I went home.
Finally back to my beloved Italy after almost two years.
Food wise I will sum it all up by saying I put on about 5 pounds in 20 days. I guess that can crazily be considered a good sign among us weirdoes ;-)
I will have chances in my next posts to talk about this or that dish, this or that ingredient I stumbled upon during this trip, but today I want to share with you a wonderful experience I made, instead, that does not involve cooking for once.
I got to spend a whole long weekend in Tuscany, at my friend Betta's place, harvesting olives for the new oil of the season.
There is something about doing this work, those simple gestures, no mechanic help, just your hands and the tree, that gives you some sort of unnatural inner peace. Why "unnatural"? Well, we all live in a frantic world, we are all running around in our lives hardly ever finding time to stop. So at the beginning it feels strange to be there with your thoughts, busy hands and free mind, in a place and situation where time seems to have stopped and you feel like you have eternity in your hands.
Am I exaggerating? I don't know. I can only say that it's exactly the way I felt.
Figure I wasn't even alone: there were a bunch of funny friends on the hills with me, needless to say. We laughed, talked, sang and had a great time. But then there were those pauses where everyone seemed to be in their own world. I think it was therapeutic for us all. The newbies and the experts. And God only knows we can all use some good therapy sometimes ;-)
It's been great and I defintely recommend it to all of you. If you ever have a chance to go to Italy during the late fall/early winter let me know: I can hook you up with Betta. She always appreciates a couple extra hands for the job. You won't regret the hard work.
So now I'm back, people. See you around, my friends. But before you go, please check this out and let me know what you think: OLIVIADI 2009 - MARCO D'ELIA
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