I live with my family in a big house in the country. My grandfather used to live with us but unfortunately, he passed away in May 2003, aged 94. Now we are eight altogether, we share the same table at meals and the same lifestyle. We look like a bygone household, when families belonging to the same stock and bearing the same surname lived below the same roof. When friends call on us they say they breathe the atmosphere of the 40's when living together was a powerful, positive force.
My family work on our own farm; my mother and my aunt are housewives but they help the "men" when farming needs their skill and experience.
As to myself, I work for a big company that produces ceramic tiles in the kilning department.
The estate on which my family and I live has an area of over 14 hectares, that is more than 140,000 square metres. We grow fruit trees and vines. The vineyards yield very good local wines: whites and reds, and here are their names and characteristics. Trebbiano is a bland but prolific white grape, Moscato is a deliciously musky and fragrant variety of white wine responsible for deliciously sherbety, grapey fizz, and Albana is a high classic "Vino da Tavola" (going with meals), both concentrated and sweet. As to the reds, Romagna's Sangiovese is the most widely produced on our property. It is chameleon, rich and herby or soft and tart. It is identified all over the world by its herbal edge, with notes of orange zest and tea. The intense heat of the summer days, the soil and the gentle slopes over which the vines grow are good both for whites and reds. As a consequence, vintages are generally excellent.
Our wines have been on the market for years and they have been praised by our customers so far. My grandparents used to live on the estate even before I was born. So, besides the union of my whole family, good harvest and vintages, many friends of ours remember episodes of my infancy and childhood, and it is great fun when they mention those days to me. As far as fruit growing is concerned, we have plantations of nectarine trees, peach trees and apricot trees. They are ripe from June through mid-August. They are all harvested by hand.
I live in Emilia-Romagna. The name may remind you of the beaches of Rimini, the mosaics of Ravenna , the ceramics of Faenza and "PASTA". PASTA is a "must" here . My mother and my aunt can make PASTA by hand, using fresh eggs laid by our hens scratching about on the farmyard; tomatoes and herbs for the sauce are grown in the kitchen garden not far from the house.
No cows now, but we used to have a few in their shed in the near past. Unfortunately, the high cost of fodder made us stop keeping them. I must confess that we were all sorry to do away with a piece of traditional country life, when cattle were part of the landscape all around the place. I feel as if I am living in a green Eden, and I frequently invite people to enjoy the fresh air and the peaceful panorama with me.
This excursus of the place where I live is meaningful as regards the life that I lead, the solid affections that I feel and the response that I have to nature.