Day of Rest

Sunday! Today is all about resting up and relaxing, getting ready for another week. Most likely a harder week. Today I've been reading upstairs in the house in Antonio's library, which I failed to take a picture of. Tonight will be dinner with Antonion and his girlfriend Francesca then off to bed early so I can be ready for tomorrow.

Just a few things I've learned in general about Italian culture and just other things I want to mention:

1. Italian's on a mission move faster than my Mom moves through the grocery store. And my mom walks FAST. It's hard for me to keep up with my friends in the Cantina, especially since I'm constantly aware of all the water of the floor.

2. I love learning new languages and here's why- When you learn a language you learn very basic terms and words first. Which means when you talk to someone or they are talking back to you, everyone has to be a short and straight to the point as possible. Sometimes this means being incredibly blunt and honest about what is going on. I guess put shortly, I love that in new languages there's no way to "beat around the bush." New languages also come with a lot of funny blunders. For instance the other day my friend Manuel said to me, " Come on baby." When he wanted me to come to help me. I was incredibly quick in explaining to him that I was NOT his baby but only his friend. Then I had to try to explain the difference. Once he understood, he was pretty embarassed. I've had my fair share of those too. Most of the time I say something and everyone busts up laughing because I've pronounced something wrong and ended up saying something dirty.

3. I got to watch Dirty Dancing...in Italian. Loved it!

4. In Italy you can't drive a car until you are 18. If you are caught driving drunk you get your license, all the points on your license, and your CAR taken away from you. Also if you get caught driving in high heels you get points taken off your license and have to pay a hefty fee.

5. So far I have two nicknames: Mini WonderWoman and Mini Shakiera (because I know the Waka Waka song and it seems to be the Cantina theme song for the moment).

Day 6

Ah the end of a first full week of learning and working! I can't even begin to comprehend all of the new things I've learned in one short week. I feel like with every car ride to the Cantina in the morning with Antonio I learn something different. And once I get to the Cantina there's always someone coming to grab me away from my current job to show me something new and interesting. Yesterday (Saturday) I only worked a half day.

When I first got here in the morning the botteling system was being taken down and moved away. It was quit a process; it took them about 2 hours to get it completely moved and packed up. After they moved it it was mine and Manuel's (a native of India who I think grew up in Italy) to take all the random stuff, corks, toppers, labels, boxes, trash and put it where it belonged. Then we swept up a huge pile of broken glass, crusty glue, and lots of dust from the cardboard. After that I got to follow Alessandro around while he worked on cleaning out the tanks. He explained to me that there had been a bad yeast that got into one of the tanks and now the ENTIRE system had to be cleaned out. That's a lot of tank cleaning, that row alone had about 10 tanks it in and the Cantina has about 7 rows I think. Probably one of the funniest things I've seen so far is when Alessandro was inside the tank cleaning and had to stick his head out of this tiny hole to give directions to Manueal. It was so hard not to laugh because he looked so funny with his head cocked to teh side so he could look up to talk. I laugh a lot while I'm working and I love when I'm enjoying what I'm working on. Then he took me to the top of the tanks so I could see the fermentation process actually working. It was really cool to look down inside the tank and see the yeast feeding on the sugar and creating the alcohol. One gigantic science experiment! After this and a few other random things Daniela took me to the house and I spent the afternoon by the pool. I didn't do a lick of anything productive. :)

Daniela picked me up around 7 and I went with her to have dinner at her house. She made a delicious penne with zuchini and cheese sauce for the first plate and a tradtional fried mushroom (that the had found on their own, and these suckers were HUGE) for our second plate. We had her grandma's homemade biscotti and coffe for dessert. Then it was time to get ready and head out for the evening.

Our first stop was the Enoteca, my new favorite place in the world (thus far). We walked into a bar full of very nicely, classily dressed Italians (and in case you are as oblivious to the fact as I was, most top end fashion designers come from Italy. Even people's glasses here are all Dolce and Gabana) and the first thing I see posted on a big board behind the wall is the Wine List. I've never seen so many types of wine offered by the glass or for such low prices. Well some were lowered priced. The prices got hired based on how far away the region was where the wine was made, so a Soave was cheaper than the French imports. Around the corner was another bar which had all the spirits and another huge board offering their wine cocktails! I was like a kid in a candy store. I chose a Tocai wine which I remembered to have a strong Hazelnut smell, but this one was more of a Hazelnut and dirt smell. Still delicious however. I couldn't help but LOVE the fact that I was surrounded by people just like me, who all loved and appreciated wine just like I do. Guys and girls were both drinking out of wine glasses or flutes of Prosecco...it was like I'd finally found my bar. Maybe by the end of the trip one of the Enotecas (oh yes, this type of bar is a frequent occurance in Italy) will be like my Cheers, and everyone will know my name! :)

After the Enoteca we headed to Veince to VillaBonin. At Villa Bonin you walk in through the gates and are handed a drink card. This card keeps track of your tab for the night and also keeps people from being overserved. Also, if you loose this card you must pay €100. This is to keep people from over drinking and getting so out of control they can't keep track of a card. Inside of VillaBonin they have a restaurant which turns into a bar where the tables turn into two long dance floors after dinner, a section for Latin Amercian salsa type music, and the main section which houses the comtempory and pop culture music. There were SO MANY people. Daniela told me that people come to this club from Verona, Vicienza, Veince, and other towns close by. And everyone, young, old, boys, and girls was dancing. Another thing I found very cool is that at the Wine Bar (because yes, they have a whole seperate bar for the wines they serve...ah, have I mentioned how much I love how much they love wine here?) served appetizers, FOR FREE. They had meats and cheeses, pasta dishes, pizzas, crackers...and it kept coming out fresh all night long. I have a feeling this is another effort to keep people from over drinking, and I think it's a splendid idea! It was a great night full of dancing, talking, and eating! It was also a very expensive night as an entry fee and two drinks cost €23, which is right around $30. Eeks.

Day 5

Guess what I did today???!!! If you said botteling line, you are exactly correct. I'm actually even going ot come in tomorrow morning until lunchtime to help with the last of it. I can safely say that I'm a professional cardboard seperator stuffer. :)

It was actually kind of nice to be on the line today. It gave me lots of time to think. I woke up in a not great mood this morning; my body was sore from my more-than-halfway uphill run yesterday morning and I was just cranky because today is my friend's birthday and she's not around for me to celebrate it with her. I'll forever be cranky on this day. Part of me still thinks it's unfair that she was only 15 when she left. She didn't get to experience anything. I hate that. My heart hurts for that. This, if anyone has every wondered is why I jump out of airplanes and off of bridges. This is why I went to Costa Rica and why I'm trying my best to live my dream life and didn't just stay at home and get married and have kids and be part of "the norm." I don't know a lot about my life, what I want to do, where I want to live, but I know that when I die I will have some amazing stories for people to tell about me. So having time to think was good because it's always good to remember my friend, but thinking was bad at the same time because it just made me even sadder.

No worries, because I started to cheer up after awhile because my friends in the Cantina were far too nice to me for me to be in a bad mood. They are so funny, it's like watching a bunch of brothers pick on each other all day long. Quite entertaining.

Anywho, tonight I decided that I should just go home to have dinner and sit and relax. Maybe I'll finally read some more of my book or even study my Italian verbs. Tomorrow should be a very busy day though; work in the morning, home to eat and shower, out to shop or relax by the pool, then out to dinner with Daniella and out to happy hour, and then to VENICE for dancing and what looks to be an AMAZING discoteca. I am EXCITED. Woo Hoo VENICE HERE I COME...FINALLY!!!

Day 4

Today! Finally, I'm caught up! However, today I've been doing the exact same thing as I did yesterday....put the seperator into the boxes. :) I don't mind, trying to understand the language has been keeping me busy enough. For lunch I went to my friend from the Cantina, Agusto's, mom's house and we had a traditional Italian meal, "Ho mangato abastanze." I have eaten well, or I'm full. It was fun, but now it's back to the bottleing.

Tonight I'm going to have, yet again, pizza with Giovanni's (Antonio's brother and the manager of the grape fields) daugther. Tomorrow night (Friday) I will be going with Daniella...I don't remember where, but somewhere. And Saturday we will go to see Ralfiella's nephew play in a band just across the street from the Cantina and then afterwards Daniella is taking me to a Disco so we can go dancing.

Many times throughout my day I can't help but just to smile at myself. I really am enjoying all of this. I'm happy!

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Writing on Aug 27th about Day 4...

After lunch the bottleing itself wasn't as exciting as what was happening in the rest of the Cantina. I didn't fully understand but I kept seeing people running from one side of the building to the other. Then all of a sudden grape juice (must) starting surgeing out of one of the pressing machines. I have never seen people run so fast to get huuuuge tanks to save all the juice! Then after that the power to the whole place went out about four times. Which I didn't mind at all because if the power wasn't working, neither was the bottleing machine. :)

Last night I going out with Giovanni's daughther, Chiara was a good relaxed time. We went to a pizzeria by her house and then walked around the corner and up a huge hill to another pizzeria that was also a karaoke bar and enoteca. It was nice to get to konw Chiara, but everyone at this bar was at least 5 years younger than me. So even through the International barrier, I could feel the wrath of highschool judgement. It was kind of nice actually, I got to reassure Chiara that once you leave highschool things start to change and people care less about the popular kids and more about what you actually have in common and that when she decides what to study she'll find lots of people to talk to about what interests her (rather and clothes and shoes, and he says she says bull poopy that goes on in high school). We didn't stay long at the bar because 1. It was uncomfortable and 2. I was so tired yesterday I literally almost fell asleep while I was on the bottleing line. I guess that's what I get for doing laundry at 2am. Oops.

Day 3 alla Cantina

So day two was when the amazing bottling truck become the stupid truck with the stupid bottle that wouldn't stop coming down the line. As soon as I walked into the Cantina it was "Rachel, you put this in there and push through here." "Ho capito." Which means I understand and has because my personal catch phrase for this trip. So I stood there as the bottling machine spit out hundreds and hundreds of bottles filled with delicious Fattori wine into boxes and I was to put in the bottle seperators and push the boxes on through the taping machine. It was all very wonderful and fascinating until about 4 hours in. Noioso is my new word, it means BORING! :) Alessandro assured me that everyone had been in my spot at one time, and I found out later that night that usually the bottleling is all finished by the time harvest comes around, but this year the wine wasn't quite ready to harvest so they had to wait. It's actually good for me because I get to see more of the entire process! Either way, the work was boring but I understand that it has to be done.

After the bottleing for the day was done, I followed Agusto and Alessandro around and watched what they were doing. They were mixing yeast and adding it to the tanks so that the yeast could ferment and be ready to have the must or pure grape juice added in. I understood most of what was going on. Usually when I say "Ho capito," I'm getting about...60% of what they are saying and then when they show me, I actually understand. They have learned that I don't always undestand when they speak to me. But it was fun to walk around with the boys and see more of the process. I even got to see the machine that harvests the grapes. Which, I've been told that I won't acutally ever be going out into the fields. Sarah told me that it's nothing glamourous or exciting, it's just dirty juice falling down your arms as the bugs attack you....I think I prefer the winery with the vats of yeast. I went around last night and took pictures of the Cantina so that I can share them with everyone so they will be coming soon. I also spoke with Antonio about what I will offically be doing while I'm here. He told me that after Friday the bottleing will be done, Thank goodness! And then I will spend time with each of the main people in the winery to see what they all do. I'll spend time with Massimo, who does machinery, Alessandro, who takes care of adding the yeast and the fermentation process, and Agusto who manages everything. I'm excited about all the stuff I'm going ot learn, and those three people are the ones who are the best when it comes to explaining things to me.

That night Anotonio, Sarah, Ralfiella, and I went to get pizza at a beautiful pizzaria in MonteBello. It was delicious as always, however I'm worried that I'll ruin my appetite for pizza if I keep eating it every day of the week! After that home and to bed.

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. :)

First Day of Work...ish.

Aug 23rd was to be my first day of work! I was so excited. I was up and ready to go 15 minutes before Anotonio had told me we were leaving the house. We stopped off for a quick coffee then headed to the Cantina. Once we arrived I still didn't know exactly what they were going to have me do, however, I did know that I would be in the winery and not in the fields picking the grapes. Antonio told me I should wait in the office for Giorgia to come then all three of us could decide what I would do. So I came to the office and sat and watched as farmer after farmed took Antonio out of the office. There was no time for talking as the first day of harvest would be the next day. So I decided to my myself useful and go to find something to do. I ended up in the warehouse helping pack boxes of wine. Then the crew from the Cantina came to ask if I wanted to go to lunch with them. I decided I would and found out that every day they eat lunch together at an uncle's house right across the street. I hadn't brought a lunch becuase I had no idea what the day entailed so Agusto was nice enough to buy me some tuna. He made me penne con tono and a salad, all the while the whole place was making fun of me because I don't eat meat. It's pretty much unheard of in Italy. After lunch I went back to the ware house and put some of those pretty little DOCC stickers on the necks of about 200 bottles of wine. At the end of the day my new friend Daniella from the office took me home to change and told me she'd be back to get me in an hour so we could go to a wine bar and then to get pizza with people from the Cantina crew. The enoteca was really fun because they had only wines grown in this region all open for by the glass purchase. We had enough time for one glass then we went to Agusto's to meet up for pizza. We ended up ordering in, and once again the pizza was so delicious. It was fun to hang out with the crew and get to know everyone. I'm thankful that DAniella is here and seems to like me. She's my age and her boyfriend has just left to study in California so she needs someone to hang out with. I'm glad I can be here for her! :)

And the end of my first day I was a little disappointed. I wasn't doing what I thought I was going to be doing. I didn't want to end up packing cases all the time, I could've done that at home.