Ciao from Italy!  Chad and I are now expert olive pickers.  We have been staying at an olive farm in Cortona, Italy.  Every sunny day (you can’t pick olives when it is raining or they will mold) we go out into the fields, set up a net under an olive tree, and use a rake until all the olives are cleared from the tree.  This means at least part of the time is spent climbing up the tree to reach the olives growing on the top branches.  Once you get into the routine, there is something quite peaceful and lovely about olive picking in a place as beautiful as Cortona. 

The family we are staying with (Pietro, Josianne, and their son, Joshua) treat us very very well.  Josianne is originally from Australia, where they were living up until last year when they moved back to Italy.  Every day we get to try some new and delicious traditional Italian meal; lots and lots of different kinds of pasta but also polenta, porketta, and amazing gourmet cheeses and chocolates.  The food has been pretty spectacular.  We have learned the olive oil way of living and we now put it on pretty much everything we eat.    

We have yet to see a cinghiale, the huge and dangerous wild boar that roam about these parts, but we are always watching for them!  Our host family has been telling us all sorts of stories about these giant animals and Chad and I are determines to catch a glimpse of one.  The family gets really into it for us and they always keep their eyes open when we go out at night because they know how badly we want to see one.  So far the closest we have come is hearing a boar snort not far from where we were gathering our olive picking supplies one night after dark.  Also the dogs have gone crazy barking in the middle of the night just outside the garage where we sleep, which means that one has found its way onto the property.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that we get to see one from a very safe distance and not too up close and personal.   

Praha

We had a week in between our last farm in Ireland and when we were scheduled to be in Italy, so we decided to take the opportunity to see some of Europe.  We took the bus back to Dublin, where we got a plane to Prague, which is where I have always wanted to go.   We gave ourselves a whirlwind tour of the city; seeing all that we could in two days.  We started with the National Museum, which had many interesting things to look at (colorful rocks, artifacts, ancient skeletons, taxidermied animals forever wearing terrified and terrifying expressions), but many of the details and history of the artifacts were lost on me because all the descriptions were in Czech.  The most interesting room was devoted to ‘The Women’s War,’ in which warrior women battled against the men for many years.  Because I couldn’t understand the descriptions, I don’t know how much was actual history and how much was legend, but now that I’m remembering it, I’ve made a mental note to research it.  On the hour we went to see the astronomical clock chime in the Old Town Square.  A large crowd gathered to watch, and then cheered uproariously when a man emerged from the clock tower and blew his trumpet after the clock chimed.  We walked along an open market where they were selling everything from fresh fruit to marionettes.  Our second day in Prague we crossed over the Charles Bridge to ‘Lesser Town,’ where we got lost on many backstreets until we found the John Lennon wall.  When John Lennon died, a tribute to him was painted on the wall of this street.  Every day the authorities would paint over the graffiti, but by the next day it would always reappear.  This got to be a big battle, until the authorities finally relinquished the wall and allowed it to be used as an official tribute to John Lennon.   Every inch of the wall is covered with his lyrics, images of his face, peace symbols, and notes to him.  I thought it was really pretty incredible, but then again I’m a sucker for all that hippy stuff.  We then went to Prague Castle, which is on massive grounds and includes a cathedral and art exhibition.  We climbed up Petrin Hill, but because we came to it from the wrong side, we couldn’t find the official path so we climbed the very steep, pathless side of the hill.  It was well worth it for the view of Prague this gave us.  You could see everything, and we just sat in awe for a while.  I highly recommend this city to anyone.