In my last blog post, I said that my next stop was Rome, which is technically true. But I changed my mind and I'm not going to make this post about Rome, since I ended up returning to Rome quite a few times throughout the rest of my trip. I'll just make a big consolidated post of all my doings in Rome later. For now, we will move straight to the next farm--La Rocchetta.

This farm I was so, so excited about, and as I was sending out emails from my farm in Sardinia hoping to find a WWOOF host near Rome, I was just giddy that this farm had an availability. After a two week stay, I was glad to report that while some aspects of the stay were difficut, others positively exceeded my expectations. 

For my one-night stay in Rome, I grabbed pizza for dinner and did the same the next morning for breakfast, then went to board the train to my farm, supposedly an hour north of Rome. I was to get off at Attigliano-Bomarzo.

After getting off the train, I was picked up from the station by a middle-aged American woman and her son. Her American accent hit my ears like music--that's when I realized how homesick I had been. Both Michelle and her husband Claudio were successful journalists, now retired. They moved into their current home over 15 years ago. Michelle pointed out nearby towns as we passed them. She said that many towns in the area were built on hilltops, and so was their own home. From the top of the hill, they had an amazing view of the surrounding countryside.

From their house, you could see vast expanses of farmland as well as small clusters of buildings on the hilltops.

To get you acquianted with the place, I'll link you to their website. Explore it if you have the chance, it'll give you a sense of how just freaking awesome this place is, and how excited I was to be WWOOFing there.

That was my room! Definitely the biggest space I've stayed in so far. It was an attic. The only bummer was that there wasn't wifi in the room itself. Michelle and Claudio's room was right below mine. 

Michelle owned a phenomenal amount of books, both in English and Italian, and recommended a huge stack to me right off the bat. I didn't get to read a lot, being so busy throughout the day, but if I had stayed longer I would've been all up in their personal library.

First day of work, Michelle took me to a pastry shop in town to have capuccinos and what she considers the best walnut pastry in the world. I had to agree with her, this being the only walnut pastry I've ever had. While at the pastry shop, Michelle took the time to explain to me their current situation, which was a bit complicated.

Claudio had recently been diagnosed with Parkinson's, and his health had been dropping precipitously. When Michelle had agreed to let me WWOOF here, Claudio was perfectly fine. But now things were different, and she told me that the usual activities in the house (mainly cooking, painting, and whatnot) were likely to be put on hold for Claudio's health.

I told her that I was there to be helpful. I had really looked forward to cooking with Claudio, but that was unlikely to happen at this point. Still, I was happy to just be there, and I didn't need a boatload of interesting activities to be content. 

What ended up being my main project throughout my stay was keeping their heating system going. Every morning I needed to gather wood and kindling for two separate fires--one in the kitchen and one for what was referred to as the "orange beast." It was a very involved process, involving thorough cleaning both before and after lighting the fires, and usually I was finished and soot-covered in time for lunch.

When I wasn't lighting fires, I was stacking firewood (as pictured above), and chilling out with their beautiful doggy Gaia.

And pruning monstrous rose bushes.

And playing with their cat, who likes to inconviniently place himself onto things that I need to move.

And, despite Claudio's hiatus from the kitchen, still learning how to cook great Italian food. On the left is a raddichio risotto, which Claudio made a great effort to cook for me, and on the right is Spaghetti alla Carbonara, which Michelle had picked up and was happy to teach me.

Sometimes it was a bit tough dealing with all the emotions flooding the household from such huge changes. I think as a WWOOFer, I toed the line between providing helpful labor and being an unnecessary presence. In retrospect, I still haven't quite decided yet. More photos coming soon!