parli piu lentamente

What an incredible first two days it has been at Le Tortorelle (pronounced: Lay Tore-tore-elle-ey). I am on a farm, in the Italian countryside, with a kind, caring vegetarian Italian couple who spend all their time and energy on their family, sustainable agriculture and cooking absurdly good vegetarian food. I don’t think I could ask for anything more.

The farm/house is in a town near Perugia called Umbertide, and is perched high up, overlooking the rolling hills of Toscana and Umbria. Teresa is the woman of the house; she runs the kitchen and her husband Aldo runs the farm. Neither Aldo nor Teresa speak English at all (hardly a word! except Teresa says “water” sometimes). 12 hours here and I’d spoken more Italian than the whole year combined. Being forced to only speak Italian has been really helpful in terms of improving, but its also exhausting…writing even this entry in English feels too easy to be true. Slowly but surely, “parli piu lentamente, per favore” (speak more slowly, please) comes out of my mouth less --- and is replaced by “ho capito” (I understand).

Being with Teresa reminds me of Rosaria (Lea’s mom), except she cooks only vegetarian, organic food and prepares all the meals for the family and the guests of their agriturismo (essentially a B&B on a functioning farm). I have been acting as Teresa’s soux-chef as much as possible: following commands and chopping vegetables as she cooks extraordinary meals. Tonight, Teresa made a vegetarian version of Pasta Carbonara for the first course of our dinner. It was simple but INCREDIBLE. I took notes and plan on doing that for the rest of the week. Teresa loves when I take notes, I think.

The farm itself is gorgeous and I spent most of today helping Aldo replant aloe plants that outgrew their pots. Aldo and Teresa grow food to eat (supplemented with groceries) and also cultivate aloe for medicinal and cosmetic purposes. The farm is organic and everywhere you look there is another kind of vegetable, flower, tree, animal, etc. I spent some time this afternoon picking cherries off a tree near the house and eating them as I (finally!) finished the Italian novel that I started months ago. Today I saw a fig tree, a pomegranate tree, pea plants, chamomile (they grow it and use it for tea), garlic, tomatoes…you name it, its here. Last night, there was a huge frog sitting at the doorstep to my bedroom (the entrance is directly to the outdoors). Aldo exclaimed “principe azzuro!” (prince charming) and asked if I wanted to give the frog a kiss.

I think that my favorite days are the traveling days, despite constantly missing trains. I could listen music and stare out the window of a moving train for my entire time here. I'm having trouble uploading photos but i'll try to do a couple soon. Baci!!