Rome

After 5+ months, countless wonderful experiences and more astonishingly beautiful sights than I'm sure I'll even be able to remember, there were recent moments when I expressed the somewhat jaded idea that it would be too touristy and we could just skip over Rome and head north straight away. The idea was certainly helped by the sticker shock inspired by the prices involved in staying anywhere within the city. After a well saturated day and a half in the ancient city, I'm thankful that I was able to shake such an absurd idea out of my head. Yes, the more famous parts of the city have been retooled over the years with English menus, countless gift-shops, and more day-tour options than you could shake a traveler's check at (I'm not sure these are so useful anymore, but you get the idea), but it's hard to imagine a place more deserving. It took little to no time wandering around the city to ferret out any of my 'jaded traveller' thoughts - it's just plain incredible how much beauty has been condensed in a handful of square kilometers. With only a day and a half, we budgeted our time (and our Euros that slip away all too easily in such an expensive city) carefully, and mostly decided to meander from one stunning site to the next in a slow loop back to our hostel next to the train station. Yesterday evening, after getting settled, we took a slow walk down to the area that has played home to the Colosseum, Forum, and other ruins for the past few thousand years. After the past 5+ months of travelling, we've developed a fondness for taking a soft approach to navigating new cities. I think it's a little more engrossing to pick a specific destination, get a rough idea of it's direction, and give yourself plenty of time to meander your way there (I've gotten pretty good at relying on the sun for direction, with the occasional help from a little compass I picked up in Bangkok on a whim). This method felt most rewarding last night when after a few instances of "oh this street looks interesting, and it's sort of in the right direction" we were abruptly spilled out in front of the towering Colosseum. It was never a must-go destination for me, but as such an intensely iconic structure that can't help but have formed an imagined view of it in my mind while growing up, it was wonderful feeling to have it's massive, ancient glory erase any rough image that's been planted in my head since I was a kid. 

The first of several gelato

One of the many beautiful structures I knew absolutely nothing about

Obligatory old honda photo

In all her glory

This view looked even less real in person

After a long walk around the area of the ruins, we finished the night with a what felt like a well deserved meal after most of the week on the farm at a well reviewed Indian restaurant. Nothing could have hit the spot better (a split bottle of prosecco didn't hurt either).

This morning we printed out advanced tickets for the Vatican museums, and took a slow walk to the metro before making it over to the city.

 The museums were pretty astonishing. Reminded is a bit of our experience in the Egyptian museum - just an overwhelming volume of incredible work. No pictures of the Sistine Chapel (I'm sure you all have seen enough pictures anyway). Apparently the images are now copyrighted after a company sponsored a long restoration process. Didn't know that was possible.

Mini Vatican

We then proceeded to the famous square in front of St Peters and sat around enjoying the beautiful day and soaking in the view.

Then a long stroll by the castle and back over the river.

Then slowly made our way to and through the stunning Piazza Navona, dedicating a bit of time to the myriad of street performers.

Then on to the Pantheon, starting to feel that half of what we've seen today rivals the most beautiful buildings of our trip so far. We made a few stops nearby for more gelato, and into a wonderful little salumeria for some prociutto, some salumi, and what we now think was a cured horse meat (it was pretty good!), some fontina olives, and a 9 euro bottle of Barbera d'Asti for dinner (along with bread from a nearby minimarket). 

I think I remember doing a project on this thing in 6th grade

I really dig all the incredible fountains around Rome, and this one clearly takes the cake - but the crowd here was just absurd.

The final highlights of the day were getting into the Santa Maria della Vittoria chapel a few minutes before it closed. The artistry (thanks to Bernini) is just unbelievable. It also has the bonus of housing the famous Ecstasy of St Theresa sculpture which is super interesting.

 On a final whim before dinner and settling in, we wandered into Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri which was an absolutely stunning space. It invoked a similar sense of majesty to the Hagia Sofia and some of the grand mosques of Cairo and Istanbul. As a bonus, there was a fascinating exhibit about Galileo's research's base in his theism, and beyond that, there is a meridian measurement instrument built across the floor of the basilica. Crazy Romans.

We're up early tomorrow to catch a train to Florence and then an afternoon bus to the vineyard in Chianti. I think we're doing this right.

Fossacesia to Rome

A really wonderful few days on the farm in Fossacesia.  The daily schedule started with breakfast around 7:30 or 8 with a discussion of our projects for the day.  Because of our short time there we got to do quite a few different tasks like basic cleaning and organizing the shed or barn, building a saw horse, caring for the horses or chickens, or dealing with the never ending piles of firewood.  The farm is very much in transition from winter to spring so there was a lot to be done.  We worked pretty intensely from breakfast until around 2 everyday, and took a break for a very leisurely and filling lunch, usually a giant plate of pasta (the highlight of the week being some amazing carbonara).  After lunch, things were a little slower paced, finishing up little projects and doing daily chores.  Evenings were usually ours to relax outside with other WWOOFers and the two awesome farm dogs Heidi and AJ, until dinner when we helped put together a big family meal.  Meal times were really nice, we'd all eat together and discuss our days, often enjoying the antics of the two kids Lorena, who was 7, and Moreno, who was 10.  Being at the farm has given us a nice break from constantly moving around and some much appreciated time working outside with our hands.  We would have loved to spend more time at the farm, but hopefully we'll find the same lovely atmostphere and people, as well as the challenges of work that made the day to day interesting, at our next farm.  After our goodbyes, Carlo gave us a ride to Lanciano, the larger neighboring town, where we caught a bus to Rome.  After landing at the Roma Tiburtina station we caught a very quick train to Roma Termini where we found a nearby hostel.  We're waiting to get check into our room at the moment, but we're excited to spend the next two days exploring Rome!  After we'll head to our next farm in Chianti region near Florence, which is primarily a vineyard but they also have olives, animals, and a garden.  After such a positive first experience we're very excited for what's to come!

Lunch time

Elliot's first saw horse

The vineyards surrounding us were beautiful

And the olive groves

One very sweet old horse and one very crazy one

Big guy

Beautiful farm house

The sweetest old farm dog, AJ

Pacentro to Fossacesia

Our last couple of days in Pacentro were wonderfully relaxing. It's been kind of nuts how much our first days in Italy have conformed to romantic ideas it's ease to cook up when you dream about visiting the country. It's hard to believe that Pacentro and Sulmona see relatively few travelers. Gotta hope it stays that way. Monday was pretty lazy - maybe it was the snow or the marathon meal the day before, but I think it was well spent doing little but sipping coffee, reading, and enjoying our first Italian pizza from one of the few local restaurants (which also seemed to be owned and staffed by the same people as Taverna dei Caldora - this is a seriosuly small town).

Note the lack of snow in the valley

Date on floor carvings in the town hall

We said our goodbyes to Pacentro yesterday (and are looking very much forward to coming back to check on the progress of Kevin's place) and headed down to Sulmona determined to find our first SIM card since India - we figure it'll be useful sorting out the farm logistics. We knew a lot of business around here take an extended break at lunch, but didn't quite anticipate that just about everything shuts down for about 4 hours after noon. A few paninis, some gelato, and some lounging in the sun in the main square got us through the few hours until one of the cell service providers finally opened back up. With that squared away, we headed to the train station, said our goodbyes to our gracious hosts, and caught the first train out towards the coast of Abruzzo to meet up with our first farm. 

Old town fountain - seen a lot of people stopping to lean over and drink from it.

Sulmona town square - big market on Wednesdays/Saturdays

 Our trains (and transfers) getting us to the small town near the farm we're working on were happily uneventful after our near catastrophe getting to Abruzzo (I've been strong-arming all the train doors until we're both safely on/off). We enjoyed a few glasses of prosecco in the train station in Pescara waiting for our transfer, and after a few minutes of wondering why it was taking a bit long, we were presented with our glasses complemented by a glorious plate of bite sized snacks. Italy, you're really doing it all right so far (I can almost forgive the aggressive train doors).

We made it out to the little town of Fossacesia quite easily and were soon picked up by one of our farm hosts, Carlo. We made the short drive to their small farm (horses, olive trees, gardens and carpentry) and settled in pretty quickly. Turns out we're here volunteering along with 5 other Americans to continue our recent trend of being around familiar accents. We enjoyed a family style pasta dinner and took a long late night walk with our fellow volunteers down to the beach. Hard to believe we were looking this was from the other side of the Adriatic just a few weeks ago in Croatia.

This morning started around the dining room table again with a light breakfast and working through a tentative work schedule for the day. Cindhu started out on chicken coop duty while I was sent to work with the horses. There are tons of little jobs to do and we're both happy to be at least briefly immersed somewhere this beautiful and working with our hands is a great change of pace. We should be here about five days and then will head up north towards Florence, possibly for a bit of time on a vineyard in Tuscany. Ridiculous.

New friend, Heidi