Assisi Week One

Michelle in Assisi

Every farm is different from every other farm in some way when it comes to WWOOF, but for me, this farm has been the most difficult adjustment. The internet goes off around 10pm, and the house gets quiet, so Michelle and I get a little too much sleep at night. The stoves in the house keep the temperature around 68 degrees, but it's a little colder in the back rooms, and so we sleep with our doors opened. Thankfully, Michelle discovered how to get the hot water to work in the shower, because we had taken a couple cold ones. It's funny to me how you learn which body parts of a farmer are "essential cleaning" and which aren't when the water is cold. Ok, ok. These, I know, are first-world annoyances.

Giada, Gemma, and me

Tamara is half-German, half-Italian. Leah, an 18-yr-old girl doing WorkAway, is Austrian. They speak to one another and to the girls in German. Giordano is Italian, and he speaks Italian to his wife and to his daughters. Meals are usually pretty quiet, or they're in a different language. Sometimes we get a brief translation of a two-minute conversation: "They're talking about horses."

On the night of our arrival, Michelle and I learned about vitality levels, written by the doctor at your birth, which determine whether or not you should do well in life. The next evening, we discussed unschooling and the role of "the system" in stifling the natural curiosity of children. Of course, most of these terrible systems were instituted by the Church, according to Giordano. He has unusual ideas. Today he told me that he thinks people shouldn't pay taxes and that the government can simply print more money. I mentioned something about inflation, but he wrote that off as only happening when way too much money is printed. I didn't really catch it all, and perhaps the language barrier got in the way.

Tamara is the sweetest, and I think that because she's German, I'm just never expecting her to say something super kind and inviting. Germans are great (I'm more German than Italian!) but Italians are generally warmer. Anyways, at about 3:45pm the other day, she brought the girls up to weed with me and Michelle and invited us to come to town with her in about 30 minutes. Cut scene. Enter Assisi.

Yes, we live here now.

We had less than two hours, but Rick Steves' self-guided tour took us through the Basilica of San Francesco. Wouldn't you know Giotto painted the entire upper basilica! (I bet Angus, the man who suggested we visit the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua because of its Giotto frescoes, likes this church.) My favorite part of the basilica was that, surrounding the tomb of St. Francis, four of his closest friends are buried. They're not saints, but because they walked through life with St. Francis as friars, their bodies are honored in the same chapel as his. Sweet!

Basilica of St. Francis

The exhibition was in an old church
of St. Francis, wouldn't you know?

The next evening, Tarama invited us to attend an exhibition of Giordano's father in Gualdo Tadino. Giordano's father is a sculptor and is clearly good enough to make a living from it. While "my Italian" is not an actual thing, I'm pretty sure one of the presenters called his work "both simple and complex" while describing his simple people designs with complicated emotions and meanings behind them. Our favorite part of the evening by far, though, was being picked up by Giordano's parents. His mother speaks some English, and his father laughs a lot. On the way, we sang the English songs she knew: "LondonBridge" and "My Bonnie."

Leah and Gemma at the exhibition

Oh, and the actual work? Michelle and I spent four days transplanting something that looked like a baby pine tree from gravel to a rock wall and weeding plants that did not resemble the baby pine tree from another gravel pathway. Today we babysat for a little while, which was good because, when Leah leaves on Thursday, that will be our main task for the remainder of our stay.

Stay warm wherever you are, blog readers! Michelle and I refuse to let this wet chill dampen our spirits, and I'm hoping this November remains interiorly bright for all of you.

Oh, look! FLOWERS!!! Let me tell you, even
though we were damp and cold, these really
brightened up the day! I'll let you guess who
sent these to Michelle :)