We haven't made a post in a long time and apologize for that. My grandfather passed away this past Saturday and we, last minute, decided to come in for the service and to be with my family during this time. Papaw was a great man who lived a good long life. He was a farmer in Virginia and was loved by all his family and many friends very much. The picture below is of my sisters and I and two of our cousins, Scott and Lindsey, on Papaw's 67th birthday. We will be back in Italy on the 28th. Thank you all for keeping up with us and your love and support.

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It has been a few days since our last post, and I wish I had more to say and show you. The biggest news is that the matriarch of the farm, Paola, is back from her 2 week honeymoon in Senegal and the social/work dynamics have changed dramatically. Our cook, Lucia, has since resumed her position as cook, people who werent getting paid are now getting paid again, and the farm is starting to look prrrretty good. We've planted zucchini, cabbage, tomatoes, beans, arugula, basil .... and still have about 1/2 of the plot available. We've trimmed 50 year old rose vines, raked leaves, tied down support lines for kiwi trees, slept, swept, eaten great food, and watched one of the biggest annual soccer matches in the basement of a pub in Trastevere, Rome. Lazio won 4-2. Today is Easter and the only real plans we have are to play soccer and eat. We picked up a dessert in Rome called Pastiera, which is essentially an Italian cheesecake made specifically for Easter. You can see a pic at the bottom. Here are two different recipes I have found ... more involved ... less involved.Overall, the WWOOFing has been going well. The weather is warming up here, flowers are beginning to bloom, and guests are starting to visit the farm. We still have our pros and cons though... For instance, the 4 white dogs that would follow us around have been spending most of their time on the other side of the property, which is too bad... Grazia, the Italian WWOOFer who is essentially our boss, is nuts, generally making work days more of a drag. On the positive side, we might have the opportunity to film this 80 year old Italian woman (friend of Paola) making some of her family recipes and possibly assembling a cook book from them. I'm trying to work up the nerve to ask the owner of our local Gelateria if he wouldn't mind showing me how he makes gelato. Depending on how these work out, we'll be planning our next stop soon. Some thoughts we have: to stay with a friend of ours in Salerno for a few days, find a smaller farm where we can practice more Italian, take a week to travel, or stay here a little longer.... we're flexible. We're also considering getting a refund for our rail pass and spreading out our travel time - thus making our money last longer. Happy Easter! For many of us, we will celebrate more than the symbolism of the bunny and the egg. May we thank God for his mercy and gift of Salvation. However you celebrate Easter, I pray you are safe, happy, and well fed today. Buona Pasqua, Joyeuses Paques, Felices Pasquas!, God påske, Schöni Oschtere!
But if this is your way of celebrating, then I will simply pray that you make it through the night... Anyway, thanks for keeping up with us. We LOVE receiving your comments and knowing that you are reading the blog. It keeps us connected with all of you. As always, feel free to email us at bstrutz@gmail.com or jessicagracepresley@gmail.com

Much Love, Brian & Jess

p.s. there is a new album up on Picasa. Click Photos above

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For those of you who may have heard, there was an earthquake in Italy. It was in Abruzzo, which is the next region over from us. It didnt affect us, but someone said they felt it last night.
Heres a link.. http://tinyurl.com/earthquake-in-Italy .
If you look at the google map image you will see three lakes that are north of Rome. We are next to the tiny lake in the middle (At least 100 miles away from all the destruction.)
We are happy and safe. If anything should happen, we will post/email/and do whatever we can to get a hold of you.

On another note, we put more photos up on Picasa --- in the Viterbo & Villa Lina Album.
We went north to Viterbo on Saturday and took some pics. Beautiful city. At one point during the fall of Rome, Viterbo was actually bigger. Unfortunately for them though - the population never changed and it still has about 60,000 people... which doesnt hold a candle to Rome.

We have to get some rest

lots of love to all of you

Brian & Jess

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We're finishing up our first week on the farm, and after several blisters and long naps we are relieved to have the weekend upon us. So far, we have bent the young vines on the vineyard in order to 'train' them how/where to grow, hoed around the olive trees, hoed around the lavender bushes, plucked the lavender bushes, and tomorrow we will more than likely start planting in the vegetable garden. Nobody said it would be easy, but thankfully our hours arent too bad. I never realized how satisfying it would be to work on a farm... Tough, but therapeutic. Our muscles are already adjusting to it. Work aint bad tho when you get a delicious meal prepared for you by a 60 yr old italian woman... BUT, the only thing that compares to the food is the long nap afterwards.

The house we are living in is beautiful. Did I mention our front yard is an olive grove? Also, the dogs on the property have taken a liking to us and made it their responsibility to watch over our house day and night. Today, we went out for some pizza and gelato mmmm... pics to follow.

We have our weekend free and are contemplating where to go for the weekend... any suggestions?

Here are a few pics ... a couple from my birthday dinner. And as always you can click photos above to see the full album on picasa.

Also,

Jessica and I both are constantly thinking and praying for her family and her grandfather who is in the hospital in Virginia. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers as well.

love you and miss you all.

Brian & Jessica


Salumi platter with 7 different kinds of cured meats..... mmmmm

Below is a photo of dinner cooked by an Italian WWOOFer, Grazia. Polenta and Lentils with insalata crudo.

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Yesterday, first of all, was gorgeous. It made such a difference on our impression of the place and our moods. It was rainy today but we're hoping that yesterday was a glimpse of the weather turning. The flowers are starting to bloom and it's a touch warmer...so hopefully... We began our work yesterday in the vineyards which consisted of about nine of us, four wwoofers and five Italiani, slowly working our way down these long rows of vines, vine by vine, and training each vine: bending it at a right angle and tying it to the wires strung down the rows. Not too difficult and with the beautiful weather it was really enjoyable. We definitely didn't do it correctly at first and would often get stopped by Leo or Lisabetta to show us the right way. Half the time, I didn't know why they wanted me to cut a vine or tie it at that particular place or whatever but I just do what they tell me to do. Maybe someone will explain it later? Non lo so. I'm by far the slowest one. Leo and Stefano can do two and half rows in the time it takes me to do one. I don't really know what the deal is... Today we finished the second vineyard (having to take several breaks as the rain came in and out) and then started work on this huge lawn in front of the house where Brian and I are staying. Leo and Stefano are using weed-eaters to cut the grass and the four wwoofers have to rake the cut grass and load it into the back of the trailer on the tractor. It's pretty ridiculous. I mean, get a lawn-mower. I don't know if that's what we'll be doing tomorrow or not, but it will take forever, whoever has to do it. It's very strange to be a foreigner. The foreigner feeling when you're just traveling and sight-seeing is not so bad; just kind of part of the exciting and interesting experience. When you're trying to really live in a place for a while, the feeling is different. It's definitely more lonely and confusing and frustrating trying to communicate and work alongside these people. Even with that, I'm so glad to be here with Brian. I would hate to be doing this by myself. It would just be so lonely. Together, we laugh and joke around and have a good time. I wish we could have taken pictures in the vineyards or at any of the amazing lunches that Lucia has been cooking for us but we don't want to come off too touristy just yet...

Con affetto,

Jessica and Brian

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Sunday was an okay day for a birthday. The weather was dreary and cold. Not a soul was around. We woke up too late for breakfast so we walked into town to grab lunch. Silly for us to think we'd find anything open as it was between 1 -4 pm, and as anybody who has known ANYONE who has been to western Europe knows this is the time when everything closes. Needless to say, we found nothing. So, hungry and tired, we walked back to our 'WWOOFer kitchen, whose stock was expectedly low as we arrived unannounced on a Friday leaving little time to stock it. By some birthday miracle, we managed to find some zucchini, grape tomatoes, onions, garlic, olive oil, capers, spices, pasta, day old bread, and some farmers cheese - which translated into a tasty meal that we ate in our humble little kitchen. After lunch we went back to our house, or the bottom floor of the house we live in. It was cold, so we turned our space heater on that conveniently enough, overloaded the power outlet and blew out the electricity on the entire floor of the house. We then spent the rest of the evening transferring our things to a tiny little cabin of a house on the other side of the property where our space heater would work. Eventually, someone caught wind that it was my birthday and gave me some salami and a bottle of wine made from our property as a gift... i'll post some pictures later. Eventually, we made it out for a nice dinner at a fancy shmancy ristorante in town. Food was great, as expected. Walked back home and stared at the millions of stars that finally decided to come out.

When the sky is clear, this place is beautiful. But rainy days are for the birds.
Thanks for all the birthday messages! It means a lot to know that people are thinking about us and wishing us well.

I'll let Jess post about our first day of work... on the vineyard

A Presto

Brian

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Yesterday, when we arrived at Villa Lina, we were first greeted by these four big white dogs that we love. They are very comforting. We also met Katrina, the girlfriend of the son of Paola who owns the farm from Miami, Joe, another wwoofer from Texas, Grace, another wwoofer/office worker, Stefano, worker on the farm, Lucia, the sweet little cleaning lady and cook, and Leo and Lisabetta, the head man on the farm and his wife. Katrina took us on a tour of the farm which is fairly large, has several houses, and larger ones to rent, several pools that are pretty gross right now, ponds and fountains, goats, olive trees, and kiwi trees which is the main thing grown here. She also took us to our living quarters which is part of Paola's house. (Paola is away until April 10 on her honeymoon). We have our bedroom, bathroom, a large living area with a fireplace (yea!) and kitchen for our use. After touring the farm, we ate lunch with Joe and Katrina in this little tiny building that is really a kitchen that just stands alone where we will eat all our meals with the wwoofers. Last night, we walked into Ronciglione (got lost a little bit), found the piazza and the fountain (thank goodness again). We ate dinner at Arcadia, a little pizzeria/ristorante on the outskirts of town very close to Villa Lina. Yum. Monday we start working at 8:00 and have been assigned to help in the vineyard. They think it will be fun for us because the vines are very young and we can learn how to bend the vines, etc. I just hope it will warm up some! Brian says it's not that bad, but I'm definitely layering up and running the space heaters a lot. We got a little homesick last night after arriving at a place that feels more permanent but are excited about how much we will learn. Hopefully our Italian will continue to improve. Sometimes we think we're pretty awesome and then...other times we don't. We just realized there is a working TV in here in the office and so we're watching soccer. Typical. We have so many pictures but can't post them all here. Check the rest out on Picasa by clicking "Photos" above!

Much love,

Jessica and Brian

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