Thursday, Ocotber 22, 2009 Sora

I bailed on market day today. Woke up and it was raining with thunder and lightening. So I am catching up on blogging and attempting to download photos.

** If ANYONE can tell me a quicker way to upload photos to any site (flickr, OffExploring) I would appreciate it. It's been two hours already and I am only halfway thru my first of two memory cards. At this rate I might not get photos downloaded till I am home, which means I will have to buy more memory cards or something.

I arrived in Sora night before last after a horrendous day of travelling. I was to take three trains: one from Perugia to Rome, one from Rome to Roccasecca, and one from Roccasecca to Sora. The gals at the tourist office in Perugia were very helpful and so was the lady at ticketing at Perugia's train station. However when I got to Rome, a horrible man directed me to a different platform from the one I knew I should be on. This got me off to a hour long delay that turned into more than two hours when I got to Roccasecca and found that the next train was not running and I would have to take a bus one hour later. When I tried to call the farm, we had a poor connection and she couldn't hear me. Finally I got the bus driver to use his cellphone and call the farm. We got it all sorted out, but I arrived two and a half hours later than planned, cold, hungry and feverish. However, when I walked into that kitchen with all its wonderful smells and guests sitting all around passing wine and fresh made bread and soup, I felt much much better.

I'm rooming with two volunteers here at the farm: Sara from Sydney, and Meghan from San Francisco. They have both exchanged labor for accomodations and food and have been here a couple of weeks. I also met Joe (from US) and Ollie (UK) who have been here for a month and two months respectively and in much more rustic conditions: a campsite with no hot water , no electricity and a very shaky roof.

Yesterday, my first day here, I went into town with Linda and Guiseppe to track down some antibiotic for me. Very cheap Amoxicillin and no scrip needed. Then I came back here to enjoy the one day of sunshine, do some laundry (and hang it out to dry) and walk up to the boys' camp for a visit. Read in the hammock, took a few photos and later, Linda took some of us to meet the local shepherd and watch him make peccorino and ricotta. could have bought some, but don't know where I would put it. Had another wonderful home cooked meal, and a fairly sound sleep, considering all the snuffling and hacking I did.

Later today, mama Maria will show me and another guest how to make home made pasta. In the meantime, it looks like lunch might be ready soon, so I'm going to log off and try this photo upload later.

I've made my reservations for Naples in two days and hopefully will be feeling well enough for another couple of days of touristy stuff.