passeggiata

Now that my classes are over, learning Italian has become a much different venture. While the kids are at school, my days are filled with trying to find opportunities (big and small) to speak Italian. One of my favorite ways to do this is a weekly walk with my friend Lucia. She lives on the same hill we do, only way at the top and facing the other direction. For the last two weeks we have walked around on the ridges at the top of our hill, and this week we walked to the nearby organic dairy farm and 'agroturismo' (a farm with restaurant and inn that offers food mostly grown/raised on site, but everything coming from the region- it's a phenomenon that's helping small farmers stay viable in today's Italian market). The proprietors invited us in for a tour and some coffee. The best part was that I got to meet the cows who give us our milk everyday- once or twice a day they bring their milk down to Monterenzio to stock up the automatic milk stand we frequent (see pictures from September blog).
The pictures I've included here are of the panoramic view at the top of our hill. They were taken a couple months back and show Maddy and Gus with the Lucia & Luciano's girls, Giulia and Emma. It has barely rained since these pictures were taken in August, so the hills are starting to look pretty yellow and grey. This is unusual. As my landlady says, it's frighteningly dry. Nonetheless, we are getting a little fall color and I can't complain a bit about the temperatures- we've been steadily in the mid to upper 20's during the day (that's 75-80 farenheit)