First REAL Day of Work

This morning started with a run through the grapevines. I ran up and down each row of the fields of vines in front of Antonio's house. His house sits on a mountian side so the view was amazing and the air was sweet with grapes! Only downfall was mud-caked shoes, nothing I couldn't live with.

On our way to the Cantina this morning I asked Anotonio if he had gotten the chance to talk to Giorgia about what I would be doing while I was here. Thank goodness he said they decided to put me out in the Cantina. I assured him that even though my Italian still isn't perfect I could learn quickly by being shown how to do something.

So I got to the Cantina, checked in for an assignment with Agusto and was right away put to work cleaning out the machine that sparates the grapes from the must (grap juice) and vines. I was completely soaked within my first 20 minutes but I wore a smile from ear to ear. THIS is what I wanted. I worked all day with a very patient Italian named Masimo. Masimo was very good at talking slowly and in simple words that I could understand. He was also great about showing me how to do things. I learned a lot today, and will definetly need to be shown most of it a second time. We worked together to hook up pipes from the grape seperator to the pressing tanks and then to the holding tanks and then from the cooling tanks to the pressing tanks. It was a long process and the pipes were heavy, but I think I surprised him with how muhc I could actualy do and understand. We had our first load of grapes come in today. You could actually feel the anticipation in the air as everyone stood around to watch the truck get tipped forward and the first grapes fell into the de-stemer. HOwever, the grapes didn't get far. Fattori has new machinery this year and the kinks need to be worked out. Antonio himself was down under the grates with the machine when it fired a large load of grape skins and pulp into the air. Poor guy was covered.

Today for lunch another one of the crew member made me a Caprese salad (I'm being ridiculously spoiled by everyone here, and not just the boys. They are all very friendly to the American girl with blue eyes! I can't say that I mind at all). The salad made with tomatoes and mozzerella cheese and olive oil, basil, and pepper (they have all already caught on that I love to pepper everything). It was delicious and just the right amount. I feel like I've been eating like a horse because they get disappointed when you don't eat the 3 pounds of food that they have lovingly prepared for you. After lunch it was back to the tanks to see if we could fix the problem.I pretty much just stood around and watched until Alessandro came to get me. He wanted to show me the bottleing system that had just arrived.

The thing was HUGE. It was the whole back end of a semi truck, and when they opened it,I was totally in pure awe. How can such a machine travel around in a semi? I sat there and watched as they unfolded it and just soaked in the fact that I was actually here, and witnessing all of this. Crazy. Anywho, after that I came up to update the blog and nothing that night because I was so stinking tired I had to sleep. :)