Life on the Farm

Tucked away in the hills north of the quiet village of Subbiano is where you would have found us this past week. We decided that getting our hands dirty on a small farm would be a great way to experience rural Italian culture. Only an hour and a half away from Florence, this was the “real” Italy we had always pictured…green rolling hillsides, olive trees covering the landscape, regional vineyards, and charming villages. With no neighbors in sight of the farm, the only noises came from hungry pigs, curious goats, and chickens diligently singing their morning wake-up call.

The landscape around the farm in western Tuscany:

Our private villa...we had the whole place to ourselves:

From first glance, this place appeared to be a “fairy-tale farm”…rows of perfectly pruned hedges, happy animals grazing in the fields, and the picturesque farm villa situated atop the hill overlooking the valley below. But, as the week went on, we (mostly Rachel) realized that living on a farm meant there would actually be lots of real work that needed to be done. Among other things, the “real” work consisted of feeding the chickens, goats, horses, ducks, pigs, dogs, cats, and Dustin.

Did I mention Dustin’s favorite farm activity was eating? Somehow we lucked out and selected a farm that had hired an older Italian woman to cook the family’s meals. We have literally been stuffing our bellies with homemade ravioli, pasta, goat cheese, bread, wine, and sausages. But more on that later…

Besides feeding all of the animals, we’ve also been sanding, painting, gardening, fixing fences, landscaping, and helping with various other tasks, such as babysitting their 1 ½ year old son Luca. We even have a few calluses and bruises to show for our hard work. So, needless to say, we have been earning our keep.

Rachel keeping the pigs happy:

Falling into a work routine turned out to be easier than we thought. (It has been almost a year since either of us had a job.) Doing physical labor, working outside, and not being chained to a desk in front of a computer has been very rewarding.

Assimilating into the Italian farm lifestyle was easy too. They showed us it really was okay to eat cake for breakfast. Lunch and dinner always come in courses which can last for several hours. Since the farm’s main function is milking goats, we haven’t had a single meal in the last week that hasn’t featured goat milk in one form or another…goat yogurt for breakfast, goat milk in our coffee, and countless varieties of goat cheese for lunch and dinner.

Rachel was literally in heaven. It is probably a good thing we only stayed a week otherwise we would have easily gained all the weight back that we lost while trekking in Nepal. The never ending homemade pastas, lasagnas, steaks, cheeses, wine, and cake will undoubtedly be missed.

So, maybe it wasn’t a fairy-tale farm, but it did get us out of the van and allowed us to “play house” for a week. We even enjoyed the work almost as much as we enjoyed the food.

Us with the Bellucci family: