Buona Pasqua.  I can’t believe it’s Easter.  It seems like ages since I’ve written anything here.  I haven’t abandoned you really, I’ve just been working on the revisions for my book.  It’s almost finished.

Okay, so where to begin.  It’s spring in Tuscany.  The swallows have returned.  Poppies are peeking out of wild grasses.  Ripe melons at the market butt up against baby artichokes and long verdant stalks of Asparagus.  Cold, foggy days have lifted and warm sunshine has returned to the hills.  And along with it some good news.  I have full time work throughout the season at Poliziano.  Fabio called me a few weeks back and said he wanted me to work with him for the whole summer.  Woo hoo.  It took two years to do it, but next month, I will finally see a real paycheck.  I’ve gotten back into the swing of giving tours and tastings to all the visitors at the winery and have been given some more responsibility so I guess despite my still suffering Italian, I’m doing  fine.  Yesterday, I actually did tastings in Italian.  Thank goodness the guests were supportive…I think the wine helps!  Met two great groups from New York in these last weeks and a family of 12 from Boston.   The best part of the job is meeting and connecting with such fun people.

I’m still teaching English and am now doing lessons on the weekends.  And of course, babysitting with Bonnie’s kids.  I’m sad to report that Bonnie’s family is heading back to the States in September.  They have been a real support for me here and I’m trying not to think about what next winter will be like without them.

I’ve been a little bit of a hermit in these last couple of months, mostly writing, but also just in my usual winter funk.  It’s amazing what a little warm weather can do to lift the spirits!

Thanks to everyone who wanted to know where the heck I’ve been.  I promise to get some more pics and updates soon and of course recipes.  I’ve learned how to make the local pici pasta so I’m going to attempt it on my own and then will post it here. 

Alla prossima...

A view of my apartment across Marinella's yard... My laundry is the one with the red t-shirt

My first attempt at putting up artichokes...Marinella's recipe

You can take the dog walker out of NY... My friend Gill's dog Perdie is staying with us

Wine tasting with a great family of five from New York... hugs all around when we parted ways

New friends from NY and Penn with Fabio as they decide which wine to ship home

The holidays came and went in a blur.  One week I was baking banana bread and sugar cookies and the following I was shuttling to and from the bathroom with a vile stomach flu that knocked me off my feet for a few days.  On the plus side, it’s nice to start the year feeling a little thinner!

I started work at a nearby hotel.  It’s called Il Borghetto and the owner Elena is lovely– smokes a bit too much, but is sweet and attentive to everyone.  I was predisposed to like her as she rang my bell one night in early December and told me she’d been looking for the Americana.  She said she’d asked all over town for me since someone had mentioned that I might be perfect for the work she needed.  As much as I grumble about the lack of privacy in a small town, this was an example of it working in my favor!   Anyway, after three or four meetings and an understanding that I can still work at the winery, we decided to give it a go.  The hotel is right in Centro Storico.  It’s a medieval building so the architecture is phenomenal and the rooms have all been beautifully restored.  Here’s the link if anyone is coming to visit and wants a place close to me to stay:  www.ilborghetto.it/ospitalita.en.php

My job is basically reception; helping the guests; responding to reservation requests etc.  Putting my english into action!  We had a full house over the New Year’s weekend, so I got a good glimpse of what the upcoming season will be like.  Anyway, Elena needs help only in the evenings, so during the summer I hope to be working at Poliziano through lunch time and then for her in the evenings.  I spoke with Federico before Christmas and while he can guarantee me full time work for three months in the summer, my work schedule for spring is still not clear since the office is undergoing some shifting around.  I am waiting patiently.

I spent Christmas Eve with Anna and Federico again this year and it was a lovely night.  Happily no baccala this year, just a yummy homemade pasta with salmon. The eating frenzy continued throughout the weekend with Marinella inviting me for Christmas Day.  The food was fantastic, everything from crostini, and pasta al forno, to a stuffed turkey breast and all types of roasted meats, chicken, rabbit.  Of course there was tons of wine and then desserts.  Both she and Anna put out the cookies I’d brought along, so that made me feel good to contribute something to the feasting.  The Day after Christmas my friend Francesca and her husband (who is also my newest student for English lessons and I can tell quite motivated) invited me for lunch at their house.  The highlight was a beef fondue.  Really after the feasting that weekend, it’s no wonder my stomach came under attack last week.

I worked New Year’s Eve at the hotel and then went over to Bonnie’s house and spent the evening with her gang and our friends Gill and Adrian (of olive harvesting fame).  We drank some lovely wine, ate Adrian’s homemade chili, and played a “Friends” trivia game.  I was hopeless–the rest of them were devotees of the show and could quote even the obscurest lines.  Our plan was to go up to the Piazza for the bonfire and fireworks at midnight, but two of the kids fell asleep so we settled for watching fireworks from Bonnie’s rooftop terrace. We could see fireworks not only from the towns around us but as far away as Cortona.

The weather here is mild this week.  I actually sat outside the other day and did some writing.  The sunshine was a welcome break from the gray fog that seems to bring a sadness of spirit along with its suffocating damp.  My kitchen has been suffering from the wet and has mold along one wall.  Massimo gave me a dehumidifier to help and it was completely full after running it one night!

I heard from Signe the other day, the editor who is working on the revisions of my manuscript and she says she will have the book to me by the end of February.  This was a welcome piece of news.  With limited work, it’s a great time to get the memoir whipped into shape.

I heard from my Dad this week that my grandmother was in the hospital with some bleeding from her bladder.  They’ve sent her home now, but she will have to go back for some more tests.  I’m grateful that my Aunts–Krissy and Esther–are there with her and making sure she is well taken care of.  Please send some positive energy her way.

Tomorrow I head up to Piazza Grande and get my re-application for my permesso underway.  Seems like only a few months ago that I received it…Erm that’s because it was.  Pazienza. I’ve never been a patient person but if I’m learning anything in Italy, it’s essential for survival.

The hotel where I'm working part time

Elena in her holiday finery

Bonnie setting New Year's Eve table

Mark, Adrian and Tamara

Mark and Zack lighting fireworks while we countdown to the New Year!

I hate being cold.  I probably should have chosen some warm southern city in Calabria or Sicilia, but it was Tuscany that pulled my heart strings.  But I have to admit in the winter, the love affair wanes a little.  The fog is here, it’s been raining almost every day and it’s impossible to do laundry without it all smelling disgusting because it takes too long to dry inside.  That being said, I spent last weekend in hibernation mode, trying to find a solution.  I have heating oil in my new apartment, so I was patting myself on the back that I wouldn’t be suffering the high gas bills of last winter.  What I hadn’t counted on was an old boiler that regularly stops working and seems to be consuming the oil much faster than I’d anticipated.  At this rate, even with my miserly usage, it will be finished by the end of January.  And even when the radiators are working at full capacity, it’s always still chilly.  So what’s a freezing girl to do?  After asking around and considering the wood stove option, pellet stove option, both of which are great ideas, but way above my budget for this year, I decided to take the advice of Anna and get a stufa a gas con bombola.  This basically is a space heater but with a gas tank like the one I have in my kitchen for the stove.  But why not an electric space heater, you might ask.  Well, electricity is as expensive as the natural gas so it’s really not an economical option.  I do have one that I put on when the boiler is on strike, but basically that’s for emergencies.  I put out the word that I was looking for this contraption, which means I told two people and they did the work for me.  This is how tiny towns operate, everyone knows everything in a matter of hours.  By the end of the evening, my friend Caterina had called me, secured a space heater for 10 euro and we’d arranged for pickup.  With the help of Bonnie’s husband Mark I brought it home.

Which brings me to today.  It’s now in my house and I am recovering from the panic attack which occurred last night when I realized I have two tanks of combustible fuel in my living space.  This was not helped by the freak lightening storm that was going on outside my window.  For someone who has always had a fear of the house burning down, this might appear to be insane.  While Mark was helping me schlepp the heater, he’d suggested that I should get an electric blanket for the nighttime and I’d mentioned my fear of fire and he looked at me and then at the gas heater and then gave me the look you reserve for imbeciles.

In any event, I am sitting in my kitchen with my new space heater glowing from a safe distance away and Cinder and I are feeling pretty festive.  I’m not really sure what’s going on with the weather, but the first snow of the year just began falling outside my window in big fat flakes.  Unlike last year, when I was quite depressed and panicky about everything, this year, I seem to have found some peace.  I am still quite poor, and have clothes that I’ve now been wearing for two years, and really you wouldn’t even give them to the salvation army, but somehow I feel like I’ve turned a corner.  I have a little sporadic work at the winery, some babysitting and more and more people are calling for English lessons.  It’s not much, but compared to last year, it’s HUGE.

I’m getting into the holiday spirit this year.  I just received a beautiful advent calendar from my favorite website (thank you aunt Linda) and so I have something to bring some joy to each day.  My friend Daryl sent me some maple syrup, which was wonderfully thoughtful, much like Daryl herself.  It’s unfortunately missing in action because she sent to my old address, but just knowing that eventually I’ll be able to have this treat which I haven’t tasted in almost two years, is awesome!  And my friend Louise has undertaken the mission to send me some books in English and my brand of tampons. (I know that sounds strange, but the tampons here are subpar because the Italian women don’t use them.  I haven’t met one yet who does.  So I’m quite excited about this gift!)

Other holiday fun includes recently finding a website which allows me watch American fims and tv programs in English!  Yippee.  I’ve already gotten caught up on some shows and am now embarking on my favorite holiday past time — watching the schmaltzy Hallmark and family channel Christmas movies which I adore.

And yesterday,  I put up my tiny Christmas tree.  Marinella kept it in her garden for me all summer and it’s now grown a bit bigger.  I added some lights and really it’s quite festive.  Cinder and I have no plans for the holidays, but we are content to be home, me writing and baking and she sleeping under her comforter.  She is recovering from a bad fall where she couldn’t stand up or walk for a full day, but seems to have rallied.

I know I haven’t posted in over a month, but now you are up to date on my little life.  I wish everyone a wonderful Holiday season and send you much love from Tuscany.

In case you were wondering what the heck a bombola looks like! This is the one for my stove.

December view from my kitchen window

Bonnie's kids are already in the holiday spirit

Erm... maybe it looks better in person.

With the temperatures dipping a bit more each night, I can no longer deny that winter is approaching.  I actually put the heat on for a couple of hours on Sunday because I’ve had a nasty cold and fever for almost a week.  Work at Poliziano is winding down as well, as the tourists too are becoming scarce.  Really sad about that, but it was a great summer and with the grape harvest finishing up last week the fall has been beautiful too.  I didn’t do any manual labor for the grape harvest this year, but was happy enough in the cantina giving wine tastings and tours and making a general nuisance of myself with the men working in the fermentation cellar as I brought groups through.

The good news about the coming winter is it means another season of “new oil.”  The olive oil when it’s harvested is amazing, bright green and spicy and I was determined that this year I would continue my education of the Tuscan land and attempt the olive harvest.  I mentioned my desire to new friends Gill and Adrian Maggs who live nearby and they granted my wish without hesitation.  Gill and Adrian moved here about seven years ago from London with their three daughters and have lovingly restored an old farmhouse, half of which they rent out to guests. This is their website if anyone wants to stay in a gorgeous place outside of Montepulciano:  http://villalacasina.com/index-2.htm.  I’ve actually met almost all of their guests this summer since they send everyone to Poliziano for wine tastings.  We of course discovered this fact halfway through my first day of picking.  Some of my favorite clients this summer were guests of theirs too.

Adrian is not an expert olive harvester, and as an expat was ribbed soundly by the Italians for starting the harvest about a week before everyone else.  We were undeterred and what we lacked in actual knowledge we made up for in enthusiasm.  Gill and Adrian’s property didn’t have enough olive trees to produce the amount of olives needed to have your oil pressed separately (you need 300 kilos to take it to the local press) and so they asked their neighbor (the farmer who sold them their property) if they could do his trees and give him half the oil.  He was all too happy to do this and when we started picking I realized why.  Most of his trees were on a steep, neck-breaking slope and hadn’t been pruned or properly cared for in years.

I helped with three days of picking and I must say the olive harvest is much more pleasant than the grape harvest.  Maybe it’s because I’m tall and la vendemmia required walking down rows in a hunch for a week, and with the olives it was just about stretching and pulling the olives off the branches.  The weather was also delightful, which is good since you can’t harvest when the olives are wet.  I brought Cinder with me on the third day and she was like a puppy running around crazily, chasing the farmer’s sheep and dining on sheep poop.  She wasn’t much help with the olives but did enjoy sleeping on the net.  We filled 13 cassettes by the time we finished and although I couldn’t help yesterday because I was working at Poliziano, I checked in with Adrian and he finished last evening.  I’m going to go with them tomorrow to the press and can’t wait to see the beautiful oil that is the fruit of our labor!

Gill and Adrian's agriturismo

Adrian and Gill setting out the net

First olives on the net

Me pulling olives off one of the branches Adrian "pruned"

Not sure if the Italians would approve but I was a big fan of the British mid-morning coffee break w/lemon cake

The farmer's sheep came through at regular intervals, bells jingling as they grazed

Home Tree - the Avatar reference was to entice Adrian's daughters into helping pick

Daniela in home tree trying to get the olives at the top

Adrian, Tamara and Dominique with some of the harvest

First of all, I should note that the long awaited work permit finally arrived and I gladly hopped on the nauseating bus to Siena to claim it.  I tried not to mask my disappointment that it expires in six months, which means I’m going to have to go through this whole process again all too soon.  On the plus side, we pressed the hot-off-the-presses card into action with some work at Poliziano, a full week last week and three days this week.  The tourists are still pouring in and I’m happily serving up wine and educating them as best I can on the vino, as well as giving them tours of the cantina.  I was like a little kid as the merlot grapes began to be harvested last week and I got to show off the de-stemming machine with actual grapes in it.  I must say to be involved in this way is much more pleasant than actually snipping grapes.  Not sure if I will do that this year, taking it a week at a time.

In other work news, I did my first stint as a translator for a weekend.  Not Italian to English, which you’ll remember I did for a cooking class last year.  But English to Italian!  Anyone who knows me can tell you that I don’t have an artistic bone in my body.  Yes, I write and I like to cook, but that is creative not artistic.  Art involves skill and as I quickly learned lots of vocabulary in Italian which up until now, I had no use for and therefore no exposure to.  Franca, the artist who organized the class assured me that my Italian was sufficient and that the American artist coming to teach the class didn’t speak a word of Italian so my English was needed.  Okay, they were desperate so I agreed to give it a go.

It was actually a really fun experience.  It was a class of about ten students who were learning “country art,” the type of primitive, kind of cutesy stuff that is popular with my mom and apparently a bunch of Italians.  Who knew?  It was a bit slow going as the teacher, Terrye, who was from Oklahoma, was sweet as could be and a great artist but, as she freely admitted, wasn’t an experienced teacher.  This made translating what she was doing a bit hard since I had no idea…  She said, “Do what you like” a lot, which became the running joke of the course.  Fai come ti pare! It all worked out in the end and I enjoyed my time with the whole gang.  Also Franca the organizer and her husband Paolo were wonderful hosts and cooks so we all had fabulous meals over the course of the weekend.  My brain was tired at the end of each day, but it was a great experience and I’m glad I did it.  Still don’t have an artistic bone, but at least now I can tell you a little about how it’s done…in Italian.

Franca in the blue shirt is a local artist here and organized the course

Terrye supervising everyone's progress

The artists show off some of their work...