a swiss christmas

LAUSANNE!

(i didn't take this picture.. but just wanted to give you an idea...)

i am happily in switzerland! visiting my friend yves and his wonderful family. they live in right on the edge of a lake. through the windows on one side of the house you can see across the lake to france when it is clear, and out the other side you can see the hilly streets of downtown lausanne.

it is beautiful here...  the train ride from florence into northern italy and into the alps was spectacular.... 

for the holiday the streets are alive with little christmas fairs and markets. 

i discovered glühwein: hot 'n spicy wine! like hot cider, but better. 

it is wonderful to be with this family. IN SWITZERLAND?! and share the holidays. 

 

firenze to switzerland!

here are some random pictures from the last few weeks!

off to switz. after a kick-ass week in florence.

ciao, ciao italia.

panini and vino.

whole in the wall panini shack.

18 choices.

killer salami.

1€ vino.

shelves for the wine outside.

SO good.

piazza signoria

i love this place! i like hanging out with all the sculptuers... there is an incredible gelateria in this plazza... neptune is just to the left of this picture...

there is a copy of the david here that is being restored..

to the left of this arcade is palazzo veccio, the uffizi and nearby is ponte vecchio.

not a bad place to be.

nights in florence

the streets are so beautiful! lots of the streets between the duomo and ponte vecchio have amazing christmas lights. this is one of my favorite streets to cruise. i take it every day between the duomo and p.zza Signoria...

full on duomo.

this is the duomo! from ponte michelangelo on the other side of the river.

Neptune...

this one is for britta! this is neptune.... in piazza signoria.

the market by S. Lorenzo

market!

5 minutes from my hostel is the outdoor market with countless vendors selling lots of

things... handbags, scarves, shoes... lots of "leather"... it is a pretty incredible sight.

roated chestnuts!

this is one of my new favorite foods.

zoe and the duomo.

i go there everyday.

bread and fresh pasta

i made that pasta.

perugia market

really great specialty market for the holidays in perugia, umbria

roman gelati.

1/2 chocolate, 1/2 coconut. SOOO good.

forums

kind of terrifying...

colessium.

rome

my florentine apartment.

i have been in florence for a week!

i have been living i this little hostel close to san marco. i am a five minute walk from S.Lorenzo.
there is a funky- little market less than five minutes in the other direction.
i go to the duomo every day.
i like the views of florence from ponte michelangelo and the top of the duomo.
there is REALLY good homemade gelato in the piazza della signoria.
there's a 1€ shop down the street that sells drinkable vino rossa.
i made a dutch friend and we have been exploring cheap pizza+beer options.
there is a kick-ass specialty foods market place with lots of amazing vendors.. selling every italian treat including trippa (no thanks), truffles, fancy oil, fresh pasta, pig heads, crazy chocolates, sun dried tomatoes, wine wine wine, olives! ...
i mostly go upstairs to the vegetable market to buy kilos of clementines for 1.5 € from a cute, VERY italain old woman.

i kind of feel like i could live here... ?

it is great to walk by cathedrals and sculpture on the way to the grocery store.

just kidding! change of plans. back to florence!

things i really like:

waldorfian feeling farmers markets in perugia

(perugia in general...)

roasted chestnuts sold by street vendors

UMBRIA! gorgeous country side
bread
making bread
making fresh pasta!
eating lots of mandarin oranges
chocoalte being considered a perfectly normal breakfast item
i even like mucking out ditches in the pouring rain, removing irrigation systems from muddy vegetable gardens that have been trashed by porcupines and wild boars... and sorting-"cleaning" grains of spelt for 3 hours... and collecting fire wood in the rain!

BUT due to an unfourtanate dynamic with the baker i was working for, i am happily and unexpectedly back in FLORENCE!!! i decided i am not in italy to be treated like crap. and florence is just way better than the situation i was in!!

so, i am up for a week of getting lost in more museums and streets filled with christmas lights, day trips to... ? anywhere?

and hopefully i learned enough from the baker to make you some really amazing sour dough bread.

cheers.

i got on a train this morning from orvietto to firenze and booked a hostel upon arrival.

a piece of NoHo in rome????

jesus cristo.

in the morning it was over cast, i revisited a few of my favorite things and then went to a PICASSO exhibit right be the roman forums and piazza venizia!

one of the first paintings in the exhibit was a painting on loan from Smith College in Northampton, MA!!!! I wrote a in-depth paper on this painting ... so i knew it right away. crazy... it blew my mind to walk into a museum in rome and see something from NoHo.

the whole exhibit was fantastic. there were so many paintings from private collections- and things i had never seen before. there werte a LOT of his etchings... and a copy of one of his invitations to a showing of his work from way back... posters and old news articles...

going to this show was one of the coolest things i have done.

i can't believe one day i can be at the sistine chapel, and then a couple days later at a picasso exhibit.

tomorrow i head to perugia where i stay for a night and then meet marcello at a market on sunday.

marcello is a farmer rom terni- in umbria. i will be with him until almost christmas? i am looking forward to meeting him. he grows spelt and makes bread. i will be making bread... i am really excited. and i will be going to market with him! and probably collecting firewood?


so... WOW.

gladiators and time travel

HOLY SHIT!!





rome is fabulous. despite beeing tired and a little homesick?



the last couple days were sunny and beautiful. and i walked all over the place. yesterday morning i headed straight for the colessium. i can't handle how INCREDIBLE it is to be standing inside. and how terrifying it would be to be a gladiator. you know they through people out there naked to the lions? or with a shield and spear? the place is huge and i think it is the closest thing to time travleing that i have ever done.

post the colessium, i headed right across the street to the palatine and forums. JESUS. i went to what is left of "casa di agusto" WHAT??? ... and then walked up, up, up to the top of something- through a hedge maze- garden, and found myself way up high at a cliff like overlook- practically in the center of the forums- looking across rome, to the colessium and down at the rest of the forums - pieces of columns and statues and arches... hot damn.

then to piazza spanga, the spanish steps, and galleria borghese- feel in love with sculpture again... and was exhausted by 3 in the afternoon.

i have been eating my fair share of pasta and gelato.

i met a girl from australia at the hostel where i am staying, also traveling alone, and we went to dinner last night and ended up hanging out again this morning.

things aren't so bad.

vino, gelato and the sistine chapel.

after waking up in a hostel that i wasn't to excited about... i spent an incredible day exploring rome.

this is for ashley- upon arrival last night... after realizing i was in a trashy hostel, i went across the street, ate a plate of pasta, drank a glass of wine... and started walking to the colessium. on the way i ate pizza and gelato. i was feeling better about the whole situation, and now i am sure that the colessium looks really good lit up at night.


so today- i walked from 9:30 this morning until 6 o'clock tonight when i finally sat down to eat. (i had some pizza in the plaza in front of st. peter's.) my primary destination was the sistine chapel. on the way...

teatro dell opera
san carlo quattro fontane
fontana trevi
the pantheon
piazza navona
ponte sant angelica
st. peter's basilica
- michelangelo's pieta
the vatican museums
-sistine chapel twice

on the way back to my hostel... i went to the colessium and the forums... the sun was setting so i couldn't go in... but it was spectacular, and i still have a couple days.

i just keep laughing at how crazy and amazing it is to be here.

ROMA

so... after leaving padova this morning... i took a 5 .5 hour train to rome. i will be here for 4 nights...


it is beautiful here.

zoe at san marco...

here i am infront of san marco. it was closed for high tides. but it was quite the experience trudging through venice in my plasic bag like shoes... to make it to the lake- piazza di san marco.

floods in venezia.

i wish i had a kayak.

a lot of the streets had water up to my knees. but after a few hours, the water went down... and people were out and about, and shop keepers were sweeping and or pumping the water out of their shops.

padova, giotto, and venizia at high tides.

Padova-

after leaving milano, i headed east to padova to meet up with teresa. i somehow managed to talk to her on the phone in italian. she remembered who i was, remembered offering me a place to stay, and was happy to host me for a couple nights while i visited venice.

she spoiled me. first of all... i LOVE padova!- padua. it is a smallish city that seems full of italians. it isn't really a tourist spot as much as the other places i have visited. and it is FULL of incredible sights. on Drago's orders, i headed to see giotto's frescos.

i met up with teresa.. and shortly after making me at home in her little place, she took me out on the town. she wanted to show me the historic site. now she REALLY doesn't speak english. a lot of italians i have met say they don't speak english to be polite but really know some basics. teresa and i spent the night laughing and sharing a bag of roasted chesnuts from a street vendor as she showed me around the fabulous city and we tried to communicate about a few things. she is TINY. jokingly on the farm we called her little teresa. "teresina." calling her up has been one of the best decisions i have made. she is so sweet... and so welcoming. she made me wonderful dinners, gave me a set of keys to her apt., and wanted to look at an atlas with me to see where i am from.

VENICE: venizia , acqua alta. high tides.

so i had a grand plan of all the fantastic sights to see in venice. i only had a day, so i was going to be efficient. when i got off the train, i was a little surprised. i saw lots of people with plastic bags over their legs, thse funny little plastic skippers- plastic bag shoes, people barefoot with their pants rolled up over their knees, business men with no shoes on... and when i got out the front doors there was a HUGE crowd of tourist staring at the canal. apparently, it was a high tide. but i later learned that this was an unusuall high tide to reach all the way to the station. after an hour of standing with the crowd and skirting the lakes filling the streets i bought a pair of cheap skipper. i had watched every other person wearing them dump them out. but i bought some ice cream and put on some skippers and started wading through the streets with the locals. i made it to the academia... and it was closed for high tides. i decided i wasn't really going sight seeing- but checking out hilarious scenes of people dealing with the water.

everything was flooded. restaurants, cafès, prada and gucci, ... all the plazzas were lakes almost up to my knees. i made it half way across town to San Marco. it felt kind of like a pilgrimage... i stood in the middle of the lake infront of the grand cathedral and laughed about how hilarious the water was. it was really cold.. .and by this time my skippers were leaking. i had taken off my shoes and gone barfoot inside the leaky pieces of shit. but it was worth it... and quite an adventure. it was almost raining all day. local students were racing around taking pictures of the tourist- myself included- all of whom looked rediculous.

it was fabulous.

an italian thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in italy is not too bad! i missed celebrating with the extended family... but... i have to say it is hard to beat a celebration in the hilly village of costiglione di asti.

from the farm in bibbona, i made my way to the train station in a hail and thunder storm to head north to milano. i met up with tony and marlee!!!! Tony is the brother of my aunt kate, and marlee is their mother. tony is sharing this INCREDIBLE little farm house in costiglione. it is so gorgeous... i don't know where to start... it was WONDERFUl to be with them, speak some english, be with family, eat amazing food, relax. they took such amazing care of me.

i spent most of my time on the day bed with a book, occasionally getting up to make more tea, eat a cookie, or add a log to the fire.

for thanksgiving, i helped marlee make pumpkin pies, icebox cookies and prep some veggies. it was a feast.

the town is the perfect size. i can't believe the place exists... it was such a treat to be a part of their thanksgiving and time at the house.

zoe goes to sea

il mare. the sea!

while walking with marina on the coast. near their farm.

if you want an idea of where this is... on a map- it is south of livorno, on the west coast of italy. look for cecina south of livorno... just south of cecina is the small village of bibbona.

farmer zoe

so... my last few days on the farm were incredible. a few days before i left, not knowing whether i would have another day off, they told me that the last day and a half i would have free to go to the sea... or Pisa ... or wherever i would like. so after working a saturday morning, i asked marina if i could take a bike to the sea. but the tires were flat, so she offered to drive me. (which ended up being fantastic.) we got to il mare and she said " now which way do we walk?" ... so we walked for about an hour on the beach. not saying much, but picking up stones together and laughing about the situation. it was a grey overcast day with dramatic clouds and the sea looked greyish green. it was so beautiful.

after the sea, she drove me to bibbona vecchia- old bibbona, and we walked around the town. it was such a beautiful little village on a steep hill. at the top was a "tipico" \ typical tuscan panorama. so... it was gorgeous.

she is so sweet.

the next day, georgio drove me to the train station really early. i was headed for Pisa and Lucca. it was a sunday, and the office at the station was closed. i didn't have the right change, and giorgio takes off smiling to find something nearby and open that could make some change for me. he is absolutely hilarious... so after getting on the wrong train, getting to pisa eventually and discovering there are no trains to lucca on sundays- i found a bus station.

luca is spectacular. it is a walled city about a 45 minute bus ride from Pisa. i spent most of the day wandering around disregarding my map and finding churches. it was beautiful and perfect for getting lost.

after walking around the wall and checking out Cathedral of San Martino, i headed back to Pisa. the piazza with the leaning tower and duomo and bascillica are fabulous. i took some pictures and headed back to the crowded streets where all the shops and cafes that had been closed around midday were hopping. there was some kind of christmas fair going on and toms of people out.

i had some incredible chocolate and coconut gelato and got back on the train for cecina- bibbona.

THEN ... the next day after sweet goodbyes, i headed to milano to meet up with tony and marlee for an italian thanksgiving!

the FARM

this is part of their farm.

verduras and olivè

the tallest plants on the left are fennel. to the right you will find rows of just about everything else including kale, cavolofiore- cauliflower, beets, broccoli, lots of kinds of lettuce, eggplant, peppers, tomato, basil, parsley, green beans,

reddish green beans...

in the background on the right are some of the olive trees! they have 300. this is where 230 of them are. 70 are near the house.

15 km past this field is il mare - the sea.

Olivé...

THE OLIVES!!

this is drago... in the van with 39 cazi (boxes) of olivè (olives)... and two empty containers for the oil. the olives are organic. only 15 % of the olive turns into oil. this wa about a

weeks worth of picking? he took me with him to the fattorolio... olive pressing factory. it was FANTASTIC. So many fucking olives.

the fam!

this is my AMAZING italian family.

Marina, Guiglia, and Giorgio (Drago)

clara, MARINA, and teresa!!

these are some of my italian aunties!!! in the middle is Marina! she was my host mother on the farm in bibbona. i lived with her family for ... 2 and a half weeks. on the right is tesesa! (terezina = little teresa)

teresa is giorgio's aunt. (giorgio is marina's husband\ my olive picking buddy)

clara is the one on the left! she is teresa's friend.

teresa and clara were at the farm when i arrived. they drove down from padova and wherever clara lives nearby to help with the harvest. neither speak a word of english but were SO sweet to me. teresa invited me to padova ( a 20 minute train ride from vencie.) i just spent 2 nights with her after my INCREDIBLE thanksgiving in costiglione di asti with marlee and tony!

days off

i don't know where to start...

basically, things are great.

i am back in florence for my two days off from the farm. it was supposed to be yesterday and today- but giorgio changed it so the sunny days would be work days. ...

i arrived in cecina on ... thursday the 6th? my train arrived 1º2 hour late and marina was there waiting for me. we knew who each other were right away. she said something to me in italian and i shook my head... - no italiano? oh.. no es un problama por mi. por tu? maybe...

the farm is run by marina and giorgio. they are AMAZING. they have a daughter, guilia, and a dog rudy. and lots of family and friends who appear to help seemingly randomly to me.

giorgio- speaks no english but he is very animated, gestures wildly, is hilarious, and i understand enough od was he says to me to get things happening. and when i don't understand him- he is so funny anyway that it doesn't matter.i am mostly with him in the olive orchard. he is 59, climbs olive trees like a monkey, is always smiling, humming and laughing. he drinks so much wine at lunch and dinner. he often pours it into his soup or cous cous and calls it water. he is so fucking funny. he looks like how i would picture leonardo di vinci. he has unkempt hair and a crazy beard. he is little and has very bright eyes. he makes fun of me in the best possible way. he told me i was an american baby for putting wine in a glass that still had water in it. when i reached for the white wine last night, he said (in italian) wine, you know? tonight you sing!!!!

marina- she is fantastic. she somehow seems to do as much or more work than i do on the farm, cook all the meal, wash cloths and work the vegetables. she is funny. i have had a cold... marina gives me asprin and a hot water bottle to sleep with while giorgio encourages me to eat cookies. ( bene por tu refreiendo) good for your cold.

guiglia- she is 18 and little. she is super nice and she speaks some english . she is in the last year of italy's equivalent to high school. the main thing she says to me is understand??? she comes home for lunch and is done with her day. at meals the tv is always on and it is always in italian. i might be able to pick out a couple words or manage to figure out the subject of the show.


other wwoofer- a few days max arrived. he is great. he is from northern italy, works on a vineyard and speaks english pretty well. it has been nice to be able to talk to him a little. mostly about olives. and how many fucking olives there are. he would say ' santa maria!!!' (so many fucking olives). i had know idea how old he was. he is 37? i would have guessed anywhere from 25 to 35. he recently planted 100 olive trees and is at this farm for a week to learn about olives. within the first 5 minutes of picking olives together he said ' i ask me- why do i plant oliva?' ' i go home and cut them all down!'

the work- sometimes we do different things in the morning than in the afternoon. mostly- OLIVESSS!!!!! they have 300 trees. a couple days ago, max and i worked 4 hours and did 2 and a half trees... there are these pickers- a long pole rith some rotating spike like things on the end . you kind of comb the tree and it rains olive. they are tiny and mostly blackish purple. then you pick most of the olives around the bottom of the tree by hand or with a little bright orange comb like tool. you have to be careful not to step on the olives. there is usually a hand held radio nearby that plays a funky mix of american 'pop', random classic oldies or remakes- and ilalian vibratos . it is fun. the work is really hard, but not according to marina.


i wish i felt up to helping fix meals- but i am exhausted, and marina is so efficient that i would just be in the way.

breakfast is mostly really black coffee that is hard to drink, cracker like little pieces of bread, honey, and maybe a pieces of sweet bread. i am not to into breakfast... lunch and dinner a usually huge. always bread, wine (in big plastic water bottles decanted from 25 liter jugs) , fresh olive oil made from giorgio's olives, pasta of some kind, salad... and whatever else. it is good. i have had a few things that i have never eaten or seen before. they don't seem to mind that i dont speak italian. and i dont really mind either. you kind of figure out what is essential. i have a lot of time to think.


art- i have been keeping a drawing journal. gail and sofie cut up 150 pieces of postcard size paper and every day i make a little drawing and notes about the day.


internet access- i am not sure if i really have internet access at the farm. i have used the phone once. it is nice not to constantly be around and checking a computer. it is easier to just not ask and not worry about it.


well- i will write more before returning to bibbona- (livorno= region, cecina = major town where i take the train to to get to the farm, bibbona= smaller town outside of cecina where the farm is close to)

the farm- is beautiful. it is close to the sea, but i can't see it. i can smell it and the air looks like ocean air. it is so clean and crisp and fresh. the light here is beautiful... it is truly amazing.
on the farm they have 2 green houses, a huge area of rows of all kind of vegetables. a few rows of grape vines , SO many olive tress..............



I CAN'T BELIEVE I AM IN ITALY!!!!!!!!!!


love you all and thinking of you fondly.

more soon,
zoe


please forgive my spelling and typing.

so... i saw a LOT of incredible things today...it was a beautiful sunny day here and the perfect temperature. i decided to go on a tour (offered for free by the hostel i am staying in.) some of the things i saw on the tour:



Basilica di San Lorenzo
Palazzo Medicci Ricciardi
Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, Piazza Duomo!!!!
Pallazzo Vecchio- with an amazing sculpture garden
Galleria degli Uffizi!!!!
Bargello
casa di Dante
Chesa di S. Crocce

after the tour and some gelato and pizza (in that order) i went to the Uffizi- i saw SO many paintings! the high lights were Boticelli's Primavera, Birth of Venus, and Annunciation, Giotto's Madonna and Child, di Vinci's Annunciation, and many others...
after that i went to the Academia di Bella Arti to see the David... it is HUGE and so beautiful.

it is pretty incredible to see all of these things in person. i can't believe that i am here.

tomorrow i head to Cecina, Livorno- to a farm where i will be for a few weeks! i am not sure what my internet access will be.

i am so excited.

obama!

it was nice to wake up this morning to the buzz about obama!!! a girl from austalia congradulated me and said that she is really happy for our country.... and the world. i have only seen a couple peolpe who are upset, but for the most part everyone i have seen has been really excited.

florence!

hey gang!
i am in florence after a long couple days. my plane landed in pisa instead of florence- so that was kind of an adventure. but now i am at a hostel in the center of florence! it is dark here. i just ate pasta pomodoro while watching cnn coverage of election day in america and got offered a beer. seems just about right. the pasta sauce was perfect with big chunks of motzerella.
i am going to spend the day tomorrow cruising florence. there are some tours offered by the hostel and i have a pretty good map now. on thursday morning i will head west to livorno!
woah!

zurich

i just got to zurich+

i fly to florence in a few hours...

the plan as of 10/31

rough draft itinerary:

nov. 3rd: fly from SFO to florence via zurich
( stay in florence a couple nights)

nov. 6th: bus east to livorno

nov. 6th - 25th?: work on farm near the coast of livorno

thanksgiving! : head north to turin for thanksgiving with auntie marlee!

nov 30th?: meet Marcello in rome... head to his farm in terni/ umbria.

dec. 1st- ?: work for Marcello! / work in "bread lab" and go to markets

jan -march 4th... ?

march 4th: fly from barcelona to SFO via frankfurt