We arrived at the train station in Sarzana just as it was getting dark. We were meeting our new wwoof hosts, Gianni and Christina, to start a full month of wwoofing. We were really not sure what to expect and did not even know if they spoke English. When they were not at the train station 15 minutes after we were supposed to meet them we started to get nervous. When they finally did show up we were even more nervous. They pulled up in this shity van\truck thing that could only be in Italy, with cigarettes in hand. The seats were covered in trash bags and the trunk was full of hay. They drove us down the back roads to get to their farm. On the way we passed a dilapidated old mill, and Lisa and I were both sure that was their house. Luckly we drove right past it to the very end of the road to where they had the small farm and bed and breakfast.
They looked about 60 and like Italys answer to Haight-Ashbury. Gianni looked like a character that Jonny Depp would play. He was smallish, had a buccaneer moustache and beard and ear length hair. He did not have a gray hair but his wrinkled face showed a life lived hard. His arms were marked with tattoos that he gave himself as a teen. There was a picture of his first girlfriend, a poppy flower, an anarchy symbol and the initials L.S.D. We found out this was to avoid the military, he was kicked out when they saw this. Gianni sang songs like Yankee Go Home. Christina had long gray hair, usually wore a little white jumpsuit and unshaven armpits.
Their house was more like a small apartment building, with different sections painted differently in traditional tuscan style as it was right on the border of Tuscany and Liguria. The property sat in a valley with a small creek running through it. The land was terraced and steep. On one of the hills you could see a tiny medieval village called Giucano. As well as a bed and breakfast, they ran a small restaurant with a set menu which was great because it meant that I had a commercial kitchen to play in.
The first work we did was cutting the weeds on the terraces by hand with a seethe (they got an electric trimmer the day we left!). We also worked in the vegetable plots, cleared and covered the land around the olive trees and helped with guests. We also put the geese and chickens away at night. For the geese you would literally quack and they would follow you into their pen. As well as geese and chickens there were also bees, donkeys and a little dog named Na Na. Gianni informed us that he only had nice bees. Lisa was promptly stung. It was ok though becasue we got a ton of fresh honey!
We quickly learned that like most Italians we met, they knew everything about everything. Italy was by far the best place on earth, and their region of italy was far superior to any other(that’s how all Italians spoke). They were very much hippies and very into eastern philosophy. They had certain ways they wanted everything done, but would not tell us until we had finished the job that we had done it wrong. By the end we were very sick of being told how to do every thing. We got pretty annoyed by this but were torn becasue at the same time they were extremely nice, catering to Lisa`s gluten intolerance always making her homemade bread and pasta, letting us take their scooter around and giving us free use of the kitchen and all food. We thought they were too nice so we never said anything about too much work.
The second half of our stay, a pair of French girls came to wwoof as well. There was definitetly a French Italian rivelry (both countries were far superior to the other, their people were nicer and each had the best food in the world.) We quickly became the clear favorites becasue while we smiled and did the work anyway, the French girls got a snoody attitude and bitched a lot. One night they even took us out to dinner and didn't tell the girls they were not making dinner.
Our last week we spent building a huge stone retaining wall along side some Italian contractors. It was a nice change because they were not telling us how to do things. We also found out why they expected so much work. Italians may be at work for eight hours but at least four hours are spent talking and arguing about everything from coffee to homosexuality. It was also good because they could really see how hard we worked. Gianni and the other contractors were especially impressed by Lisa, lifting and working harder than the men. They loved the fact that Lisa would jokingly tell the Italian foremen to quit talking and get back to work. The foreman, Stefano was hilarious. Eventhough he spoke no english he would have us laughing. Another funny incident occurred on the first day working before he knew how strong lisa was. Lisa squatted to lift a large rock using her legs to protect her back (as she well knows how to do). Stefano told her this was not the proper way to lift. He demonstrated the right way. He kept his feet touching, and with straight legs bent over and lifted the rock using only his back. He did take her way after he found out she taught people the proper way to lift for a living. Gianni was hilarious to watch work. He was not very strong and while we were lifting and moving the large rocks he would carefully position small rocks to make small walls around the main wall. He also had a really interesting shovelling technique. He would choke way up on the shovel, press it against his hip and sort of just thrust his hips, never taking more than half of a shovel load. Of course, this was the right way and we were doing it wrong. They were however, very appreciative of our hard work and invited us back.
On our days off we went to nearby towns and beaches. We went hiking and explored the mountain roads on their scooter. We got two day of climbing in but it was usually too hot and we were too tired from moving rocks. Our favorite place nearby was an alpine meadow that was above the Carrara Mable Quarries. It overlooked the quarries that could easily be mistaken for glaciers from all the marble tallas. The meadow was at least 15 degrees cooler than the valley and we picked wild blueberries and strawberries. There was and Alpine club Refugee where we could get cappuccino and enjoy the view.
The wild blueberries and strawberries were about the best food I have ever eaten, but all the food was very good. We ate homemade pasta and bread almost every day. We drove the scooter to a neighbor to get fresh milk (she milked the cow while we waited playing with a kitten). We gained lots of ideas for the future restaurant.
While we were there we had fun playing with the kids of the families that came to stay. One night we got an italian lesson from about six kids doing skits to demonstrate what a word meant. We did pick up some Italian while we were there (Lisa more than me) but more so our English got worse. We started speaking english like them so they could understand us, but would forget and speak to each other the same way. "Close the lights because coming the night."
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