Not much has changed

If you're going to be climbing a lot of stairs, I highly recommend eating plenty of oats. It seems to make it a lot easier.

[bower]

Amazing pix and story Ozone.
That terrace below your cousin's house reminds me of scattered farming in the Andes... used to joke they had a special breed of animals with two legs short and two long ones.
The isolated communities here in NL have pretty well all been resettled, but it wasn't that long ago, the rural areas were all alike with no amenities. Goats, my mom grew up with them, I think cows and cows milk were pretty rare in that (northern) area due to lack of pasture. No grapes, tomatoes, olives etc here! I just love the terrace design for gardening in the Italian mountains. Simply beautiful!

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by shule1

If you're going to be climbing a lot of stairs, I highly recommend eating plenty of oats. It seems to make it a lot easier.

Carbohydrates=pasta.

Worth

[Worth1]

""One thing common, no where in Italy do they eat ragu on spaghetti and meatball like here. They eat spaghetti and they eat meatball, but not together on the plate like we do here.""

The last time I had spaghetti was with garlic black pepper olive oil and mackerel.

Worth

[Gardeneer]

The last time I ate spaghetti w/ meatball was 3 days ago .

[Father'sDaughter]

Last time I had spaghetti and meatballs together on a plate was probably back in my high school cafeteria. Come to think of it, a school cafeteria was probably the first time I encountered the two served together.

We had pasta/spaghetti and meatballs at least once a week at home, but the pasta was the first course and the meatballs were the second course. Salad was the third course, cheese was the fourth course, and fruit was served last. Cookies/cake were only served with coffee when we had company.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

Last time I had spaghetti and meatballs together on a plate was probably back in my high school cafeteria. Come to think of it, a school cafeteria was probably the first time I encountered the two served together.

We had pasta/spaghetti and meatballs at least once a week at home, but the pasta was the first course and the meatballs were the second course. Salad was the third course, cheese was the fourth course, and fruit was served last. Cookies/cake were only served with coffee when we had company.

Yeah and Ragu isn't a jar of tomato sauce.
Worth

[luigiwu]

Living in NYC is such a rat race and pictures like you've shown are what/where I long to me... I still need to figure out what the REAL middle ground for me is, because I'm honestly not strong enough to do everything manually... but by doing everything manually, there is such honesty and truth in that... Italy is just amazing...

OH and can you talk a bit about the practice of hanging up tomatoes and what looks like squash?

[Father'sDaughter]

I really think I would be incredibly happy living an on-the-grid homesteader type of lifestyle.

In other words, having things like electricity, heat, running water, the Internet, but spending my days growing, processing, preserving, baking almost everything we would eat.

Right now I have to fit in what I can around my work schedule.

[MuddyToes]

I'm from Appalachia. My mother grew up without running water, and no shoes until she was six. I have a lot of respect for my grandfather who was able to raise six children in those harsh winters in West Virginia. He farmed and foraged for their food. My hometown is also very beautiful, but not as gorgeous as your photos of Italy. I would love to visit. Thanks for sharing!!

[OzoneNY]

Originally Posted by luigiwu

Living in NYC is such a rat race and pictures like you've shown are what/where I long to me... I still need to figure out what the REAL middle ground for me is, because I'm honestly not strong enough to do everything manually... but by doing everything manually, there is such honesty and truth in that... Italy is just amazing...

OH and can you talk a bit about the practice of hanging up tomatoes and what looks like squash?

Yes it is squash, among other things, onion tomato etc. Hanging is simply a matter of storing things out of the way. The place in this photo , they have no storage, it was literally a shack along a hiking path. So they hang it up, all out of they way

[nancyruhl]

I don't know how I missed this thread which is so very interesting. I believe we walked through Nocelle to hike a ways along The Path to the Gods a few years back. It is nice to have this insight into the area, which did look idyllic. Our calfs were pretty sore after walking down those steps to Positano, however.

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by nancyruhl

I don't know how I missed this thread which is so very interesting. I believe we walked through Nocelle to hike a ways along The Path to the Gods a few years back. It is nice to have this insight into the area, which did look idyllic. Our calfs were pretty sore after walking down those steps to Positano, however.

I missed it the first time around so I'm glad you bumped it. The pictures are amazing; great read!

[NarnianGarden]

Yes, the pictures are amazing.
I have been to Italy for holidays and yes, the countryside is like living in a dream... It's lovely to visit, but then it's nice to come back to the boring Northern Europe, where everything runs smoothly and well organized
Having lived in some other parts of the world that were not so well organized though... one can learn to improvise anywhere and find solutions. It's good for the fighting morale. Easy comfort zones tend to make one fat and lazy

[Deborah]

Narnian, have you ever met any of the Samaai people?