A reason why I want to travel lots and lots and lots.

“Adventure is a path. Real adventure — self-determined, self-motivated, often risky — forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind — and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing willever again be black-and-white.”

–Mark Jenkins

Oh wine....

After a weekend of picking grapes it only makes sense to drink as much wine as possible. Although Lorenzo sent us each home with 5 bottles of wine, we had to visit the Florence Wine Festival. For 10 euro you can try pretty much every wine they have, which was way too many... But it is really a great festival and it takes place in Piazzas all over the city, the main one being right by the Pitti Palace!

"People travel to far away places to watch, in Fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home"

 There are a lot of things I want to say about Italy but right now I'm particularly excited about grapes. This weekend I went to Follonica (right on the coast!) to pick grapes on a vineyard called Podre san Cristoforo. We all fell in love with Lorenzo, the owner of the winery, after he constantly showed us a great time. He kept us up all night stuffing us with food, wine, and two deserts in the company of his many friends. Finnaly, by 1:00AM he took us for a hike to a beautiful castle overlooking the sea! If only I could explain in words how wonderful this experience was.

But we also had to work very hard from 5:00AM-5:00PM picking grapes. I think that day was the stickiest I've ever been in my life. We picked in pairs, I picked with a guy named Dennis and we worked next to a couple from Genova, Stefano and Debora. Stefano has done a lot of travelling. Years ago he travelled the whole US and Mexico by motorcycle and his wife Debora travels often to play piano in various countries! They were very inspiring.

Lorenzo testing the sugar of the grape juice.

Lorenzo, Debora, Stefano.


Sunrise on the vineyard.

www.poderesancristoforo.it