Happy times

I was going to use today's post to rant about coffee in this country, but then I went horseback riding and I can't muster the anger any more. It felt really good to be in the saddle again. I think it's been over six years since I last went riding, but it felt totally natural to do it today. We took a loop around the mountain that the house is perched on. The name of the horse I rode is Furia, which I'm pretty sure translates to "fury." I was nervous at first to be on him, but I realized that my nervousness was causing me to tense my legs, which translated into "go faster" for the horse. I forced myself to relax and had a much easier time controlling him afterward. Simone, one of our host's sons, was all about gallopino (cantering) and pretty much had us charging down every flat-ish section of the trail. It was exhilerating, to say the least. Hopefully we will go again at least once more before Josh and I leave.

Speaking of leaving, we have to vacate the premises by the 15th, but our next farm can't take us until the 18th. We've decided to spend three days in Florence, which is the closest large city to the next farm. So far our plans include visiting the Uffizi gallery, the archeological museum and trying to pick one of the other dozen or so museums in the city for our third day. The choices are difficult, as at least three of them have really famous works of art and the others just sound cool. And there's some Roman ruins on the outskirts of town, neighborhoods filled with artisans' shops, beautiful churches to peek into, and restaurants galore...In three days, we'll probably just barely scratch the surface of what Florence has to offer.

I will miss the food on this farm, but not the work. Our mornings generally consist of shoveling horse shit and our afternoons are spent cutting thick weeds on steep hills with scythes, which sounds a lot more epic than it actually is. Tomorrow, however, our host is making Frita Mista, FRIED MIXED DINNER. She has promised that every course of the meal (meat, vegetables, and dessert) will be fried. I await this experience with mixed feelings of delight and dread. The regimen of traditional Piemontese food on this farm is making us fat.