Santa Reparata, where I am learning to slow down and breathe.

It took me almost a week to realize I needed to stop wearing a watch.

I've been wearing a watch (or Fitbit) consistently for almost two years, but I think for the next two weeks I'm going to take a break. Life is too relaxed here for watches.

When I say here, I'm talking about Agriturismo Santa Reparata, my home for the rest of September. The farm is tucked into the hills of Emilia-Romagna, and only a few hundred meters from the Tuscany border. When my host Martina picked me up from the station in Faenza and drove us out to the countryside, I could barely believe where I was. Even now, while harvesting tomatoes or cutting stinging nettles for pasta (yes, I did that on Wednesday) I can turn around, and BAM:

(This still doesn't capture the magnitude, but I had to keep this photo at its original size.)

Anyway, more about the Agriturismo. It is a small farm/weekend restaurant run by Martina and her boyfriend Roberto, the chef. A few hours into arrival on Friday I was put to work chopping onions and carrots to make the largest vat of ragu I have ever seen. This is my first experience working in a restaurant-type setting/commercial kitchen (other than my days at the local Hometown Pizza, 9 years ago), and so far I'm loving it. It feels great to cook again, and I'm learning a ton about regional cuisine. Over the weekend we spent our time focusing on the restaurant- I sliced bread, helped set up battilardi- sliced meats, cheese, and other accompaniments laid out on a giant board-, served dishes, cleaned up, made shots of espresso, whatever was needed. It was crazy busy, but the time went by quickly.

One scene from the hike

Monday was a different story. I moved to the small vegetable garden with another coworker, who speaks about as much English as I do Italian. We dug up potatoes and readied half the garden for winter by clearing out tomato and zucchini plants and planting cabbage and brussels sprouts. The work was slow and steady, much unlike the fast pace of the restaurant. After lunch we took a small break, and then finished around 5. Tuesday is a designated "day off", so in the morning we took a long hike and then relaxed in the afternoon. So. Much. Free. Time.

After working from 8:30am-11:00pm at American Village, I wasn't used to this much ambiguity and space in my schedule, or really lack thereof. I did not know what to do with myself, and was always waiting for the next event. Hence the decision to get rid of my watch- slowly learning to go with the flow and not worry that I need to be somewhere at all times.

In this time I've been able to do some more trip planning- posting public trips on couchsurfing and whatnot- but trying not to do anything too far into the future, other than messing around with a Schengen Calculator . The calculator is a useful tool to figure out when I can  return to Western Europe and how long I can stay over the course of 9 months to include trips to visit friends, my mother's visit in March/April, and the potential to work again at American Village next summer. Since I'm legally only allowed 90 days in a 180 day period, it's quite confusing.

I've also started reading again, and using the Hennepin County Library's e-book system, which is pretty cool. You log in with your credentials, find an e-book version of what you want to read, and it links you with Amazon Kindle or whatever device you have to download the book for three weeks. It has a greater selection than Kindle Unlimited, and is really easy to use. I'd highly recommend it.

Well, that's about it for now. I'll cover food and my attempt at learning Italian in the next post!