My husband, Pino, and I moved to Umbria, a region in Italy, in 1975, with very little money but a lot of determination and will. We wanted to work the land, experience rural Umbria. We rented an old stone farmhouse with a terracotta roof on eight acres of land behind Mt. Subasio which backdrops Assisi.
The road up to the house through our woods was impassable, after years of abandonment. We parked our old Gilera 150 motorcycle at the bottom of the hill and walked up with the groceries on our shoulders. The house had no electricity (which we put in after a month), no indoor bathroom and no running hot water. There was no central heating, just a huge fireplace in the kitchen. A wood-burning stove supplemented the kitchen heat, and we cooked on it. With no heat in the bedrooms, bedwarmers took the icy chill off the sheets in the winter.
Our first animal was a pregnant sheep, my birthday present from Pino. She was old, lame, arthritic… and cheap. But she gave us our first two lambs. From our farm neighbor, Peppe, came the first chicken, as thanks for helping him prune his vineyard (which is how we learned to prune ours).
Marino and Chiarina gave us a pregnant rabbit (that led to a lot of rabbits!) as thanks for helping them prune their olive grove (…and so we learned to prune ours).
Each season had its tasks. Every spring, we sheared our sheep and I washed the wool down in the creek with my farm women neighbors. After the wool was carded in Assisi, a neighbor made our quilts, mattresses, and pillows.
Summertime was for haying and threshing, and fall brought mushroom-hunting, the grape harvest, the tastings of the first new wines with roasted chestnuts and later, the olive-picking. Every January, the butcher came and one of the pigs was turned into prosciutto, capocollo, sausages, salami, and lard. My neighbors made their soap from the lard!
Pino plowed and planted all our land, chopped the firewood, and milked the goats and sheep to make the cheeses. Feeding and caring for the sheep, fowl, rabbits, and pigs was one of my jobs, along with the splitting of firewood, making of the pasta and putting up what came out of the vegetable garden.
We both had outside jobs to supplement our lack of income from the land. Pino went to work with the stonemasons and is now considered the best in Assisi in the restoration of rural architecture, his skill made evident in the restoration of our farmhouse. He has a team of 14 who work with him. I started teaching English. Our businesses grew, three children came along, and the animals gradually “disappeared”.
My only regret: I was too tired at night in those days to keep a diary as “Under the Umbrian Moon” would have been a good read. And I should have written about our years on the land as a tribute to our farm neighbors, those givers of the greatest gifts.
Today, my blog and website www.annesitaly.com are my living journal. Over the years I’ve served my home, the wonderful Umbrian region, by teaching others about its vast contributions to the Italian landscape and culture. I’ve created and hosted countless tours across the heart of Italy allowing my guests to truly immerse in the Italian Umbrian culture. Let me open your eyes to the wonders of the “Green Heart of Italy” and discover with me its hidden treasures.
Anne Robichaud has been a contributing author to La Gazzetta Italiana for the past 10 years. We are grateful for the knowledge and expertise she has shared with our readers. For more information on Anne’s Italian Guided Tours and Virtual Experiences, visit www.annesitaly.com.
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