A WWOOFing Experience - Finding the Heart of Italy

When my college friend Ariel told me that it was possible to live and work on a random farm in the world, I thought it had to be a scam. My whole life, I had dreamed of experiencing true cultivation from land. My family used to joke that I was a "Renaissance" girl, not just because of my love of the arts (ballet and piano girl since I was six), but because of my love of the outdoors. You could find me foraging random plants and dreaming of a reality where I really knew how to live off the land.

Ariel and I honed in on Italy as the country we would do our WWOOFing experience in. Neither of us had ever been before, and we wanted to explore the classics. We planned to visit Florence, Rome, Venice, and Slovenia on a mini Italian-ish tour following our WWOOFing. We then reached out to several farms on WWOOF, made a final choice, booked our flights, packed our bags, and left for Italia.

Around 20 hours after leaving home, I found myself at a train station in Stradella, a town in the province of Pavia, an area in Lombardy very close to the Emilia Romagna border. We were immensely nervous, stomachs churning, worried and hoping that our upcoming experience would be positive.

We were picked up from the train station by our host's husband Andrea, in a tiny and old grey Fiat Punto. I remember a flicker of fear as I hauled my big backpack into the boot (aka trunk) that I was simply getting into a car with a random man. He didn't speak any English, so we exchanged sentences using a translator app. As we drove, the flat landscape suddenly burst into rolling hills—all of vineyards. The hills were bathed in fog, and were barely lit by the light of dusk. Andrea told us that the weather was not so good today, "but when the sun comes out, time stands still."

He was right. Over the next three weeks, life was simply magic. We would wake up around 6:30 am, enjoy a morning Moka pot coffee, eat something sweet (breakfast the Italian way), then make our way out to the fields. We would pull off the old unwanted parts of the vines, using shears to help us. Ariel and I met three other women WWOOFers during our first weeks at the vineyard, and we formed a special bond. We loved working in the same rows of vines together, close for conversation, laughs, and singing to music. It's so hard for me to describe the feeling of being out there - standing on the hill, the sun shining in the sky and the fresh breeze whistling past. The vineyard hills were so majestic and seemed to bathe in the bright sun. To be fair, not all days were this basked in sunlight, but there is also something to be said about the foggy days. It would feel like you were stuck in this little special world, in the middle of nowhere.

After work, we would walk into the wine cellar where our host, Lucia, served us the most delicious and filling lunches. We would be greeted with steaming bowls of pasta, risotto, ragù, or soup... and that was only the first course! Lunch would last at least an hour and a half, but usually even more time. We would sit and eat, drink the delicious wine, share stories, and laugh. These lunches truly hold some of the most special moments of the trip.

I know that we were extremely lucky for this place to have been our first WWOOFing experience. It ticked all the boxes and exceeded my expectations by miles and miles. Although I am limited in my time as a WWOOFer, I do have some honest tips to share for those who are going to WWOOF for the first time:

• Build your community: If there are other WWOOFers where you are staying, do your absolute best to get to know them. You never know when you'll find lifelong friendships, and experiences are almost always better when you are sharing them with others!
• Expect the slump: You will most likely have days where you are "over" the work you are doing. It's natural, and don't let it discourage you.
• Make sure to take the time to rest: This was my first experience where I had to get used to being okay with doing nothing. Usually, when you're on a one-week trip you scramble to be on your feet, get things done, and see as much as possible. WWOOFing isn't about that... embrace the quiet!
• Try all the foods you can: It's funny how attitudes towards foods you don't like can change. Before coming to Italy, you could not see me touch any type of blue cheese. Me after Italy... absolutely obsessed with gorgonzola. I definitely will share more about the food and recipes I tried at the vineyard, traditional to the region of Lombardy.
• Appreciate the trust that a host gives you: In the fields, we used to talk about how wild it seemed that the hosts entrusted us to take care of their vines. The vines were their livelihood, and they hadn't held back in sharing the troubles they have had in recent years with the market and production. I think that the trust is something to be admired, and is such a wonderful aspect of WWOOFing.

I have much more to say about this experience, and want to share even more about my time in Italy. I will be posting more about the different cities I explored, along with my loose guidance and recommendations, and of course, many, many words about yummy food. Stay tuned for much more about Italia!