaissance.  :)  And then, I was swooped up by my friend Erica & we proceeded south to Montalcino.

sunset views from Montalcino

 Montalcino is a quaint Tuscan town about 1.5 hours south of Florence.  The region is famous for wine, Brunello di Montalcino to be precise!  I have learned that Brunello is one of the most sought after Italian wines & it can only be grown within the boundaries of Montalcino.  Wine connoisseurs come from everywhere (LOTS of Americans) to Montalcino to taste the famed Brunello.  Our hosts have a vineyard & make a wonderful Brunello as well as a Rosso & a yummy blend.  Brunello is a sangiovese wine that is aged for 3 years or more.  On top of the wine operation there, which I was happy to learn some about (because I am still plotting how I'll be able to have a vineyard in Italy one day...) they make olive oil & I had come to help out with that.

I really love olive trees & associate them strongly with my Italy experience so I was totally looking forward to picking them!  It seems like most of the farms I have stayed on make their own olive oil, even if it is just for personal use.  Everywhere I go people are telling me about their olive oil & where it came from.  I was happy to be a part of this quintessential Italian tradition!

Yay!  happy to be reunited with my buddy Erica!

i got to drive this sweet little fiat 500 around a bit, feeling very Italian.

charming little Montalcino

ciao bella!

 Do you know how fantastic extra virgin olive oil from Italy is made?  Well, if it is good, it is a lot of hard work.  All those olives are collected BY HAND!!  Can you imagine?  My hands!!!  I will never think of olive oil the same way.  Also, now that I have discriminately tasted a fair bit of good olive oil I will never buy crappy mainstream stuff again.  Did you know that many widespread brands of "italian" olive oil in the USA are actually made from Spanish olives, harvested by...  machines!  No!

Anyway, I have a whole new appreciation.  We lay out these large nets around the bases of the trees & then go to town preening them with little rakes & our hands.  Then you can also climb up in a ladder & perch in the tree to comb the olives down.  Also, we were using this mechanical thing that would act like little metal fingers twirling around to knock the olives down.  Looked like Edward Scissorhands. :) All the while we were wondering if the thing was efficient because it seemed to just spray the olives around & off of our collecting nets, maybe it is a learned technique.  There was a great variety in terms of amount of olives, size of olives, color & ripeness of olives, etc.  You pick them, ideally, when they are changing from green to purple to black.  The greener/younger the olive gives it a more fresh & "peppery" flavor.

So, while there in Montalcino we harvested olives for several days.  We would have done more but rain prevented it because the olives can't sit around wet or they will degrade.  You are supposed to take them to the press the day of picking to ensure an amazing, cold pressed product.  I really enjoy being up in the trees picking the olives, it is peaceful & relaxing.  Also, it's fun to climb trees like a little child.  :)

it's olive mania, people!!

this was our biggest olive score.  actually, we spent almost all day collecting these from one huge tree!

views of the Tuscan countryside from the Tuscan farmhouse

Our hosts were awesome!  They had just moved into this restored old farmhouse.  It was gorgeous!  They had done a really excellent job on their home & I felt lucky to stay there.  They had 2 adorable kids & a new one just arrived after I left.  Congratulations!!!!!  I really had a great time & feel lucky that my friend Erica introduced me to that fabulous family.  Thanks!!

LOVE artichokes in Italy!

Phew, I had a lot of important Italian lore to share with you this time.  It was my mom's birthday yesterday & I was happy to talk with her via skype for 1.5 hours today.  Miss you, mom! xo

I'd better check my live election results & then it's off to bed so I can rise early for more adventures in olives.

buona notte :)