Olive Picking in Umbria, Italy

Amy and I left Rome and took a 1.5 hour train ride to Fabro, Italy where we were doing our 4th workaway.  Our hosts Helmi and Peter (a german couple from Hamburg) picked us up at the train station and we drove about 10 minutes to their vacation home.  Their house sits on a hill top from which you get pretty amazing views of Umbria.





The house is a restoration done from a ruin.  In Italy, as well as in a number of other european countries, you are allowed to build on the old footprint of a house without too much trouble, but any kind of extension requires a lot of planning permits.  The house has the main apartment upstairs where Helmi and Peter live and 2 guest apartments on the bottom floor.  Its a beautiful house and the surrounding yard is filled with olive trees, pomegranate trees, rosemary, lavendar, a pool, bacci ball court, and multiple terraces with amazing views.

After exploring the grounds we picked up the other workawayer (Kelly, an American from Tennessee) and went to have pizza with a some friends of our hosts (a New Zealand couple).  The pizza was great and Amy made it a point to tell everyone it was my birthday.  A birthday song from the restaraunt, a lot of embarrasment, and a celebratory gelato later, we headed back home and to bed.

The workaway was for Olive picking, a time intensive job, so we had free time before the harvest to explore the area.  Our first trip was to the hill town Orvieto, an Etruscan town founded around the 10th century that was used as a stronghold between Rome and Florence and had strong ties with many catholic popes.


Killing time In Fabro before our train arrived.

We arrived by train and took a tram line up the hillside to the town.


The tram ride was only 5 minutes long but still worth it.

We spent a good amount of time walking through the narrow cobblestone streets lined with quaint stone built houses, simply enjoying the sights.

Eventually we stumbled into a plaza with the Orvieto Cathedral.  The exterior is a composition of travertine and green basalt lined in rows that resemble something from the Beetlejuice movie.


Monsterous!


The front facade was beautifully decorated with carvings and frescos.

Inside we enjoyed the frescos and vaulted ceilings.  Amy snapped a few pictures, regardless of the "no photo" sign.





Afterwards we stopped for gelato and poked into a few tourist shops before taking a walk around the edge of the town.





We came across one of Orvieto's underground areas and for 2 euros we couldn't pass up a tour of it.  The chambers were carved in the stone of the hill and were used for homes, workshops, and even as a necropolis.






The well dug within the chambers, very deep.


The view from the city.

The next few days were spent helping with yard work, visiting with the family, playing Baci, and going to the natural hot spring baths in San Casciano dei Bagni.


A nice break playing Baci.


Bonfire with the family and lots of wine.


The walk down to the baths.


The baths were used by the popes...as well as hairy italians in speedos.




The little cafe with an amazing view where we had cappucino after our hot spring bath.

We also took a trip to some gardens with one of the german couples (Horst and Angelina) that had came to help with the harvest.


The geese alerted everyone to our presence and were pretty terrifying, running towards us while honking as loud as possible.


The old house on the garden grounds that use to be owned by a jewish family before they were evicted during WWII.


The house sat on the edge of a nice scenic overlook.


The estate greenhouse.


Amy in a tree tunnel.

When Monday rolled around it was time to get to the real work, 150 trees of olives to pick!




Handpicking.  I did 14 trees in 1 day using this method.


The quickest and easiest method was using nets and hand rakes.












Amy next to a 100 year old olive tree.

It took us 3.5 days and the results was 1200kg (2500 lbs) of olives which, when processed, made 175 liters of olive oil.








The oil is very green at first until it settles.




Picture of a tree we took in a nearby village while we waited for the olives to be processed.

After we took the olives to the mill we stopped over to our hosts neighbor's house.  Their neighbors include some pretty famous people, who we were asked not to mention directly from their PR group!  We got a quick tour of one of the neighbor's homes, unfortunately there are issues with security in Italy so we aren't allowed to show photos.


We took a convoluted walk back to our hosts' house which took us through a field.


It was starting to get dark and I was worried we wouldn't make it back before the light faded.  But, a dimly lit trail through the woods later, we arrived back.

Our remaining time in Umbria was spent packing and planning for the next leg of our journey.  On Saturday morning we said our goodbyes and took a train to Florence for a few days of much needed down time.