Farewell Fanet, Buongiorno Belluno

Farewell Thanet, Buongiorno Belluno

Before we get into anything deep can I just thank all of you for your birthday wishes farewell wishes and especially those who came out for drinks. It’s only been one sentence but I’m sure you can tell I’m completely cream crackered and not really with it. 

I’m currently sat in a small bar about 2 minutes from Belluno Train station called the Havana Club – the first establishment I came across that sold something wet (technically that’s a lie, There was a McDonald’s at the train station, but more on my disgust regarding that later).

The Owner of the Havana Club and his friend.

I had to change at a station called "Ponte di Nelle Alpi-Polpet" and at the time I arrived I was so thirsty it was unreal. BUT...there was something going on in Ponte di Nelle Alpi-polpet . 
Something sinister. Something called “Pranzo” (google it) which meant the sole establishment that resided next to the train station was shut for the whole hour I was sat around waiting for my final train.

A Whole hour to wait :(

Il stazione di Ponte di Nelle Alpi-Polpet.

I’ve yet to meet the hosts whom I’ll be staying with for the next few weeks, Giusi Cappellari, her husband Michele, and their two daughters Giulia and Sara. They’re running a little behind so suggested I visit the town for a bit and see what the happs is before they take me back to the farm. 

Not too bad at all.

 

Woke up at  4 this morning, had to go to the airport for 5. Thankfully my Dad lives next door in Crawley  so that’s great for a free taxi service – thanks to him for picking me up too AND extended thanks for taking Duncan and Jemma yesterday. 

It was a beautiful clear day for flying – a little hazey but good enough to let me capture this last glimpse of Thanet from the air.

I wish the quality was better but there’s a reason why it was taken on my phone and not on my camera. While I was grateful for the luck of getting a window seat without having to check in early (and on the wing too!) I wasn’t appreciative of the two plus [...plus plus plus plus plus] sized individuals sat next to me. I’m disgusted that BA didn’t make them buy extra seats. What’s worse is how unaccomodating they were – they wouldn’t get my camera out of my bag incase they broke something. Lazy sods, didn’t even stand up once. Bleh. 

I love only being able to use half of my chair...

Over the Alps

Anyways, managed to get the bus into Bella Venezia but spent all of 10 minutes there until I found the train and was on my way back out towards the Alps I’d just flown across. Oh and Raquelle, I totally saw you when we flew over Muenchen...I couldn’t make you out but I *KNOW* you were there so must have seen you.  (The same way they say “you can see the great wall of china from space”... you can see it, but it’s too small to really be appreciated or indeed, noticed haha)

La Piazza de la stazione di Santa Lucia

But back to the train journey... Italian trains are cheap, convenient and umm robust. Their brakes are also questionable to say the least but that’s probably why the price stays so low.  I won’t complain.  A couple of people thought I was a local and started a conversation with me – Italian’s certainly look at you more judgementally (that's how it feels) but are also friendlier than your average person at home. At least that’s how it seems. I’ve noticed that the hardest part of speaking italian is getting your mind to keep up with the speed at which people talk. I could ask them to speak slower, but what happens when I want to listen in on someone ELSES conversation?! haha. Will they slow down for me If I asked? Don’t think so. Already I’ve found myself instantly answering with “Mi dispiace, non capisco” but after a second or two my mind catches up and I DID understand what they’ve said (mostly). 

A little more time, perhaps...

Giusi, Michele e bambini turned up in a tiny car at about 6.30pm despite having a Land Rover parked on their drive – but I won’t hold that against them! Giusi squeezed in the back and I squeezed in the front. She has such a vibrant personality, and while Michele is a quiet person – probably because Giusi wanted to practise her Italian Inglese – I think he’s got quite a dry sense of humour and is seems like a good Father. The kids are great fun and we managed to play and be silly regardless of the language barrier.  Hopefully we’ll switch to Italian tomorrow, though we sort of flowed in and out. I would just like to emphasise at this point that knowing English is the worst thing that can happen to anyone when trying to learn another language.

We had a simple dish of a vegetarian penne ragu which was amazing in itself, but you add some huge chunks of parmegiano reggiano, lashings and lashings of olive oil. We then discussed the finer points of GM food vs Organic, but something I said didn’t translate so we’ve agreed to return to the conversation in two weeks. We also went through some “How Now Brown Cow” stuff and she taught me some Italian tongue twisters. 

I’m knackered and going to bed. I’ll probably end up uploading 10 of these at a time. 

For those of you that don’t know or have just stumbled upon this blog, my name is Luke and I’ve recently sold almost everything I own and moved out to Italy to experience a bit of La Dolce Vita (should probably try and avoid those sorts of clichés) through an organisation called Willing Workers on Organic Farms – more commonly known as WWOOF. It was set up in 1971 by a couple of people  from England who wanted to escape the stresses of inner city life and get back to basics with farming organically and away from the general hustle and bustle. Their friends heard what they were doing and wanted to join in and it sort of spiralled out of control from there. It’s now a global organisation promoting low impact living and each country has a specific website. You pick a country, pay a membership fee (about £25/€30/$30-40) and you get access to a list with hundreds of farms. You contact them directly and tell them why you want to volunteer on their farm.  In exchange for working on a farm or small holding for 6-8 hours a day, you get to meet wonderful people, gain experience regarding organic farming techniques, eat delicious food and have a bed/caravan/ tent for the night.