Home, via Siena and Roma

Pictures in reverse chronological order. I'll never figure out this technology.

At the Pantheon in Rome.

Hall in the Vatican museum. We couldn't go that way.

St. Peter's, Vatican City

Il Campo in Siena, during the Palio. We got a spot right at the starting gate.

Flag twirlers at the Palio.

I've made it back to Vermont, where the hills are greener than anything I've seen in Italy. I should start from where I left off, though.

The goat farm in Bologna continued to be great. I got to make cheese, got a bit closer to the owners, and had some good practice preparing Italian cuisine. From there I went south to Siena for the Palio, a famous horse race. What a crazy event. I've never seen so many people so deeply involved in an event. The race itself only lasts about 2 minutes, but the build-up goes on for hours. We arrived around 11am for the 7pm start. The parade started around 4, with each of the contradas (sections of town competing against each other) presenting their best armor, weapons and flag twirlers. Some pretty remarkable acts. At 7 all the horses come out onto the track and start to line up. They get randomly placed in the starting gate and all start making deals with each other, bribing each other to slow down their enemies and help out their friends. When everyone is lined up, the 10th jockey can choose to start the race whenever he likes, based on the positioning of the other horses, which ones are ready and which are not. Once he starts, there is often a false start, which I think happens when one of the other horses starts too soon, or something. Anyway, with much prancing around and jostling for position and three false starts, the race ended up happening around 9pm. Two minutes later the Owl contrada had won, fans rushed the track and the losing horses and jockeys were quickly ushered away so as not to be attacked by the enraged crowd. The crowd is always enraged because the nine losing teams are furious.

I ended up spending a week at Spannocchia, relaxing a bit, making focaccia, meeting the summer intern group and playing quite a lot of ukulele. It was strange to be back, especially in a non-working capacity. It is really a magical place, especially being able to see past the farm politics and drama that started to get to me towards the end of the internship.

I booked a hostel in Rome and ended up staying there for 3 nights and 2 full days. Of course, not nearly long enough to see perhaps the greatest tourist city in the world, but I packed in just about as much as possible. This was the most I felt like a tourist during my whole trip, but it's hard not to feel like a tourist in Rome. At the hostel I immediately met a great group of Brits and Canadians, including another ukulele player. We spent our nights wandering around the Spanish steps area and the Colosseum. Monday we went to the Vatican, which was mind-boggling. St. Peter's is the most lavish building I've ever seen, just unbelievable. The Vatican museum is packed with artifacts from all over the world. They have so many sculptures that they just fill rooms with them, lining all edges and not even labeling anything. It's almost as if they're showing off the vastness of their collection without allowing you to actually appreciate any of it. We spend the rest of the days stopping at the rest of the major sites on our way back across town, the Pantheon, Trevi fountain, etc. Tuesday I wandered around the ancient ruins and had a more reflective day, since it was my last in Italy.

The flight home was remarkably easy, quite a bit smoother than most of the travel I had gotten used to around the Mediterranean. British Airways provided three meals in two flights, so civilized. So now I'm back in Vermont, adjusting to wide roads, huge cars, being able to communicate with everyone I see, individualism and progressivism. I don't plan to continue this blog now that I'm back home, but thanks for reading. It's been a good way to organize and archive my thoughts.

Bologna, Goats

New Pictures!

Bologna, the red city.

My couchsurfing friends admiring some frescoes.

Fattoria i piani, the goat farm. This is typical landscape in Emilia Romagna.

Baby goats acting sheepish.

It turns out sheep herding skills are transferable to other ruminants.

I've made it back to northern Italy. It's quite a cultural shock, and the weather has been cooler (as low as 60!) than I've experienced since May. I would guess the average midday temperature for the past 3 months has been between 80 and 85. I spent a few days in Bologna, which is a beautiful city. It's usually packed with students (150,000 out of 500,000 total residents), but they're all on vacation right now, probably at the sea in southern Italy, so the city was quiet. I couchsurfed with Mario, and English professor from Australia at the university, along with 4 Polish girls and 2 other Americans. It was quite a party, really terrific. For the first time I felt like a real tourist, seeing most of the big sites in the city. A fun change of pace, gorgeous cathedrals. It's strange to be back in the north, it almost feels like Austria or southern Germany here. Everything is very (well, relatively) clean, organized and on-time. I'm definitely more comfortable in this environment, Bologna could practically be a US city. On the other hand, my horizons aren't expanding quite as much as they did in the south.

Now I'm on a goat farm about an hour out of Bologna. This is the first farm I've been on that is actually making money (or at least trying to) by selling its products, which is a very nice change of pace. Work seems much more real and necessary. The farmer works more than any of the other places I've been, which is inspiring to see and makes my work feel more valuable. I haven't made cheese yet, but I'll probably get a couple chances to in the next 10 days. I love the goats, though. It's great to be with animals again, they're so calming and funny. The goats are much smarter than the sheep I worked with in Siena (not as smart as the pigs, but they were a little bit TOO smart, I think), and much more friendly. The baby goats are adorable, they like to lick my hands and chew on my T-shirt. I've done the milking a few times now (it's all by machine since there are about 150 goats), I think it's work I naturally enjoy, being from Vermont. Today we're digging a big ditch, good hard work. So everything is going very well, and I'm still adding to the list of things I've never done before this trip. And after this, I'm going to go to the Palio in Siena!