9/12
Today I met the famous winemaker Carlo Ferrini. He is one of Italy‘s foremost winemaking consultants and was recently awarded “winemaker of the year” in New York by Wine Enthusiast Magazine. He is known for his work in Tuscany and is kinda a legend in the world of wine so it was an honor to meet him.
In the afternoon, there was not too much work to do so I played (and I mean really played) with Laura’s kids. We did everything from play board games to house, and hide and go seek and tag in the vineyards in their backyard. It was actually really fun and I felt like a kid again! Laura’s daughter is such a sweet little girl. She holds my hand everywhere we go and when I went to leave I almost walked out the door without giving her a kiss until she came over and tugged on my shirt and said “baciami” (kiss me) and turned her cheek for me to give her a kiss. So cute!
All week we have been talking about going dancing on Saturday. Even some of the boys I live with were excited about it. I assumed we’d go to a bar or club, have a few drinks, and dance. But I was clearly mistaken. At 7pm on a Saturday night, I found myself in a recreational dance class with about 8 of the locals from the town, learning a salsa/meringue dance number. At first I was a little apprehensive, but once I let loose I had a great time. I haven’t danced like that since the cheerleading days!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Kareokee!
9/1
There are 2 other women here at the winery right now but they will only be here for a week or two and they are staying on the winery rather than in our apartment. One of them is a sommelier from Canada who won a trip to travel all around Southern Italy and visit the best wineries to learn about the winemaking process. What a trip! The other is a light blond haired, bright-blue eyed girl named Yoni who is from Holland and now lives in Palermo now with her Sicilian boyfriend. She’s studying international business and language and is doing this internship to learn about the marketing/hospitality side of the winery business. She is at the winery for 2 weeks and will work in the office in Palermo for 3 months, traveling around Europe and learning about the exportation process. She is my age and might have stood out here even more than I do if she wasn’t fluent in Italian.
Today, I joined them in a wine tasting of almost all of the wines that Tasca makes. It was great to hear the history about the winery and the stories behind each wine…and the wine wasn‘t bad either ;o) (It was a treat to taste the few wines that they do not export and that you can only find in Italy!) The family has always been and is still very involved here. They are at the estate often and work with the people in person rather than just over the phone. Most of the people that work here have been here for a long time and it seems like everyone works well together and is very close. They make a good team.
9/3
I started my 2 week internship in the laboratory today. No one thinks I can make it through two weeks with the crazy chemist. He talks nonstop, thinks he knows everything, and is always complaining that so-and-so doesn’t do this or that right. A lot of people find him hard to be around. He can be a little heavy at times but I don’t really mind him actually. Probably because I can only understand about 60% of what he says so I kinda pick and choose when I want to listen to him. My work consists of measuring the Babo, PH, total acidity, ect of the samples from the grapes that are still in the vineyards to determine when they would be ready to harvest. Being in the lab is not foreign to me and the day’s actually go by faster there so I am enjoying it.
Today I realized that not only is the chemist crazy but he’s a singer too! While we were waiting for samples from the vineyards to test, he began telling me how he plays the guitar and likes to sing so I jokingly said “come on, sing a song”. With a big grin on his face, he headed over to the computer and to my surprise, turned on a karaoke program! I thought he was kidding but as the words popped up on the screen he cleared his throat and starting singing a very deep, slow, and out of sync version of “Yesterday” by the Beatles. I wished I could go back to yesterday at this point! His voice was raspy and coarse from all the smoking but he said that he likes it because he is “a soul singer”. It took everything inside of me not to laugh hysterically. Who ever thought working in the lab could be so entertaining!?
There are 2 other women here at the winery right now but they will only be here for a week or two and they are staying on the winery rather than in our apartment. One of them is a sommelier from Canada who won a trip to travel all around Southern Italy and visit the best wineries to learn about the winemaking process. What a trip! The other is a light blond haired, bright-blue eyed girl named Yoni who is from Holland and now lives in Palermo now with her Sicilian boyfriend. She’s studying international business and language and is doing this internship to learn about the marketing/hospitality side of the winery business. She is at the winery for 2 weeks and will work in the office in Palermo for 3 months, traveling around Europe and learning about the exportation process. She is my age and might have stood out here even more than I do if she wasn’t fluent in Italian.
Today, I joined them in a wine tasting of almost all of the wines that Tasca makes. It was great to hear the history about the winery and the stories behind each wine…and the wine wasn‘t bad either ;o) (It was a treat to taste the few wines that they do not export and that you can only find in Italy!) The family has always been and is still very involved here. They are at the estate often and work with the people in person rather than just over the phone. Most of the people that work here have been here for a long time and it seems like everyone works well together and is very close. They make a good team.
9/3
I started my 2 week internship in the laboratory today. No one thinks I can make it through two weeks with the crazy chemist. He talks nonstop, thinks he knows everything, and is always complaining that so-and-so doesn’t do this or that right. A lot of people find him hard to be around. He can be a little heavy at times but I don’t really mind him actually. Probably because I can only understand about 60% of what he says so I kinda pick and choose when I want to listen to him. My work consists of measuring the Babo, PH, total acidity, ect of the samples from the grapes that are still in the vineyards to determine when they would be ready to harvest. Being in the lab is not foreign to me and the day’s actually go by faster there so I am enjoying it.
Today I realized that not only is the chemist crazy but he’s a singer too! While we were waiting for samples from the vineyards to test, he began telling me how he plays the guitar and likes to sing so I jokingly said “come on, sing a song”. With a big grin on his face, he headed over to the computer and to my surprise, turned on a karaoke program! I thought he was kidding but as the words popped up on the screen he cleared his throat and starting singing a very deep, slow, and out of sync version of “Yesterday” by the Beatles. I wished I could go back to yesterday at this point! His voice was raspy and coarse from all the smoking but he said that he likes it because he is “a soul singer”. It took everything inside of me not to laugh hysterically. Who ever thought working in the lab could be so entertaining!?
Sunday, September 6, 2009
The Garden City
8/29
Today Stefano and I had the day off so we decided to take the train to Palermo. Although the train station of Vallelunga looks like a deserted hotel from a horror movie, the train that arrived was surprisingly new and clean. We headed north through the countryside for
about 2 hours until we reached Palermo, the capital of Sicily. He had never been here before either so we both opted to take the tourist approach. We bought an all day pass for a double decker bus that took us all around the town square and let us on and off at different places around the city. The bus also provided audio with facts and history about the different sites. Cheezy I know, but it was the best way to get around town in the limited time that we had (we had to catch the train back to Vallelunga by 4). I think it was good because I was able to see a little bit of everything. Some just in passing, but most up close and personal. From the parks and fountains to the theaters and churches, there are so many different kinds of beautiful architecture here. You can see the influence from the many different civilizations that passed through an
d left their mark here. There are many parks and gardens to see, so much that Palermo used to be known as "the garden city." Many of these are now a part of the many private villas scattered through the city such as Villa Tasca pictured here which is owned by the same family as the Tasca D'Almerita winery I am working at. Even though I was sweating the entire time from the heat and humidity, I enjoyed every moment of it. Palermo is a great city with so much history and beauty. 
Around 1:00 we realized how hungry we were from all the walking around and were both craving Pizza so we went on a mission to find a pizzeria. Sounds like a simple task right? Think again! Not only are the restaurants not really open at this time (1:00 is way to early for lunch here) the ones that are don’t serve Pizza that early. We walked around for a good hour following about 4 different people’s wrong directions trying to find something other than a bar. One of the people we stopped to ask directions from started to tell me how beautiful I was and how she could tell I was not from there (Duh) and as she started to tell Stefano to take good care of me and never let me go (everyone thought we were married and on our honeymoon haha) a Pigeon pooped on my back…twice! Oh man, it was disgusting! This was the first time for me and I couldn’t believe it. I have always thought it was so funny when people tell the story about it happening to them but now it was not so funny. Stefano thought it was hilarious and once I got it wiped off and was not in shock anymore, I could not stop laughing either. We ended up settling on a restaurant where we were the first and only ones to sit down and we had pasta instead of pizza, which turned out to be very good.
We returned to our sightseeing and visited the some of the most famous sites in Palermo like the Teatro Massimo, Fontana Pretoria, Piazza Marina, Palazzo Dei Normanni, the Capella Palatina (a beautiful cathedral) and much more. On our way back to the train station at the end of the day, it started raining all of a sudden and the wind picked up like crazy. It came out of nowhere and the leaves and trash (it’s beautiful, but it’s still a big city) were all kicked up like we were in the middle of a tornado. It was strange but it only lasted for about 10 min. The rain felt good and was a nice break from the heat though. I am not sure if we were just really tired or if everything was really as funny as it seemed, but we laughed the whole way home, telling each other funny stories about college and our friends. The train ride flew by and before we knew it…casa dolce casa.
Today Stefano and I had the day off so we decided to take the train to Palermo. Although the train station of Vallelunga looks like a deserted hotel from a horror movie, the train that arrived was surprisingly new and clean. We headed north through the countryside for
about 2 hours until we reached Palermo, the capital of Sicily. He had never been here before either so we both opted to take the tourist approach. We bought an all day pass for a double decker bus that took us all around the town square and let us on and off at different places around the city. The bus also provided audio with facts and history about the different sites. Cheezy I know, but it was the best way to get around town in the limited time that we had (we had to catch the train back to Vallelunga by 4). I think it was good because I was able to see a little bit of everything. Some just in passing, but most up close and personal. From the parks and fountains to the theaters and churches, there are so many different kinds of beautiful architecture here. You can see the influence from the many different civilizations that passed through an
d left their mark here. There are many parks and gardens to see, so much that Palermo used to be known as "the garden city." Many of these are now a part of the many private villas scattered through the city such as Villa Tasca pictured here which is owned by the same family as the Tasca D'Almerita winery I am working at. Even though I was sweating the entire time from the heat and humidity, I enjoyed every moment of it. Palermo is a great city with so much history and beauty. 
Around 1:00 we realized how hungry we were from all the walking around and were both craving Pizza so we went on a mission to find a pizzeria. Sounds like a simple task right? Think again! Not only are the restaurants not really open at this time (1:00 is way to early for lunch here) the ones that are don’t serve Pizza that early. We walked around for a good hour following about 4 different people’s wrong directions trying to find something other than a bar. One of the people we stopped to ask directions from started to tell me how beautiful I was and how she could tell I was not from there (Duh) and as she started to tell Stefano to take good care of me and never let me go (everyone thought we were married and on our honeymoon haha) a Pigeon pooped on my back…twice! Oh man, it was disgusting! This was the first time for me and I couldn’t believe it. I have always thought it was so funny when people tell the story about it happening to them but now it was not so funny. Stefano thought it was hilarious and once I got it wiped off and was not in shock anymore, I could not stop laughing either. We ended up settling on a restaurant where we were the first and only ones to sit down and we had pasta instead of pizza, which turned out to be very good.
We returned to our sightseeing and visited the some of the most famous sites in Palermo like the Teatro Massimo, Fontana Pretoria, Piazza Marina, Palazzo Dei Normanni, the Capella Palatina (a beautiful cathedral) and much more. On our way back to the train station at the end of the day, it started raining all of a sudden and the wind picked up like crazy. It came out of nowhere and the leaves and trash (it’s beautiful, but it’s still a big city) were all kicked up like we were in the middle of a tornado. It was strange but it only lasted for about 10 min. The rain felt good and was a nice break from the heat though. I am not sure if we were just really tired or if everything was really as funny as it seemed, but we laughed the whole way home, telling each other funny stories about college and our friends. The train ride flew by and before we knew it…casa dolce casa. Saturday, September 5, 2009
Dinner With the Winemaker
8/24
I am starting to get to know my roommates better and each one of them has a unique personality and something different that I like about them. Domenico is a kind, smart Sicilian. He is working side by side with the winemaker and is very bright. He has recently also learned Spanish and is always switching back and forth between Spanish and Italian. Unlike the rest of the boys who are from northern Italy, he is Sicilian… and therefore a great cook! He is always singing, whether it be a song on the radio or acapello. He’ll randomly burst out in song when we are walking somewhere or while he is cooking dinner. The songs usually consist of anything from “who let the dogs out” to “yellow submarine” or “born in the USA”. I laugh every time. Giuseppe is fashionably suave and wears skinny jeans and designer sunglasses. Of course he was the only one who wore a Speedo to the beach. The other guys had on board shorts. He is interning with the vineyard manager so he does not work in the winery with the rest of us. Mauro is always goofing around and being silly. He is kind of a rebel and I bet when he was a child he was a little trouble maker. His has dark sideburns that go down under his chin that he keeps in good shape. He is always cursing something but he makes me laugh. Stefano is the punk rocker who has a band and is really into music. He wrote all the music for all of the songs his band plays and he had me listen to them to help him correct his grammatical errors (he sings in English). He and Mauro are studying at the same school and were lucky enough to get to come here together. He is very kind and has a good soul. We have become pretty good friends over the past few weeks. Some of the first things he told me were about his biggest fears (he’s kinda a scardy cat, but knows it) and what makes him laugh and cry. He has a girlfriend who he loves and isn’t afraid to talk about it. He says that he has found what some people search their whole lives for. I love this kid! The other night when we got home he said that the sky in Sicily is so beautiful that it makes him cry. He is more sensitive than most guys I know, but in the best way. He’s also very smart and opinionated. He disagrees with a lot of things, especially in Italy, and claims to be an atheist. But he has a very strong sense of morals. He says he doesn’t what to be like the people who go to church on Sunday even though they sinned all week. He is always telling me all about Italian politics, the differences between northern and southern Italy, and so on. He has been a huge help with my Italian. The guys are all great and are always looking out for me. I am lucky to have them around because no one gives me a hard time when they're there. They also treat me like a princess which I can’t really argue with!
8/26
I am starting to get to know my roommates better and each one of them has a unique personality and something different that I like about them. Domenico is a kind, smart Sicilian. He is working side by side with the winemaker and is very bright. He has recently also learned Spanish and is always switching back and forth between Spanish and Italian. Unlike the rest of the boys who are from northern Italy, he is Sicilian… and therefore a great cook! He is always singing, whether it be a song on the radio or acapello. He’ll randomly burst out in song when we are walking somewhere or while he is cooking dinner. The songs usually consist of anything from “who let the dogs out” to “yellow submarine” or “born in the USA”. I laugh every time. Giuseppe is fashionably suave and wears skinny jeans and designer sunglasses. Of course he was the only one who wore a Speedo to the beach. The other guys had on board shorts. He is interning with the vineyard manager so he does not work in the winery with the rest of us. Mauro is always goofing around and being silly. He is kind of a rebel and I bet when he was a child he was a little trouble maker. His has dark sideburns that go down under his chin that he keeps in good shape. He is always cursing something but he makes me laugh. Stefano is the punk rocker who has a band and is really into music. He wrote all the music for all of the songs his band plays and he had me listen to them to help him correct his grammatical errors (he sings in English). He and Mauro are studying at the same school and were lucky enough to get to come here together. He is very kind and has a good soul. We have become pretty good friends over the past few weeks. Some of the first things he told me were about his biggest fears (he’s kinda a scardy cat, but knows it) and what makes him laugh and cry. He has a girlfriend who he loves and isn’t afraid to talk about it. He says that he has found what some people search their whole lives for. I love this kid! The other night when we got home he said that the sky in Sicily is so beautiful that it makes him cry. He is more sensitive than most guys I know, but in the best way. He’s also very smart and opinionated. He disagrees with a lot of things, especially in Italy, and claims to be an atheist. But he has a very strong sense of morals. He says he doesn’t what to be like the people who go to church on Sunday even though they sinned all week. He is always telling me all about Italian politics, the differences between northern and southern Italy, and so on. He has been a huge help with my Italian. The guys are all great and are always looking out for me. I am lucky to have them around because no one gives me a hard time when they're there. They also treat me like a princess which I can’t really argue with!
8/26
Tonight Laura invited us to join her family for dinner at their house. It was an amazing meal made with produce from the Regaliali estate accompanied with the best wine of Tasca, and therefore some of the best wine in Sicily. We started with the Almerita Brut and a spread of antipasti which included fresh olives, eggplant stuffed with ricotta, and bruschette. For dinner we had a light pasta with fresh tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella, followed by sausage (which is different from the sausage in America) potatoes, eggplant, arugula, ect. It was comfortable and I felt like I was in the home of a family member. Laura’s husband is the supervisor all of the winery’s operations so they basically run the winery for the Tasca family. They have two children who are so sweet and are learning English in school so they wanted to tell me everything they knew so far. It very idyllic. I was sitting across from the very person who was responsible for nurturing juice into the beautiful wine in my glass, which I was thoroughly enjoying.
Laura’s dog just had puppies a few weeks ago and after dinner we all spent an hour or so outside playing with them (under those beautiful stars!!). I was dying to take one home and have a little Italian puppy named Enzo but I am glad that my roommates wouldn’t let me. I don’t know what I would have done with it when this was over and I had to come home. I would have had to quarantine it for a few months to bring it to the U.S (which is horrible!) and I don’t think my mom and I need a puppy to take care of when we are traveling around Italy in November.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
