Italy: Days 31 through 38

Day 31 - Thursday, July 7
     The day was calm without Paola there (at a conference for 3 days) and I used the day mostly helping Patricia in the kitchen or Caroline in the garden.  We finished fairly early (5pm by our standards) and enjoyed a quick beer with Roberto and a bar overlooking the beautiful valley below.  That evening Mara cooked fried zucchini blossoms which were divine and we ate a calm meal in the cool air outside.

Day 32 - Friday, July 8
       Another leisurely day without Paola.  I helped Patricia in the kitchen with her prep-work for the market the next day and prepping the pizzas for that day's lunch with the kids.  After lunch (and a brief dance party with the kids), Caroline and I tackled the pruning of the blackberry bush, after after it really felt and looked as if we really had tackled the bush; our skin was left marked and scratch as if we had been in a cat fight.  Paola returned that afternoon, but the day finished smoothly and I made it an early night to be awake for the market early the next day.

Day 33 - Saturday, July 9
       I woke up super early to catch the 6:45 bus to meet Patricia to help her with the market that morning.  I guess she didn't really need much help as the market was not more than 10 or 12 tents and not many were interested in the fresh pasta we were selling (I wouldn't be either as it was like 90 degrees outside and pasta's the last thing I would eat).  After the market, there was a long wait for the next bus back to the farm so I had lunch with Pati and Mara and enjoyed a large gelato on my walk to the bus stop.  When I got back to the farm, I was assigned the job of redecorating the dining room with "summery" things.  We all stopped early so that Paola, Roberto, and Gabriele took Caroline and I out to dinner to enjoy the most fabulous borlenghi (ultra-thin crepes filled with ground sausage) and torteloni (large tortelini) ev-ar!

Day 34 - Sunday, July 10
       I put up the decorations I had started the day before (paper cranes, leaf garlands, and big yellow suns) and did lots of other small duties around the kitchen.  Caroline and I picked figs so we could make jam later.  I ate a couple of really soft ones and they had to be some of the juiciest, sweetest figs I've ever had.  We learned how to make pasta by hand, and watching Paola do it definitely made me realize how much skill and practice it takes.  We weren't able to eat it (wasn't ready for cutting), so we ate some other fresh pasta and had a mostly lazy afternoon going between more fig picking and playing the pool with Gabriele.  That night, I made the requested paella, even though I this point it had digressed into more of just "saffron rice with meat" but it still turned out pretty well, and we were able to enjoy it with some wonderfully nice friends of Paola and Roberto.

Day 35 - Monday, July 11
      Caroline left early in the morning (we said all of our goodbyes the night before), but we woke up not too much later for the last week of kiddy camp.  The kids spent the morning cleaning out Paola's honeycombs and learning about beehives in the meantime.  After a paella lunch, Roberto took me out to the plum trees that were by the cherries and found that they weren't really ready for the picking, so I finished the day by vacuuming the guest house which had already been infiltrated by bugs (again).

Day 36 - Tuesday, July 12
       I started chopping down the jungle of grass/weeks that had grown in the short time we put the covering over the strawberry bushes.  After cooking and eating lunch, I must have looked as exhausted as I felt, as Paola suggested that I take a nap after lunch being that there wasn't much else to help out with in the afternoon.  I wasn't able to sleep much given it was so hot, but it was nice to rest for a solid couple hours.  I finally left my room because I was ready to stick my head under a cold tap, so I watered the vegetable garden so that I could be around water.  We finished later and had a later dinner, and when I got back to my room, I had a large infestation of larger-than-life moths, of which the vacuum and chair became my most valuable tools for combating the buggers.

Day 37 - Wednesday, July 13
       Nothing too special: weeded a small garden in front in the morning and then cleaned the kitchen in the afternoon.  It was beautiful when I finished.

Day 38 - Thursday, July 14
       I finally finished cutting the jungle of weeds under the cover.  Paola had prepped dough earlier and I finished making the little breads (not without burning a few first, of course).  After lunch and clean up, I took a little break for myself, and then finished with all my nightly tasks: watering the garden and feeding the animals.  We had a pot luck dinner with the parents of the kids that had been at Ca' del Buco the last two weeks or three weeks, since Friday would all be their last day there (and our last day with kids).  The kids put on a little "show" for all of us which was mostly just precious because it was just watching them play around and occasionally making jokes of which I didn't understand but laughed anyway.