After supper and night prayers in the chapel Belvedere showed me to my room and bade me "buona notte". There was one weakly lit light bulb hanging from a wire over a desk so I could make out somewhat that , apart from the desk , the other pieces of furniture at my disposal consisted of one wobbly wicker chair , a huge heavy-set wardrobe with two swinging doors above and two drawers in the lower section.... ah yes , and one horizontal slab of wood mounted on four iron legs and covered with a " paillasse" or sack full of new mown hay plus a blanket.. so I guessed this to be the bed and straightforth flopped into the latter and sped off to dreamland .
The following morning.. around 11 o'clock I surmise .. I awoke to the steady yet loud beats of distant drums from somewhere below me resounding through the corridors and into my room. I later learned that it was simply the cook , Brother Luigi , beating the hell out of dead animal body parts with a mallet... or as we politely put it nowadays... tenderizing the meat.. for the evening meal. We only got meat once a week and that day was THE day !
So feeling a bit scruffy I went out of my room looking for a toilet and there I immediately bumped into Padre Roberto who kindly indicated that the main bathroom for my floor was just across from my abode and that once I got cleaned up and had a bite to eat he would graciously take me to where the students were hanging out. So when spruced up I found my way out the front door makeshift sandwich in hand to where the chubby little priest was waiting for me beside the college limousine.. a two-seater Lambretta scooter and down the mountainside we flew skirts a flying .. both his and mine.. oh! I forgot to tell you that I was a Catholic seminarian back then.. until we arrived on level ground in the Pianura or Plains. From there through Camucia on dirt roads we meandred at slower speed for maybe one half hour until we came to a huge mortar and rock 15th century building and then Padre Roberto explained that the students were all here working in the college vineyards as it was "vendemmia" time .. the big moment in the year when grapes for new wines were harvested. He invited me to take off my habit (cassock) , roll up my sleeves , handed me a knife , fitted me out with a cone-shaped basket with straps which I was to carry like a packsack and pointed to the slave labour force off in the distance.
When the students saw me coming.. like the old phrase , " They saw you coming!".. they burst out laughing.... now they saw what I had been hiding under my cassock... North American clothes.... shoes with socks as opposed to sockless sandals , jeans in a jeanless Italy at that time plus my Bugs Bunny Tee-shirt and beret whereas they were doomed to wearing the old heavy felt Roman hats . As a child I had always wanted to grow up to be as clever as Bugs , as kind as Porky Pig without the stutter and Elmer Fudd without the lisp, as wily as Daffy Duck and much brighter and as likeable a guy as poor Sylvester Cat. So since there was only friendly laughing and no guffaws and given my "jocular" and jovial disposition I laughed along with my comrades. They thereupon told me that food was on the way and that we would be eating right there picnic style in the vineyard.
Not long after this we spotted three rather beautiful young girls coming towards us .... one bearing a huge basket brimming over with hot "homegrown" spaghetti , the second toting a big tray full of dishes and ustensiles while the third , a slightly smaller wee maiden carried an armful of loaves of bread. The spaghetti had been prepared at the main farmhouse where two families lived and worked the land for the college owners receiving a certain percentage of the harvest each crop season for their labours and the right to live there freely... almost like being catapulted back to the days of feudalism where the fiefs worked for the landlords and recieved their protection and certain rights in return. No exchange of money at all !!
However , after a copious meal we worked our fannies off until roughly 6 o'clock when Padre Canuto , the Father Superior , arrived "on" his limo.. a Vespa scooter... to signal the workday over and the beginning of the long 15- kilometer trek back up the mountain to the monastery. He was a comical guy who reminded me of Jackie Gleason.. except much fatter..and on that Vespa even looked hilarious. SO we put our knives back in their sheaves and helped load the big truck which the college had rented for transportating the grapes back home where they would undergo fermentation in huge vats in our wine cellar. Then we set out for San Alfonso.
After such a long day we were all hungry so we did justice to the meat that night along with ample servings of potatoes accompanied by a delicious full-bodied Tuscan red wine to wash it all down.. and , of course , the five fresh figs for dessert! Followed night prayers and lights out ... Deo gratias !!
P.S. When looking over the Calcinaio Church and to the right up the mountain you can see the college.
No comments:
Post a Comment