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 and 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.

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

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.

Cefalu

8/22

I have been getting up and running in the morning as the sun is coming up. It’s nice and cool and there’s a kind of peace and quiet here in the morning that I have never felt back home. The only time I have been anywhere more quiet was after the freefall when I went skydiving. Which, by the way, I have been looking into. One of my roommates wants to come with me. I think we might go in Palermo soon!

At work, we tasted wine from an experiment Laura has been doing with Nerello Mascalese. Now that the wine is finished, she is using micro oxidation to round it out and express the tannins from beginning to end, instead of just at the end of the finish. It has worked well and the wine continues to improve daily. It is great that Regaleali is big enough to have the support it needs to make great wine, efficiently, but still small enough to not mass produce or follow any protocols when it comes to the winemaking. Instead, it is very hands on and alive. Laura compares the winery to a hospital. She says that each tank is a patient who is changing and getting better each day. She has a goal or "plan" for each one and would like to see them have a particular outcome. She watches each one carefully, giving them the unique support to reach their goal, but realizes that although she would like them to progess down a certain path, everything might not go as planned. In this case she might need to go to a different tank to obtain that particular result she was looking for. I like tasting with her everyday and seeing how the juice changes. For example, if the juice starts to smell bad it is because the yeast is struggling and giving off an odor. It needs to be "fed" so that it can thrive and reproduce in order to convert the sugar in the juice to alcohol. When Laura tastes everyday, she decides what each "patient" needs or if they need anything at all.

8/23

We have the weekend off before the busy harvest begins so we went to the beach today! We headed up to the northeastern part of Sicily to a city called Cefalu. It was absolutely beautiful. The sea was like bath water. It was so warm I couldn’t believe it. The water is shallow for a long distance so you can swim pretty far out and you're still able to stand. I bought a raft and floated around for a few hours until I realized I was getting burnt and retreated to a chair under an umbrella where I read a book for the rest of the afternoon. Around 5 we went into the medieval town of Cefalu. The long narrow streets were lined with gelateria’s (ice cream and pastry shops), trendy stores, osteria’s, enotecca’s, ect. In the middle of this busy town was the Piazza Duomo which houses one of Sicily’s most beautiful Cathedrals. Right as the sun was setting, we reached the marina where we sat and enjoyed the magnificent view with our pistaccio gelato.




When we got home we made dinner and polished off 5 bottles of wine as we talked about everything under the sun. My roomates and I went back and forth asking each other questions and trying to gain an insight into each other's real lives. They filled me in on everything from their president (who apparently sleeps with lots of women) to their slang words and gestures, the best places to visit in Italy, the best food (Sicily wins!), their belief’s, the mafia, ect. I think we both learned a lot from each other and about what our culture’s are like. Our plans to go out turned into a drunken, 3 hour chat and at the end we were exhausted.

Me and the Boys

8/21

There’s a popular Pop radio station that mostly plays songs in English so we pretty much listen to the same music in the car here as I did at home (which is a shame). I have noticed that it is “cool” for the younger people to drive down the street blasting this radio station. They play anything and everything from Lady Gaga to Phil Collins and the people driving most likely don’t even know what the lyrics in the songs mean. Its pretty funny.

Last night we went to the next closest (a nicer!) town for dinner at a pizzeria. We didn’t get there until 11 and it was packed. Everyone eats late here. They have a big lunch around 2:00 and then take a nap until about 4. The town starts to liven up around 5 and you can find cars parked everywhere in no particular fashion. Some pull up against the curb while others just pull in facing it. Like I said, there are no rules here. Everyone comes out of their homes to sit outside their house or at one of the bars until 12 or 1 am. Even the kids! In fact, the ones who take the orders at the bars are usually the 9 or 10 year old children of the owners. Oh and all of the kids here are absolutely beautiful here.

I found out that my roommate, Lisa, will be working at our other winery, a few towns over, for the rest of harvest. I am really sad she is leaving. At first, I was bummed I had to share a room and now it is going to seem so empty without her here. She has made me feel so welcome and has been my savior since I got here. But before she left, we shaved our roommate, Stefano‘s head . He had a bit of an afro going on...much better now. Well I guess it’s just me and the boys from now on. Wish me luck!

8/20

I got to work in the lab a little bit yesterday and it was really interesting. The man who runs the lab is like your typical mad chemist. He is out of his mind and always on edge and stressed out, but he is obviously very smart.

On the drive to work today I was a little disappointed to see that what I had previously thought was a beautiful river that flowed through the vineyards (from the pictures online and the banners on the wall at the Nora‘s) was just a small pond for irrigation. Oh well. We were greeted by 12 samples to crush and get to the lab. I like to tasting all of the grapes before we crush them. It is neat to see how the wine begins and compare the different grapes. After collecting only 2 samples I was sweating profusely and sticky everywhere. I spent most of the morning covered in juice and surrounded by bees. Yup…definitely not in Vegas anymore!

I visited some of the vineyards today and was able to see the soil and grapes on the vines. There are 400 hectares of vineyards here with almond and olive trees alternating between them. 12 hectares of this is composed of alberello vines (some 40 years old) which are pretty rare in Sicily. The vineyards range from local varieties like Catarratto, Inzolia, Nerello Mascalese, Nero D’Avola and Perricone to Chardonnay, Sauvignon, Syrah, and Cabernet. They also own an island with vineyards of Grillo and Malvasia.

We also visited Case Vecchie where the estate’s garden is. Basil, tomatoes, arugula, ect. are all grown here. It smelled great! Probably because of the tomatoes that were drying in sun (yum!) All the antiques from the winery are also kept here. We got to stay home after lunch today and we have tomorrow off since we’re not that busy yet. Most of the grapes will not be picked until next week or the week after. This is nice since we will be working 10 hour days, 6 sometimes 7 days a week, starting next week.

We went to dinner at the best restaurant in town tonight. It was up on a hill and overlooked the countryside. Very cute. I was shocked at how cheap it was. I spent $10 euro on a great meal that included wine. Our entertainment for the night was the town football game. Men from the age of 16-30 all get together to play a game of soccer and everyone in town goes to watch. The weather was perfect. It is warm during the day, usually around 90, but it cools down at night. Everyone in town is outside, relaxing or walking after dinner.

10 things I LOVE about Sicily

1. The food!!! All my roommates agree (even the ones from the North) that the best food in Italy is found in Sicily. And when there is food on the table, there is wine. Life is good :O)

2. The people are the heart and soul of this place. They are more kind, generous, helpful, welcoming, fun, good looking, fashionable…the list goes on and on…than I could have imagined (But all of you who have bets going that I will get married and never come home…Not gunna happen!) I am so lucky to be living here and not just on a short vacation because I don’t think you can really experience Sicily without getting to know the people.

3. The sky is so clear at night that I think I could see every star in the sky. Absolutely breathtaking.

4. The Sea is like bathwater and the waves are small so you can actually float on a raft and relax without being tossed around like a rag doll.

5. For me, Sicily is Europe, Africa and Asia on one island. The influence from Greeks, Arabs, Normans, Byzantines, and Romans can be seen in everything from the fountains, theaters‘, and churches, to the food, language, and culture. And even though the history is long and tangled, the pride Sicilians have (for the good and the bad) moves me.

6. Sicilians take time to enjoy life. Friends, family, and good food and wine is more important than working long hours to make as much money as you can. Here there is no rush. And the people here always have something to say. Instead of being on the computer or watching TV all the time, they talk to each other and are always finding something to laugh at.

7. Like in the U.S, the ringtones are popular songs (usually American) . Except here they substitute the singer for what sounds like a 3 year old girl. For example, I just saw a commercial for the Pitbull song. You know the one…”I know you want me, I know I want cha…1, 2, 3, 4, uno, dos, tres, quattro!” Now picture that coming out of a cell phone and being sung like a tune from Tellitubbies. Too funny!

8. The restaurants and bars are pretty inexpensive. The exchange rate kinda ruins it but you can spend $10 euros and have a great meal with a carafe of wine. Not as much in the big cities but where I am staying drinks at the bar are only about 2 euro’s. I could get used to this!

9. Sodas and water come in large bottles and are drunk out of little plastic cups. Like the ones you rinse your mouth out with at the dentist. After a long day of work, it takes about 8 cups of water to quench my thirst, but I think I will miss these when I come home.

10. So far the men have been gentleman, not aggressive and pushy like I was warned about and prepared for. those ones are out there I'm sure, just like everywhere else in this world, but so far nothing but good peeps!

Let the Work Begin!

8/17/2009

This morning when I woke up at Nora’s, I was welcomed with an espresso and breakfast pastry. I knew this hospitality, along with the convenience of a walking talking translator, probably wasn’t going to last for long. This was a good thing though and I knew that what was ahead of me was going to make me a better person. I was looking forward to learning so much and was excited to venture on this “journey of a lifetime.” I Thought I expected what was to come, but I had no idea what I was about to get myself into. No one was kidding when they said I would be in the middle of nowhere. We drove about an hour and a half from Nora’s home town. I was almost car sick since about an hour of it was up an extremely windy road, far into the countryside. On the way, we chatted about Sicily and Nora told me a few stories, while her brother proceeded to tell me that I was basically about to put myself through something that a nun would do right before she went into the monastery, some kind of penance, and that after these few months I would be “St. Morgana.” Nice right. Finally we passed through the town of Vallelunga, which is about 10 min outside of the Regaleali vineyards. Although I didn’t get a full tour, I couldn’t picture myself spending much time here since it didn’t seem like there was anything to do. When we arrived at the vineyards, I realized exactly how ginormous this place is. The vineyards seem almost endless as they roll up and down the beautiful hills.



First, I met the director of the winery and was pleased he spoke a few words of broken English. I was not as pleased with the first words that came from his mouth though, “Poor Morgan.” So at this point it seems like everyone feels bad for me and doesn’t seem to understand why I, the American who barely speaks Italian at this point, would come to this remote place in Sicily for anything longer than a short visit. But nonetheless, I am happy to be here and I know that I am going to benefit from this experience, even though it won’t be a piece of cake.

Next, I met the director's wife and the winemaker, Laura, who is really friendly and spunky. She doesn’t walk but rather trots around the winery with her glass, tasking samples of juice from different tanks. On her way, she showed me around and introduced me to everyone who works in the winery. I met a 26 year old winemaker named Lisa who’s assisting Laura and currently working her 9th harvest. Previous ones included New Zealand, Chile and all over Italy. She is smart and really nice. I will be shadowing her for the day and we got right to work. Apparently I will not be working in the fields like I thought, probably just in the winery but there will be pleanty for me to do. There are also two other male interns here now and two more arriving tomorrow. It was almost time for lunch at that point, and it was then when I realized that I would not be living on the winery after all. We would all be staying in an apartment in that little village of Vallelunga. I guess I will be spending some time there after all!

We drove into town where we would make lunch (surprisingly, the BOYS cooked). I share a room with Lisa and we all share a bathroom. Not the most ideal circumstances but actually pretty comfortable. It reminds me of living in Pi Phi a little bit. Except my bed is half the size and probably about 100 years old cause it is nice and bouncy…just the way I like it. The towel that was folded on my bed was not so appealing though. It was also about 100 years old and feels more like an extra large piece of sandpaper than a towel. So, I have resorted to using my robe as a towel for now.

Lisa has done everything possible to make me comfortable here and I am learning a lot from her (and she loves that she can practice her English with me). I think we will be good friends. After Lunch we returned to the winery. Our first task was to bottle juice from 16 different samples of vine cuttings and take it to the lab for them to conclude the acidity level, amount of sugar, and so on to determine if /when the grapes would be ready to be picked (I hope I get to work in the lab sometime while I am here. Those stupid O-Chem classes might actually come in handy!) Neways the best part about this is that the method of retrieving the juice is by…wait for it…your feet! Yup, you put on a pair of rainboot-looking shoes and smoosh the bunches of grapes over a large sifter to separate the seeds and skins from the juice that is collected in bucket below. Of course the bees are attracted to this and are everywhere. I have already gotten used to it and don't even flinch anymore when they land on my hand. After taking the samples to the lab, we went to the 5 steel tanks that are full with juice so far and calculated the density and temperature of each one to make sure that fermentation is on the right track. Most of the juice is chardonnay right now that will be used for their sparkling wine. Let the work begin!