Living in the land of St. Francis

The April 1 train and bus strike had a planned beginning time and a planned ending time. This seemed a little strange to us but we are not complaining. The strike ended at 9PM on that Friday so busses and trains were running as usual in Italy on April 2. The lines were a little longer since many were rescheduling their trips but overall, things ran smoothly for our travel day.

Once we were in Perugia, we found few people knew English but a young lady helped us (through pictures and hand gestures) find our way to the little local train to Todi, the largest town near the village of Montemolino where we are staying.

The house we are staying in is at least 600 years old. It looks like a small castle. Walking around the hillside property among the vineyard, olive trees, flowers, and other fruit trees, I feel like St. Francis praising the Lord for His creation. The property runs down to the Tiber River where fishermen and herons like to rest. The buds on the trees are waking up to the warm sunshine in the spring air. The songs of many birds and the rushing of the river is our music.

Our gracious hostess took us on a beautiful hike through the wooded hill up to the church along a path where people regularly gather wild asparagus. The church is placed on top of the hill is as if the hill itself was reaching up in prayer to God. The church community was very welcoming and eagerly spoke to us in Italian.

Our work started Monday. The newest vines needed to have the weeds removed around them so they will not get choked out. We started in the cool morning and worked until the early afternoon sun took over. (Our hostess is letting me borrow a sun hat) There are many rows to be worked on so this might be the majority of our work. What we don’t finish in the vineyard the son will have to finish during his Easter break so he is encouraging us strongly to get it all done.

While working on the weeds in the vineyard Bernie paused. “We are working on a vineyard in Italy.” The realization was a moment of deep appreciation. The vineyard is up on the hillside and the lush hillsides around are scattered with other gracefully aged stone buildings. The river continued on its way below us as we paused. The chorus of birds lifted our souls upward from the dirt and roots of the weeds our attention had been so wrapped up in. Working so near to where St. Francis lived and died we could feel his spiritual power drawing us ever closer to Heaven and the love of Christ.

Today we are traveling to Perugia where the family just inherited an agriturisimo hotel (a bed and breakfast on a farm). A group of people are looking to stay this week so we are off to clean it up a bit.

Ciao!

Regina