Why You Should Visit the Countryside in Tuscany #TravelLikeAPro

Another symbol of the area, obviously, is the olive tree. Here is one of the oldest trees that I have. This is massive. Yes, they used to smash olives with this. You don't move it. Not by hands. This is the vegetable garden. I call it my office. This smells great, right? Yes, this one is very good for soups. This great opportunity that you have here and visit the farms and the farmers themselves, which they can cook for you, that's a great thing to do. Now I show you a very special place here. Hello everyone. Today I'm in the beautiful countryside in Tuscany. It's called Prato Magno. And I'm gonna have a chat with Giordano. He's an old friend. He works here as a farmer. And this place can be considered like a bed and breakfast, a guest house, kind of sort. And we're gonna have a conversation about why you should consider visiting the countryside while traveling in Italy. It's not just about cities, but there are beautiful things just around the corner in the nature. So let's have a chat with him. Let's do it. Here is an amazing place. I found it a very nice place because there is a combination of agriculture, which is actually my field, you know that, and tourism, you know. People come here to visit this place and they often leave overwhelmed because they don't expect, you know, countryside to be so interesting, you know. So when you asked me to show you around, I was happy because that's what I do often. I show people, you know, why they should visit countryside. What can I say? I fell in love with agriculture. It was amazing. By yourself or? It's a mix. I think a lot of experimenting, you know, you can imagine. But also, you know, there are many people which were farming before me here. So I always like to join them when they do things, you know, exchange, share with them the knowledge, the experiments. So a lot of elderly people helped me to get better in what I was doing. Why should someone come to the countryside and visit this beauty? That's a good question. I think there are many reasons, you know, and one really come to my mind first is the authenticity, you know, of the people living here. Tuscany has become quite famous and many tourists come here. They normally choose to visit, you know, Florence, Arezzo, Siena, all the nice cities that we have here. And those cities, unfortunately, had to rearrange things according to the requests of the tourism. Obviously, the economy of tourism is a big one and is a good one. So no doubt they did the right thing. Problem is that, you know, many people had to leave those cities, you know, many people living in Florence, they decide to move out in the countryside because they can have a better lifestyle. You know, that's the reason. So if you really want to see how Italian people live, you know, it's difficult to experience that in a city. And here in the countryside, people are still, you know, more authentic, having to deal with less tourism and things like that. This is the vegetable garden. I call it my office. This is actually my office. I have a great view of the valley. So now we are in the fall. Now it's November. We have leeks, cabbages. We have still some peppers and eggplants because in Italy it's not very cold in the fall. And we have all sorts of cauliflowers, you see. This smells great, right? Yes, this one is very good for soups. People normally don't eat this part. They only eat the root of it. But this one is very good if you put it in the soup. You can also dry it and use it as a season on meat or other things. You know what? One thing I consider important when it comes to being able to visit the countryside is that you can actually have a walk in nature. I mean, if you're visiting a city, be it Florence, Rome, Milan, well, yeah, you can have a park, you can have a garden. But it's a completely different story to be able to walk in this environment where it is peaceful and you don't have cars, you don't have trucks. Personally, you don't have noise. This is one of my, I gotta say, least favorite things when it comes to traveling in a city. That they are really, really, really noisy. Definitely, definitely. One of my favorite spots of the place here. We have three very important things here. We have water. This water tank here is what feeds all the garden during the dry summers. It used to be uncovered, you know, like a pool. But it was quite dangerous, especially for kids. This huge cypress tree here. Cypress tree is a symbol of Tuscany. And you may find often this kind of trees next to the cemeteries. This is a symbol of connection between our world here in this planet and the heavens, you know, in the sky. So that's why the plant often next to the cemeteries. And another symbol of the area, obviously, is the olive tree. Here is one of the oldest trees that I have in my grove. It survived the 1983 frost and killed about 80% of the trees in Tuscany, in the area. So many of the trees that you see around here are just, you know, over 50 years old. Now I show you a very special place here. In Casacares. This one is the old mill. I told you before here, there was a farming going on and they used to press the olives on the spot here. This is the old mill. I mean, at least what remains of it. But there are some interesting pieces to see. Be careful on the steps here. So now here, it's all very quiet and dusty. But you have to imagine before here, during November, you know, this period of the year, it was very busy with the olives, you know, being harvested and taken here to be pressed. 1837. Yes, this is massive. Yes, they used to smash olives with this. You don't move it. Not by hand. But they had a lot of clever tools back then. Some of them I collected here. You know, when we didn't have electricity or any engines, you had to use your brain. So these two things were rotating here in a massive stone tub, let's say. Yeah, they were shoveling the olives inside. They were obtaining this kind of paste. This one here, they were the filters to separate, you know, the solid stuff to the liquid stuff, which was water and oil. You know, once this had been filtered, they were just scooping the oil from the top, from those tanks that are engraved in the stone there. You know, so this is something that reminds me, you know, how hard it was like before. I show you this, you know. The presses, which were massive in there, were activated by hand, you know, by humans. See, these are human steps here. People were, you know, pushing this wooden cross here just to press the oil in there. So, and the stones are, you know, worn out. We are today facing a much easier life, but my deep feeling is that we lost something on the way. And, you know, when I was telling you about authenticity before, you go in a countryside, you find little hidden treasures here and there. It's the lunchtime approaching. One of my favorite time of the day. Since here we have a very good cook, which she's going to cook my vegetables from the garden. I'm very happy that, you know, I can rest a little bit. I would like to show you some of the vegetables, you know, that we have here from the garden. This great opportunity that you have here and visit the farms and the farmers themselves, which they can cook for you. You know, that's a great thing to do. This is a nice pumpkin, you know, I have more in there. We grow chilies here. This chili here is to be stuffed, other kind of chili, potatoes, onions. In the fridge, we have the cauliflowers, you know, that I showed you before, and beans and other stuff. This is the second important thing why you should visit the countryside. Yeah, if not the first. I may change my mind after lunch, you know, but I think, yes, it's very important to have, you know, good food, you know. And this is what you can experience visiting countryside, I think, much more than going into the city's restaurant. That was a great conversation we had with Giordano. Very happy to see him again after a long time. And my takeaway would be that, yes, cities in Italy, they can be really exciting. You know, you have artworks, you have museums, you have this busy city life, which can be really engaging. But if you have time, and if you have the right, how can I say, mindset, do consider visiting the countryside. Because as Giordano said, you can have a kind of experience that in the city you cannot have. I hope you guys enjoyed this video. See you next time. Ciao!