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Memoirs of Rural Life
Observations on rural life
will appear periodically in this section. Objective: to encourage an observation of rural life during your travel to
Italy, and to entice you to seek out a firsthand rural-life experience
for yourself, wherever possible. Any all-encompassing trip to Italy
includes a stay on the land, for you can't have a sense of Italy
without contact with the rural people, who have made Italy what
it is today. (Previous articles listed below.)
"The
Good Ole Days"
My
husband Pino and I moved to the land here in Umbria in 1975, with
very little money but alot of determination and will. We wanted to
work the land, experience rural Umbria. We rented an old stone farrmhouse
with a terracotta roof on 8 acres of land behind Mt. Subasio which
backdrops Assisi (what views!).
The road up to the house through our woods was impassable, after years
of abandon. We parked our old Gilera 150 motorcyle down at the bottom
of the hill and walked up with the groceries on our shoulders. The
house had no electricity (which we put in after a month), no indoor
bathroom and no running hot water. No central heating - just a huge
fireplace (big enough to sit in- benches built into the niches) in
the kitchen. A wood-burning stove supplemented the kitchen heat -
and we cooked on it. No heat in the bedrooms so bedwarmers took the
icy chill off the sheets in the winter.
Our first animal was a pregnant sheep, my birthday present from Pino.
She was old, lame, arthritic... and cheap. From our farm neighbor,
Peppe, came the first chicken - as thanks for helping him prune his
vineyard (which is how we learned to prune ours). Marino gave us a
pregnant rabbit (that led to alot of rabbits!) as thanks for helping
him prune his olive grove (...and so we learnt to prune ours).
Each season had its tasks. Every spring, we sheared our sheep and I washed the
wool down in the creek with my farm women neighbors. After the wool
was carded in Assisi, a neighbor made our quilts, mattresses and pillows.
Every January, the butcher came and one of the pigs was turned into
prosciutto, capocollo, sausages, salami, lard (see Zsa
zsa's story). My neighbors made their soap from the lard...
Pino plowed and planted all our land, chopped the firewood, milked
the goats and sheep to make the cheeses. Feeding and caring for them
- and the fowl, rabbits, pigs - was one of my jobs, along with the
splitting of firewood, making of the pasta and putting up what came
out of the vegetable garden...
We both had outside jobs to supplement our lack of income from the
land. Pino went to work with the stonemasons - and is now considered
the best in Assisi in the restoration of rural architecture - has
a team of 14 who work with him (Happy ending: we're restoring the
farmhouse - Pino's skills are evident). I started teaching English...
Our businesses grew, 3 children came along... and the animals gradually
"disappeared".
Only regret: too tired at night in those days to keep a diary as "Under the Umbrian Moon" would have been a good read!
Step into Italy's rural past! "My Memoirs of Rural Life" takes you on an unforgettable journey...
Umbria's Sacred June Rites
Umbria Brings in May
November: Sweets, Saints and Cemeteries
Gathering the Olives
Bread: a "Sacred" Part of Rural Life
Grape Harvest
Ode to Alessandro
Pig to Prosciutto
Harvest Time Past
A Fireside Chat
Funghi
Concetta's Funeral
Zsa Zsa's Story
Foraging for Wild Asparagus - and Reminiscing