When in Rome…

Hello from Rome!

Over the past week or so, we’ve explored Tuscany and then made our way to Rome via train 3 days ago. Our days have been busy, full of exploring and adventuring and I’m looking forward to a slower, more relaxed pace in Greece.

Here’s some of what we learned while we were in Tuscany. One day, we got up and visited Podere Il Castale Farm, a UNESCO World Heritage site that is also a working farm. It’s located near our agritourismo in Val d’Orcia- (Valley of Orcia) and it’s really special and well preserved because it historically has always had horrid soil. While surrounding valleys grew wheat and grapes in huge quantities, the soil produced very little in Orcia Valley. Over the centuries, neighboring valleys and areas became very wealthy and abundant- able to tear down old houses and renovate them. In Val d’Orcia, they had so little they couldn’t make any changes, which preserved the old ways of life and architecture splendidly. When people began to realize the gem that Tuscany was, Val d’Orcia was almost perfectly preserved and idyllic, in many parts of the valley, they didn’t have electricity until 50 years ago, so it’s not all as dreamy as you might imagine.

While at Podere Il Castale, one of the owners shared the hardships that people have faced and still often do in Tuscany while living close to the land. The people who once couldn’t afford to feed their families due to poor soil now can’t afford to keep livestock because it’s not lucrative with outside countries selling milk to Italy cheaper than the farmers can make it with their famous sheep’s milk. Pecorino cheese comes from sheep, (“pecora” is “sheep” in Italian) yet farmers and shepherds can’t create cheese cheap enough for the market and have been priced out due to outside countries shipping in milk for 1/4 of the price from far, far away. Yet, the cheese tastes better when Tuscan sheep graze on the natural herbs and other plants growing. At Podere Il Castale, they found that they had to create the whole system themselves, so they have a herd of sheep, a boutique cheese making factory, an olive grove and oil press, a huge organic garden and they use all of their products in their restaurant, which they can then mark up enough to make the farm systems lucrative. Although Val d’Orcia is now easier to make a living, it still seems like a hard life, up every morning milking sheep and goats and cows, pressing olives and selling your products to tourists. We learned that a sheep can produce about 2 large wheels of cheese per year with its milk- that’s about 100 liters to make two large 15 kilogram wheels- that’s about 66 pounds of cheese per year, per sheep. When we saw it in person it didn’t seem like much at all.

Aside from eating lots of pecorino cheese, we have been drinking lots of wine. We had a few wine tastings and our favorite was Argiana where we did a wine tasting lunch and cellar tour. Each and every time we’ve gotten wine at a meal, the servers have tried to give Luna wine too. It’s a joke now as she is almost 14, but apparently looks 18 to people in Italy.

Rome has been a flurry of gorgeous, enchanting, frenetic moments. I love walking in the parks, down the small side streets and watching the life of so many compiled on top of one another in ways we can only image in the US. It’s like a sedimentary society, one layer on top of another- the old isn’t wiped away at all, but integrated into the new ways of life. I appreciate it because the wisdom of old is at least somewhat preserved and there is a comfort being here that I can’t quite explain because it’s as though you have your elders with you all the time. As I sit here writing this, the bells are chiming once again as they do every hour from 7AM-8PM daily.

We’ve hit a lot of the highlights with Tara as it’s her first time in Rome. We’ve been to the Vatican and saw the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s this morning. We went to the Jewish Quarter and toured the synagogue and learned a lot about the persecution of Jews in Rome throughout history. We toured the Colosseum and the Pantheon, the Forum, the Da Vinci Museum, had our auras read and walked about 10 miles a day- no wonder I’m tired. We’ve decided that if you want to do anything in the world and you’re told it isn’t possible- come and do it in Rome. We’ve seen someone beatboxing on the side of the road, a juggler performing in front of cars in at a red light at an intersection, a woman dancing in a wedding dress, and multiple elderly people in their 90s singing on the side of the streets to karaoke tracks raking in the dough- awesome. Rome will always feel like home to me in some ways, as we walked hand in hand with Luna in Piazza del Popolo our first trip here in 2014 and we have so many memories here as a family throughout the years.

We’re off to Athens tomorrow! xo