La Monda

We are in a truly beautiful place. The grounds are lovely and the town is a sleepy little thing a little to the east of Varese. Less than four miles away is the Swiss border, which on sunny days you can see from the back porch. The house itself is quite large, and is maintained by an anthroposophia society. (Google that, it's really quite interesting.) Our duties mostly include weeding, with a little bit of picking fruits and veggies thrown in there just to keep it interesting. The weather has been quite dreary the last two days, and I am looking forward to some more sunshine.

The "farm" is really just a glorified vegetable garden, but they certainly raise a huge variety of fruits and vegetables. I've seen apples, squash, beans, broccoli, tomatoes, grapes, figs, potatoes, hazelnuts, persimons, raspberries and more. They have a little store attached to the farm that sells their produce along with other organic groceries. Most of the food we eat comes from the farm and is generally vegetarian. We have had a couple of really good soups, though I would be hard pressed to tell you what was in them.

There is a small church perched on the side of a mountian overlooking the town. Josh and I were told that it was only a 20 minute walk away, but after 40 minutes of walking yesterday we hadn't reached it. So now we are determined to get to the place. It looks like it has a great view of the city and surrounding towns. On our walk we passed an abandoned building that was completely covered in hop vines. Maybe it is an old brewery? The next time we make a try for the church, I will bring along my camera and take pictures. The building itself is quite unusual looking.

Oh, I have so much to say and I don't know how to get it all out in a coherent fashion! That will be all for tonight, I suppose. Ciao!