christina

Our last two weeks at Trove have passed by very quickly.  We house sat for the final 10 days of our stay while Barbara and Ugo were away on tours.  During that time we got into a comfortable routine – waking up around 7:30 each morning, enjoying coffee and breakfast before starting our “work day” around 9:00. Mid morning we stopped for a coffee (and to give my aching muscles a rest) and then we would continue on until 1:00 or 1:30 at which time we would have our “shower” while the paid workers (doing the renovation work) were away on their lunch break.  Then it was time to have lunch.  After that, our time was our own to spend as we pleased: reading, researching, writing, photography, touring around, and going for walks. During this time we visited the town of Cortona which is the location where “Under the Tuscan Sun” was filmed.

As you know, my job was to get the garden under control.  It was a large, terraced vegetable garden that was completely over grown with weeds.  I was surprised to find so many plants under all those weeds – I think Ugo must have planted earlier in the springtime but then didn’t have time to maintain the garden.  I was also tasked to purchase more plants – anything I wanted – to fill in the empty spots in the garden.

Following Barbara’s suggestion, we went to the Tuesday morning market in Sinalunga to purchase our plants. This presented something of a challenge as nobody spoke English and most of the plants were not marked, at least not in any way I could recognize.  I bought what I knew although who knows if the pepper plants are green or red or yellow, or what type of tomato plants I bought.  I guess they’ll find out later on in the season.  The other challenge at the market was getting served. Barbara warned me about the pushy little Italian ladies who would have no qualms butting in front of me.  Sure enough, a very old lady butted in front of me but I let it go since she was just buying one item.  But when a young couple started to go next, I tapped the man on the arm and said in English, Excuse me but I am next in line, and then proceeded to point out what I wanted.  His wife pulled him back and he had no choice but to defer to me, even though he probably had no idea what I just said.  By the time I had decided on the plants and got them purchased, I was exhausted and had had enough of the market for one day.

I must admit I found it physically challenging to work for four hours in the garden each day. I tried to break things up by taking time to water the garden, do some weeding, do some planting and then some more weeding.  The weeding was back breaking work, with weeds that were so tenacious I had met my match. By the end of our stay, I had cleaned up all the vegetable gardens and was quite happy with the results of my hard work.  As an added bonus, all that physical labour was good preparation for the upcoming Camino de Santiago.

Chris had the task of refinishing the original windows in the kitchen – we’re talking windows that were hundreds of years old.  At first glance, Chris’ gut told him the windows were beyond repair and should just be replaced but Barbara put forth the case that she was just trying to buy some time with them – just a few more years.  And so Chris spent the better part of two weeks taking apart the old kitchen window, sanding it down and removing the layers upon layers of old paint, scraping years of gunk off the window panes, trying to flatten severely warped windows that were curved like bananas and grumbling throughout the entire process.  He said it more than once: I could be spending my time making beautiful windows instead of wasting my time on a futile exercise, if only I had the proper tools and the proper environment and the proper supplies.  I think that sums up Chris’ big challenge with the HelpX experiences so far:  he finds it very frustrating not being able to maximize his skills and to have to settle for a mediocre outcome.  In fact, it drives him crazy and he really struggles to cope in the situation.  He puts pressure on himself by taking off more he can chew and then he tends to get caught up in working incessantly and forgetting to have fun in the process.

The end result:  A refinished kitchen window that
Barbara thought was wonderful.

During the last few days of our stay, we enjoyed the company of the next pair of HelpXers, a young Aussie couple, Amber and Alex.  We had been given the responsibility of picking them up at the train station and then showing them the ropes at Trove which we did.   Lucky for them, the weather warmed up so having a “shower” was not such an ordeal. There have been some downright chilly days at Trove this past month which made us yearn for indoor plumbing.  But this last week has been warm again.  We did a few excursions with them since they needed to become familiar with the area and Alex needed to get used to driving Barbara’s car. One evening, we went back to the Abbey in Sant’Antimo in time to hear an unusual service: four monks clothed in white robes singing Gregorian chants.  It was a unique experience to observe.  The scenery on the way home was incredible as we were treated to a beautiful sunset over the rolling Tuscan hills.  Magnifico!

Last meal with Barbara and Ugo before they entrusted their house to us.

The month at Trove passed by in a flash. It was the longest period of time we have stayed in one place and we both enjoyed having a break from being on the go.  We soaked up the peacefulness and beauty of our surroundings, but I was surprised at how isolated I felt being out in the middle of nowhere with minimal social interaction. Equally surprising considering the picturesque landscape, I never felt completely relaxed at Trove.  I found the circumstances we landed into, with the renovation and all the associated upheaval, to be a little unsettling and certainly not what I was expecting.

In spite of the minimalist kitchen, I enjoyed preparing tasty, nutritious
meals for us all month.  My secret cooking tip from Tuscany:
add high quality olive oil (like that produced on the farm)
to anything and everything! 

In the end, I think we made the best of the situation and turned it into a win-win: Ugo and Barbara expressed a lot of appreciation to us for our contribution and our ability to cope in somewhat trying circumstances.  On our part, we got to experience living like a local in the Tuscan countryside in the springtime, we saved a lot of money since we had no living expenses for the month, and we got to meet some wonderful people and make new friends.  On that note, Trove is wrap.

At Barbara’s insistence, we began our second week at Trove with a visit to Siena. You may recall that we had attempted a visit to this beautiful Tuscan hill town earlier during my sister’s visit but we had been rained out.  This time, the weather cooperated with warm sunshine all day long. We were looking forward to an excursion after feeling somewhat isolated on the farm all week.

We travelled to Siena by bus which we caught at the train station in Sinalunga (Barbara drove us to the station) and we took the train back.  Once in Siena, we found our way into the historic centre which has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.  Siena is famous for its cuisine, art, museums, medieval cityscape and the Palio which is a horse race held twice a year, once in July and then again in August right in the middle of town.  Like other Tuscan hill towns, Siena was first settled in the time of the Etruscans (c. 900-400 BC).  The Etruscans were an advanced people who changed the face of central Italy through their use of irrigation to reclaim previously unfarmable land.  Throughout Tuscany, medieval towns are perched on the top of hills – a legacy of the Etruscans who strategically built their settlements in well-defended hill forts.

We headed to the unusually shell-shaped town square, the Piazza del Campo which is famous for hosting the Palio horse race. I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to take a few moments to tell you about this unusual horse race which began in medieval times and has been featured in many movies over the years; you might remember this from the 2008 James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.

Source: Wikipedia

Before the race begins, there is a magnificent pageant, the Corteo Storico, which attracts visitors and spectators from around the world. The race is comprised of ten horses and riders, bareback and dressed in the appropriate colours, representing ten of the seventeen contrade, or city wards. Three times they encircle the Piazza del Campo, on which a thick layer of dirt has been laid,  and the race usually lasts no more than 90 seconds. It is not uncommon for a few of the jockeys to be thrown off their horses while making the treacherous turns in the piazza, and it is not unusual to see unmounted horses finishing the race without their jockeys.  What makes this race rather unique is the fact that the jockeys not only try to win, but also try to prevent the other racers from winning by any means possible.  Also, it is the horse that wins the race, not the jockey.  Finally, the winner is the horse that comes in first and the loser is the one that comes in second.  It’s all or nothing with this race.

Piazza del Campo is also home to the Palazzo Pubblico and the Torre del Mangia.  I regretted not going to the top of the Duomo in Florence, especially after my friend Marc mentioned  in one of his comments on the blog that this had been a highlight for him when he visited Florence.  So I was determined to go to the top of the Torre del Mangia which promised and delivered beautiful views of the red rooftops of Siena and the rolling Tuscan countryside beyond.  We also visited the museum in the Palazzo Pubblico which features an amazing series of frescos (which means a mural that has been painted directly on a plaster or stone wall) by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (I never heard of him before but maybe you have) that focus on the theme of good government and the results of good government versus bad.  These frescos showed scenes of day to day life in 14^th century Siena – just fascinating!  What was even more impressive was the building itself, a testimony of medieval architecture.  Unfortunately, photos were not permitted in the Palazzo.

View of tower from the palace courtyard.

Narrow staircase to the top of the tower.

Only one person at a time could go up or down.

View from the tower.- Siena and beyond

View of the Duomo from the top of the Bell Tower.

Tuscan countryside beyond the Duomo.

The construction of Siena’s cathedral, or Duomo, began in the 12^th century and is a great example of Italian Romanesque-Gothic architecture.  It reminded me of a smaller version of the Duomo we visited in Milan (remember, the one where we walked the rooftop).  It is unusual for a cathedral in that its axis runs north-south. This is because it was originally intended to be the largest cathedral in the world, with a north-south transept and an east-west nave. After the completion of the transept and the building of the east wall (which still exists and may be climbed by the public via an internal staircase) the money ran out and the rest of the cathedral was abandoned.

Duomo interior

We bought the OPI SI PASS (12 euro) which includes admission to six monuments and attractions associated with the cathedral, including access to the panoramic terrace  on the east wall (mentioned above).  It was a long, full day by the end of which I had reached my capacity to retain any more information.  I must admit that our visit to the cathedral and associated attractions was pretty much a blur to me but we have some great photos that will tell the story even if I can’t.

Museo dell'Opera: Stained glass window removed from the Duomo during WWII for fear it would be destroyed.

The Battistero at the back of the Duomo.

It was while we were on the terrace that tragedy struck.  A gust of wind came out of nowhere and blew Chris’ cherished hat onto the rooftops below. This was the ball cap that Chris had bought a few days before we began our trip and I didn’t realize how attached he was to it.  I watched as he went through all the stages of mourning – denial (maybe another gust of wind will blow it onto the street so I can get it), anger (why did that damn wind blow at that moment), bargaining (if only I had taken my hat off, if only I had tightened it, if only…..) and finally acceptance (my hat is gone).

When we arrived back in Sinalunga we decided to take the local bus back to Trove.  With an hour to kill before the bus came, we enjoyed a couple of glasses of vino in the train station bar that also serves free snacks each night at 7:00. This was probably our fourth time in this bar in a week (first a drink with Ugo on arrival, drinks with Barbara when we did our laundry/grocery run, lunch with Barbara when Chris ran errands with her). The bartender recognized us, and treated us like we were locals.  It was a great way to end the day!

Note:  Chris has commissioned his buddy Kaj in Ottawa to find a replacement ball cap, or rather, to find the exact hat.  Good luck Kaj, you’re a good man to help out your friend this way!

On our second day at Trove, Ugo gave us a crash course on vine pruning and staking.  He was leaving the next day for a week-long tour and the old vineyard was in desperate need of attention.  Chris got some driving lessons on the tractor, and a lesson on how to empty the poop bucket in Ugo’s absence. I may have mentioned that already, but it’s worth another mention as I must admit, I was pretty impressed that Chris accepted this job without complaint.  And so our work began.  We worked hard on that first Saturday and again on Sunday in response to the urgency of the task at hand.  Good progress was made and by Monday the vines had been pruned quite ruthlessly as per our instructions (I’ve got my fingers crossed that we didn’t do any permanent damage) and we had begun to clear the rows of debris from previous seasons.

The new vineyard with the olive grove in the background.

There are two vineyards – one that is about a hundred years old and a newer one that is about 40 years old.  In a good year, the vineyard might yield about 1,000 litres of wine but in some years, they get nothing for one reason or another; last year it was the birds who came and ate all the ripe grapes just before harvest time! They use the wine for their own consumption only.  They also have two olive groves that yield the most delicious olive oil that again they use for themselves.

Part of the old vineyard.

We pruned the old vineyard as Ugo had already pruned the newer vines.  But the entire vineyard, old and new, needed to be cleaned up of old debris and that task took us a couple of days of back breaking effort.  Chris drove the tractor up each row and I followed behind collecting all the twigs and placing them in the tractor bucket.  After a while we changed our tactic as quite frankly I was doing all the hard work and Chris was just sitting on the tractor waiting for me to finish.  We got into a routine where he would drive the tractor about fifty feet ahead and then together we collected the old vines.  No reason why I should be the only one breaking my back!  We then put all the dead branches into a huge pile that we will burn one day soon.

Our pile of debris - what a bonfire it will make!

At this point, we had already had a discussion with Barbara who had outlined the tasks she wanted us to do and their respective priority.  She also shared the details of their schedule for the month of May and it was at this time that we learned that they would both be gone for a 10 day period doing tours and we would be left to hold down the fort.  Once we were finished in the vineyard (number one priority), Chris had a list of jobs to do including refinishing some old windows and furniture.  My job would be the garden – weeding it and then planting the vegetables. It was a large garden, completely over run with weeds.

By mid-week, we were pulled from the vineyard (we only had the staking left to do) as other tasks became more pressing.  One day, we all went into town to do laundry, grocery shopping and some miscellaneous errands.  And then Chris was recruited to assist in getting the house back in order – moving things around, hanging pictures, etc.  Meanwhile, I started in the garden tackling the heavy weeds and pruning the bushes near our patio.  There was another tour scheduled for the following Monday which included a cooking lesson at the end of the week so Barbara was under the gun to get the house in order by then.

Collecting wood.

I’ve mentioned tours a few times and should probably offer an explanation.  Barbara and Ugo run a tour company, Tuscany Under The Skin, that focuses on walking tours in Tuscany.  Springtime is one of their busiest seasons and this year was no exception. We were offered the opportunity to join in some of the local walking tours the following week which gave us incentive to work more than our required hours that first week.

By the end of the week, we were physically exhausted and were so grateful for a rainy, cold Sunday which gave us a good excuse to light the wood stove, and have a cozy movie day, giving our weary, aching bodies a much needed rest.  We didn’t realize how soft we had gotten these last few months! We had spent much of the week on our own, what with Ugo away on tour, and Barbara distracted with getting her house back in order and working on upcoming tours, work she had fallen behind on. It was obvious that Chris had made a good impression on Barbara as she kept complimenting him on his many talents but it wasn’t clear to me where I stood.  Frankly, I often felt like “hair in the soup”, like my presence was just being tolerated.  It was a strange situation to be in, one that caught us off guard.  We chalked it up to their distraction with their renovations and their tours, and I did my best not to take it too personally.

Arriving almost two hours late isn’t the best way to make a first good impression, but the train from Rome was delayed, which caused us to miss our connection in a small town called Chiusi.  At least we were able to phone our hosts to let them know of our delay, thanks to the generosity and friendliness of a fellow traveller.  Luca, a dentist from Naples, was on his way to meet a friend in Siena from where they were going to begin a three day pilgrimage route on their bikes.  They were planning to stay in a convent along the way.  I couldn’t help but notice that I seem to keep bumping into pilgrims these days.

When we finally pulled into Sinalunga, Ugo was waiting for us and welcomed us warmly.  We piled our stuff into his car, and we got our first introduction to this small town (population around 12,000) as Ugo did a few errands before heading out to the farm which is called Trove, just 10 km south.

View from the farm

The countryside in this area which is about 50 km south of Siena is breathtakingly beautiful marked by lush rolling hills dotted with geometrical vineyards and olive groves, old stone farm houses with laneways lined with tall slender dark green cypress trees, and fields awash with wild poppies and streaked with yellow canola.  This is the same luscious landscape used for movie sets like “Under the Tuscan Sun” and “The English Patient”.  In fact, the monastery where some of the English Patient was filmed is a stone’s throw away and a place we plan to visit sometime later this month. The farm is nestled between two medieval hill towns – Castelmuzio and Petroia both of which are within easy walking distance from the farm.

As we approached the farm, Ugo explained how they were in the middle of some renovations that they decided to do rather spontaneously and as a result, things were a little upside down.  Although we assured him that we have lived through renovations and would be fine, I couldn’t deny the sinking feeling that settled in my gut.  What had I gotten us into?

After meeting Barbara, Ugo’s wife, we were shown to our “quarters” and given a tour around the house and the property.  The farm dates back to the 14^th century although the house has “only” been around for a couple of centuries.  It is an authentic, unrenovated stone farm house that has seen very few changes over the years.  Barbara, who is from Australia, and Ugo who is Italian born and who grew up in Lucca which is just north of Florence, bought the farm in the early 70’s but only started living here full time 14 years ago.  Before that, they lived in Australia where they raised their son and worked in the film industry.  About 20 years my senior, this hardworking couple would give people half their age a run for their money.

Entrance to our “suite”.

Necessary improvements have been made to the place over time – like fixing the roof and replacing some of the windows – but they did not make any significant changes until now.  They have electricity but no indoor plumbing (more about that in a minute).  As part of the renovation project, a new kitchen was installed with running hot and cold water. The first indoor plumbing! The floor in the main living area was reinforced and retiled – a major undertaking that was necessary to prevent the whole floor from collapsing.  A new bathroom is also part of the renovation project but it won’t be ready for a while, at least not while we’re visiting.

As is typical of these old farm houses, the main living space is on the second floor.  The house has four bedrooms, living/dining room, a kitchen and a sunroom/storage room; while the farm was operational, as many as five families would have lived here.  Today, it is home to Barbara and Ugo, their dog Merry Moon and their two cats.  And of course they open their home to a steady stream of helpers like us.

Storage area next to our room. One of our first jobs was to get this area cleaned up and organized.

The ground floor would have housed the animals.  You can still see the manger that would hold the animal feed, the sloped floor that allowed the animal waste to slide down into a trough.  Today, Ugo’s workshop, a storage room and the helper’s “suite” is located in this space.  That’s right, we are living in a stable.  Aside from the whitewashed walls, it looks pretty much the same as it would have looked back when it was housing animals.

Our “suite” is one  large room with a small window at one end, a doorway to the storage area along one wall and a door leading to the patio outside on the wall opposite the window.  The floors are tiled in terracotta.  The bed (two twins put together so lots of space) is at the far end of the room along with a dresser, two night tables and two lamps. The other half of the room has a couch, a kitchen table, some cabinets that serve as kitchen storage, a fridge, a cooking stove and a wood burning stove.  The space is very well equipped with all your necessities – bed linens, towels, dishes, pots, etc.  The room has a rustic charm.  We didn’t mind having this little “apartment” to ourselves and we later learned that we would do all our own cooking too which has suited us very well.

Video:  Welcome to our humble abode for the month of May.
 

Outdoor kitchen sink

We couldn’t help but wonder where the bathroom was.  Ugo showed us their toilet system which was a little room next to the storage area that offered two options – you could sit on a toilet seat that was on a bucket, or you could squat over a bucket that was in the ground.  An old fashioned wash basin was in the corner with a clean towel and soap. A bucket of wood shavings sat next to each bucket.  After doing one’s business, you were to throw a scoop or two of the wood shavings into the bucket to neutralize any odor.  Surprisingly, it works as there is no odor whatsoever.  The wood shavings, by the way, come from a harpsichord maker in Castelmuzio.  On our first day at Trove, Ugo showed Chris how to dump the poop bucket into a larger poop bucket which would become Chris’ job during Ugo’s absence. At the risk of sounding sexist, I wholeheartedly agreed that this was definitely a man’s job.

Outdoor shower area

Now we were wondering where do we shower.  Hadn’t we noticed? It was the two buckets stacked in our room along the wall.  Oh, well, we’d have to give that some thought as to how that worked.  The next day, after working in the vineyard under the hot sun, we had no choice but to figure out our bathing system.  This is how it works.  We boil a pot of water on the stove.  We have a tap outside our room, next to a sink.  The tap (cold water only) is connected to town water and is the clearest, most delicious water I have ever tasted from a tap.  But the sink drains into a bucket.  Didn’t I mention this was rustic?  So, we fill a pot from the tap, bring it to a boil on the gas stove, dump it into the larger bucket and then add two more buckets of cold water.  We then stand in the largest bucket and using a plastic pitcher, we pour warm water over our bodies.  We give ourselves a good scrub and then rinse off with more warm water.  Surprisingly, it only takes the three pots of water (one hot, two cold) for both of us to get cleaned up.  Where do we do this?  Well, Barbara suggested we could do it inside, in front of the wood stove since it was still a little chilly when we arrived.  We opted for the outdoors, in the warm sunshine.

Kitchen sink

As I mentioned, after our first day, Barbara proposed that we do our own cooking as Ugo was leaving for a tour (more about that later) and she was swamped with work and seemed quite overwhelmed by the upset the renovation had caused.  She gave us some provisions from her reserves to get us through the first few days.  We have then gotten into the routine of doing a weekly grocery run in Sinalunga where I select our food for the week, and she pays for it.  That is the deal after all – free room and board in exchange for four hours of work a day, six days a week.  She is very generous and urges me to not be shy about getting sufficient provisions. We pay for our own treats and snacks. This past week, we went to the local market held in Sinalunga every Tuesday to get our fruits and vegetables and the local porcini cheese which is absolutely delicious.

We have slipped into a familiar routine where Chris makes the coffee each morning using a mocha pot, then I make breakfast (something hearty since our work is quite physical) and we take turns doing the clean up although it seems Chris does it more often than I do.  I’ve been doing all the cooking which I’ve enjoyed.  It has been a bit of a challenge to cook in such a small space – there is no counter, just the table on which to work.  But we keep our meals simple and it has been working out well.

We have been at the farm for two weeks already and we have been quite comfortable. At first, the nights were cold and we were grateful for the warmth of the wood stove. And we’ve given our new down sleeping bags a good test run before using them on the Camino next month. (Thanks again to Sonja for picking them up from MEC and bringing them with her!) During the second week we had more summer like temperatures and we were grateful for the coolness that comes from the metre thick stone walls.  I would compare our living conditions to camping as you spend a lot of time outdoors, but with some of the comforts of home thrown in like a roof over your head and a bed to sleep in.

I love getting up in the morning and stepping outside onto our patio, feeling the crispness of the morning air, drinking in the beauty and serenity of our surroundings. It’s not a bad way to start each day!