It is safe to say that neither one of us has the best of luck when it comes to public transportation. We try to find the cheapest and quickest ways to get to places which with the help from Go Euro has not been that difficult. With the exception of our trip to our first wwoofing location in San Miniato. Our train tickets had been purchased and we where ready for our 6 hour excursion with three train transfers, sounds easy right! Well that trip turned into a 12 hour day five train transfers, one bus, and a taxi. Patience is definitely a trait that we have developed over this month. The best part of this 12 hour day had to be arriving in San Miniato, not because we had finally made it but because we had NO IDEA how to get to the vineyard. This is when we met Martina who was a saint. We got on the bus and quickly realized we didnt know where the vineyard was and that nobody spoke english. Luckily Martina a local from San Miniato and manager of the local truffle shop did speak english and helped us find our way to the vineyard. Arriving at Cosimo Maria Masini was the best feeling in the world. That night we met three of the five people that made our experience wwoofing unforgettable.1. Marina the sweetest and spicest latin loving Italian one could ever come to find 2. Igor a napolian turnt australian turnt organic obsessed man 3. Fabio who was "always mad because he is sicilian".
The next morning was our first day of harvesting we where ready to rumble so excited but without the slightest idea of what we had gotten ourselves into. This is also when we met Jean Paolo the cutest little old man that every girl dreams of meeting. He would feed us chocolate through the vines, I mean how could you not love that man. It was even more of an adventure since he spoke no English and we obviously speak zero Italian so we mainly communicated through hand gestures.Grape picking in theory is not hard but when you are bent over for five hours a day carrying 20 kilos of grapes you begin to feel the pain as well as see it on your legs(bruises). After a few days of harvesting Abby and I made our way down to the cellar where we met Yvonne the 5th person that had a huge impact on our trip. She was a Swiss wine maker who has had the most interesting life and gave us a once in a life time experience! With her we got to press down the grapes bathe the grapes and so much more.Our afternoons revolved around the cellar; there was nothing like seeing the transformation of delicious grape juice to fermenting wine.
The following week was my(Marla) 21st birthday which of course in Europe does not mean much. But when you have a best friend like Abby, who goes all out to make it a special event how could I complain. She went crazy with the little details like getting me almonds which are my favorite!! Making pancakes in the morning, mimosas at lunch and SPECTACULAR DINNER!! and the worst but most beautiful carrot cake that could have come out of our barely functional oven. The dinner was amazing having duck pate, grilled octopus in a yogurt sauce, the crispest pork belly in a ginger sauce and lamb chops in a pea and mint sauce. It is safe to say that our first two weeks have been an absolute success! We are off to Cinque Terre and excited for the second half of our time on this magical hill top in San Miniato, Italy.
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