On their way up north, Aurora and Luca stopped for a month in Abruzzo, at two different farms: at Francesca and Christopher’s (Fattoria Rural Resilience) and at Salvatore and Rita’s (La Capra Fenice). They are greeted by a real, unpretentious farming world: not only the beauty of the animals and the authenticity of the food, but also the hard work and commitment to untangle unforeseen events, bureaucracy, and family needs. When the poetry of the countryside meets the low, earthy reality of everyday farm life, WWOOFing can truly become an important school of life.

“Luca and I are traveling by van around Italy wwoofing. We will share our days with shepherds, farmers, and peasants. We will follow them in the fields, dine at their tables, exchange stories. Why? We would like to create something of our own, and the best way to go deeper we believe is by learning from those who are already doing it and living it daily. A little month in each Italian region, we start in the South and slowly work our way up. We have just been in Abruzzo.”

“As a child I had a tactile booklet about the farm in which all the animals had a raised part made of fur or wool or scales that taught me to become familiar with textures. It was a nice little book, with the rooster smiling, the cow grazing in the green grass, with the pink piglets in the mud puddle and the horse behind the white fence, with the tall tall silo and a red house and a warm barn and a smiling white dog as guardian.

In this plain between the Maiella and the Gran Sasso with the golden fields of wheat it was really like being in one of those little books there, with the animals scattered a little bit here and a little bit there each in its most suitable environment, each with its fur of wool or feathers or scales, with the ever-present beee or chickling that is the soundtrack to a place that really for a moment I saw a pig smile.”

“However. These two weeks here have made us think a lot about the importance of starting projects with people you love and respect. As a woofer, it makes a difference to be a guest in a house filled with harmony and fellowship or to be a guest in a house where there is no communication but only contrast, conflict and strife. It leaves us without energy and saddens us. But also: it strengthens us. It makes us look into each other’s eyes and feel our love, trust and mutual respect instead.”