Although today was my day off, there was no sleeping in. First off, thanks to the possessed rooster living right across the street from my bedroom window. For a rooster, this crazy animal has no sense of time and crows randomly ALL throughout of the day. Sometimes for a half hour, sometimes just once. Whatever he is in the mood for I guess. Although I’ve started to get used to it, almost like you do the bark of a dog, today it didn’t fail to wake me up at 7:30am. It didn’t really matter though because at 8:00 the siren went off. It is the one that was used in the old times of war to alert the town that there was danger. It goes off twice a day as a reminder of the past. Around 8:30 their version of the ice cream man makes his way through the town selling fruit and vegetables and announcing today’s specials over an intercom. And remember I am in Sicily, so by announcing I mean screaming. Then at about 9:00 the construction begins. There is a house being built behind us so I spend most of my days off listening to everything from jackhammers to drills, with sirens, roosters, and intercoms in between. It’s funny.
Later that day, as I walked up the steep alley to mass, I was glared at by all the old men playing cards and having their coffee outside of the bars. Even though it has been about a month since I arrived here, they still seem so curious about the blond American who is living in their little town. There are only about 1,500 people living here, but there are at least four churches. Sicily is very Catholic and the towns here are centered around the Church. Thanks to the tradition, although the mass was in Italian I could still follow the majority of it. All of the children sit together in the front two or three rows (where the nuns made sure they behaved). Again, on my way back home, I was stared at as I passed each bar by the same old men sitting outside, still playing cards, who had now substituted their coffee for beer.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
9.11
September 11th. Very different here. Many people gave their condolences, trying to understand what it must have been like for the American people, but they were not there for the experience I can so clearly remember. Being here has made me appreciate America even more. Although we have our own problems, as all countries do, there is no place else in the world quite like it ( for the good, the bad, and the ugly). I am proud to call myself an American. Being in Italy has been an eye opener for me. The people here find greater happiness in the simple things in life, which I love. But I think we, as Americans, are all very fortunate to have everything we need or want at our fingertips. This experience has definitely made me understand the difference between the significant things in life and the unnecessary. While we made dinner tonight, my roommates and I went back and forth requesting songs. They like a lot of the same music I do, and it was interesting to see which oldies but goodies made their list too.
Fieldtrip...Literally!
I went on a fieldtrip today! Since I’ve spent my time so far working in the winery and haven’t had the chance to see what it’s like to work in the vineyard, I was excited to venture
out to the beautiful rolling hills and get my hands dirty. Early in the morning, we went to one of the vineyards where Merlot grapes were ready to be harvested. These were not grapes of the highest qualit
y so it was being done by machine instead of by hand. The tall yellow monster drives over each row of vines, vibrating them and shaking the grapes off of the stems, collecting them as it goes along. I even got to take a ride…Disneyland for farmers!In the afternoon Yoni and I saw the more romantic and classic method of harvesting grapes…by hand. This is done in the majority of the vineyards (90%), and requires many men who all work their butts off! There were about 40 men working in this vineyard and I don’t think they knew quite what to make of us blondies (the vineyard manager joked that he needs to bring us out there more often to motivate the guys). They begin picking at the start of each row, working their way up the row cutting the bunches of grapes and placing them in the bucket next to them. After about 20 minutes, the buckets are almost full so they all pass them over their heads and the vines to the person in the next row, who passes it over to the next person in the next row, and so on until it reaches the middle and can be dumped into the tractor. They have to do this at least 10 times before reaching the end of one row. Although we helped out for a little bit, it was not enough to really get my hands dirty like I expected.
Tonight I stayed at the winery in one of the guesthouses with Yoni. There are a few guesthouses on the estate and they are all very nice. I am glad to actually leave work when I am done rather than staying here, but this is a nice change from my plain, old apartment. We made a really yummy homemade pizza and had a wonderful dinner outside. There is supposed to be a storm rolling in so it was a little windy. Just enough to freshen the air and leave it smelling like the flowers that surround the estate.
Wine Tasting
There are 2 other women here 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 exportation office in Palermo for 3 months, traveling around Europe and learning about the exportation process.
Today, I joined them in a wine tasting which included a few wines that aren't exported out of Italy. It was great to hear the history about the winery and the stories behind each wine…and the wine wasn‘t bad either ;o) One of the most interesting wines fo me was the Grillo from the ancient island of Mozia. Tasca D’Almerita was asked to take on the project of restoring and improving the historical vineyards here and they’ve produced a wine that is very true to varietal, yet unique due to the land and location of the old vines. For example, there are salt mills on the island, and you can taste the influence from them in the wine.
There is a lot of tradition, history, and pride here. The family has always been and is still very involved in the winery. They live in Palermo but are here at the estate often and work with the people in person rather than just over the phone or through emails. Most of the people that work here have been here for a long time and are like family.
Today, I joined them in a wine tasting which included a few wines that aren't exported out of Italy. It was great to hear the history about the winery and the stories behind each wine…and the wine wasn‘t bad either ;o) One of the most interesting wines fo me was the Grillo from the ancient island of Mozia. Tasca D’Almerita was asked to take on the project of restoring and improving the historical vineyards here and they’ve produced a wine that is very true to varietal, yet unique due to the land and location of the old vines. For example, there are salt mills on the island, and you can taste the influence from them in the wine.
There is a lot of tradition, history, and pride here. The family has always been and is still very involved in the winery. They live in Palermo but are here at the estate often and work with the people in person rather than just over the phone or through emails. Most of the people that work here have been here for a long time and are like family.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
dance, dance, dance.
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!
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!
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.
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