Under the Toscana sun

I dragged my ass to the Lucca treno stazione in the morning and caught the train to Pisa and switched to San Miniato where the extremely affable Marco, host of Barbialla Nuova farm, picked me up shortly. I couldn't believe I made it this far and was going to experience another 2 weeks of farm stay in the heart of Tuscany!

The grande 500-hectares property was a short 25mins ride away, surrounded by gentle hills of dry land (being ploughed for planting of wheat) interpersed with forests. In comparison with the cool climate at Casa Lanzarotti on the North Appennino Parmense hills, the weather here was extremely hot and stifling despite the breeze, and I had to constantly swat at the irritating flies and mosquitoes.

Besides rearing Chianine cows (meat for the renowned Firenze T-bone steak) and harvesting white truffles in autumn, the farm also promotes agritourism where guests can choose between self-catered cosy apartments or a large holiday farmhouse on the estate. I would share a separate house with Marco and Lorenzo (both around 35 and very easygoing chaps) who managed the farm along with Guido and Gianluca (both 30).

I had a cosy bedroom to myself and it felt like I was living on a funky campus, where we'd share the bathroom (great view by the way!), office and kitchenette. They were in no hurry to get me working on the first day, so I just relaxed and got to know them better over lunch of simple pasta, 1983 Vin Santo (made by Gianluca's grandfather) and expresso. They were really into Asian holistic treatments, so they liked my gift of jasmine-scented incense.

Later we drove past the nearby town of Montaione to buy groceries from this biodynamic farm, where I ogled at the array of plump organic vegetables, wheat products to different cheeses made from goat and cow milk. Yum. On the way back, our car zipped past the classic Toscana landscape which I remembered fondly - a patchwork of wheat and withering sunflowers, vineyards, olive and tall windbreaker cypress trees on sweeping hills. Sigh. Welcome back to Toscana, I congratulated myself.

At night, the guys prepared a welcome dinner for me consisting of mouthwatering pork ribs and thick sausages cooked over an open woodfire in the yard, accompanied with lots of local red vino, conversation and cigarettes. What a great start!