L'Apergina-The Queen Bee

Been reading like crazy. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (which I never read in school) and enjoyed on the train ride. With all the different people coming on and off the train I could accuse each of dual personality syndrome and wonder what each side was like. We hopped the train and lucked out the first time with ticket check. The second time not so lucky…but we dodged the fine…the guy that checks tickets seemed angry at first, but after we told him we were volunteering in Abruzzo (near the earthquake) he threw us a smile and helped us out. The Yacoubian Building is another good book I read at the farm. Sebastiano recommended it. The book focuses on life in an apartment complex in Egypt. It’s wonderful…sharing books. I had two from the last farm to give to Sebastiano and he recommended two from his library that I could take for trade.

As we head toward the Adriatic, there are more and more castles (there are castles everywhere) but these seem to be growing, like grass, out of the rocks. We arrive at the station, hop a bus and Marino and Elide pick us up right on time at Torre Dei Passeri. No English. We show off some of the Italian skills (not much) we learned as we head to our new home far away from the city lights. No bees now because of the weather…shit. The next morning, the sun lights up the farm…Abruzzo is magnificent. We sit on top of the valley in the Gran Sasso (Big Stone) Mountains. We eat homemade honey and jams on handmade bread…with our coffee….for breakfast and spend some time with Marino learning about the farm. We are taking notes…we want to bring all of this home. Some raking needs to be done so, while we tour around,, we clean up some wet leaves and pile them up for the compost. Marino speaks slowly and stops to talk. Italians typically do everything at once….but talking…they stop. They can’t walk and talk at the same time. It’s strange. And for this reason, we walk around for hours with Marino and learn everythin’ they is to know about Abruzzo and L’Apergina….and Italian.

For dinner, Elide arrives home and Marino fires up the grill. He cooks his homemade sausage outside while we listen to Edith Piaf and watch the clouds dance over the mountains.

We noticed…like we sometimes do while camping, that you quickly realize the clock and the calendar of nature. Where the moon is, when the sun rises…without a watch and TV, you pick up on everything that’s happening around you. The spider outside our room just finished his web and some wild bees finally broke into the side of the kitchen to build a home. There is a fox we have been hunting that arrives at the same time every nite to attack our neatly stacked compost. Marino prepares his gun and we sit in rocking chairs under a moon that lights up the house like the sun. Unfortunately, it doesn’t shine on the compost and we’ve yet to shoot the fox.

We've since left L'Apergina but there is more to tell...we were not allowed to use the dial up internet...our room necame infested with ants and the farmer did not want to heat our room any longer because of the expense. We fled. More to come...we are currently living with the most amazing family in Tuscany. They are Scottish natives that moved to Sasetta 28 years ago to renovate an old stable that they now call home. God is good...life is grand...Tuscany is heaven.