The weather has started to remind me of fall at home. The days are still quite warm but as soon as the sun is gone the temperature drops to between 10 and 15 degrees Celsius. It’s still warmer than Canada this time of year.
Olive harvesting is in full swing now and it is interesting to watch the method used here. Huge fine nets are laid on the ground under the trees. Frames are used to hold nets up to catch olives that might roll away on steep hills or where branches reach out over the roads. Workers use ladders to reach into the trees where they use small hand rakes to gently pull the olives from the trees. The ladder may need to be repositioned many times while working your way around the tree to reach all of the olives. This work can be quite precarious as most olive groves are planted on steep hills where it is difficult to find a level spot to position a ladder. It is also a slow process as it is all done manually. When one section of the grove has been harvested, the big nets, full of olives, are gathered up and emptied into large bins. The full bins are taken to a local olive mill where the fruit is cold pressed to produce precious olive oil.
I had hoped to participate in the olive harvest but apparently there are insurance issues due to the danger of falling. I suppose it is just as well as I am afraid of heights anyway, and now that Don is here I have been quite busy. We have been touring around the area and visiting other local towns. Don is wishing he had his Goldwing to drive on the twisty roads, just as I thought he would. However, I would rather he didn’t drive my car like he was on his bike....he is a great driver but it seems these roads make me more nervous as a passenger than as a driver. We drove through the Crete Sensi the other day and my heart was in my throat the entire way. We were on our way to visit Siena. The views are spectacular but the landscapes there are so different from elsewhere in Tuscany. The hills are so steep that farm tractors have tracks like tanks or bulldozers and the soil is lumpy clay varying in colour from red to pale beige. We watched a farmer planting a crop of winter wheat which is the reason for the emerald green often seen on the hills of Tuscany in winter. There are few trees in this area, save for the beautiful cypresses surrounding houses and lining driveways. Ploughed fields stretch for miles, their fluid contours rippling as if liquid. Blacktop roads snake around hills and along ridges between deep valleys. White roads, intersecting them at steep angles, lead to distant farmhouses and villas. It almost seems like a desert here with so little vegetation, hills resembling dunes, and soils the colour of sand.
In Siena we reserved a trip on an old steam train to a nearby village to enjoy the white truffle festival. The scenery is apparently spectacular and, since neither of us will be driving, we will be able to enjoy it together. We will also book a tour to see castles in Chianti with wine tastings, and a dinner of Florentine Steak at an agritourismo. We will stay a few nights in Siena to give us time to take in the sights and visit other towns nearby. From there we are off to Florence for a few days to take in the Academia, where Michelangelo’s statue of David is housed, and the Uffizi gallery. Of course we will also visit the Duomo and Baptistery doors and visit some leather and jewellery shops too. We also want to visit Venice and maybe even Milan. We are both taking lots of photos so I will have plenty of things to paint when we get back home.
I have been enjoying Don’s company and having someone to cook for. We have only had dinner out once in the past week. The time is going by so quickly, it’s hard to believe we will back home in 27 days!
Ciao for now
Diane
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