Finally, I'm going to get a chance to pick and press some olives. Another thing that is highly dependent on the season. Now that I'm here, I'm not going to miss out.
Not only will the olive oil be extra virgin, it will be extra fresh because I will be standing there watching it come out of the press. With bread in hand. The food mile will be the length of my arm. It doesn't get any better than this.
The farm is a long way from Rimini. It's on the other coast. I would be on a slow train from 9 to 4 in the afternoon. But it is a nice farm, so it would be worth the long journey. Plus, they were very nice over the emails. It will be worth it. I triple checked all the connections and made sure I read the bus schedule right. There was no going wrong. As long as I made the last bus, I would be fine. The farm will pick me up from the bus station, I will be 'home' safe by day's end and then I can crash.
The cheapest ticket required 3 train connections, of which I was skeptical of making. I had only 15mins between each one. Italian train delays are unavoidable - it goes from 5 minutes to who knows? So I was very glad to have made every single one of my connection and arrived at Grosseto for the final 2 hour bus ride. Only to be told this at the bus station :
"No. Oggi no. Oggi festa." No bus to Pitigliano today. It's a holiday.
E Lunedi, no?! It's not Sunday, it's Monday, no? (Holidays and Sundays are lumped together on bus schedules as 'festa')
Festa di Ognissanti. Pitigliano domani mattina. Oggi no. All Saints Day. Tomorrow morning, there is a bus.Today no.
I called the farm.
Sorry, you have to stay a day in Grosseto. It's a holiday. There are no buses from anywhere. Take the bus tomorrow. We pick you up.
It was either take a train all the way back to Florence to the hostel I have come to know so well or pay a bit more and stay in a hotel there. I was too tired to get on another 3 hour train ride and take a long walk to the hostel. So I stayed at a hotel right by the station. This is how I ended up having to splash out on a night in Grosseto.
All because of the Saints.
