Seriously, Can it GET any More Beautiful Than This? – Wwoofing in the Italian Alps and Falling in Love with Milan

Every day I wake up and it´s two things that cause me to get up unusually fast:

a) The raspy blankets that make the experience of sleeping a more necessary one than a comfortable one, and

b) The beauty of the valley that I call home for this week.

When I emerge outside from the Locanda, our sleeping house, and I see the big mountains around me with snowcapped tops, the old church with the big belltower in the front, and to the other side the other side the little stone houses that make up Val Codera, all my brain is capable of thinking is “wow” (and I can assure you, this effect doesn´t wear off, not in the eight days we spend here).

Val Codera: A couple of houses in a valley in the middle of the Italian alps, reachable only by a 2-hour-hike or by helicopter. There´s four people living here permanently (I think it used to be five, but then one died) and for religious holidays, they fly the priest in for mass and procession. But in summer, there´s up to 100 people living here on and off, renovating the houses, running the Alpine restaurant Osteria and filling the village with Italian life.

But let me start from the start: Milan.

We fly into Milan and I thought I was gonna hate it. As you might be aware of, I´m usually not a big city tourism fan. As it happened, I had some credit on Airbnb, and we ended up getting a room near the medieval castle Sforzesco and the Arco della Pace for free (woop woop! My budget traveller´s soul is delighted!) and I already loved the room with its old antique paintings decorating the wall and the view from the eigth floor over Milan city.

We set out starving and after the first bites of Italian prosciutto and rucket cheese pannini thingie, espresso, and later pistaccio and coffee ice cream I wasn´t walking anymore, I was floating over the streets of this city.

My belly filled with Italian delights (I´ve always been a sucker for Italian food. To be honest, that was the inital incentive for doing this trip in the first place) I was also super surprised of how beautiful the architecture is: Sitting in the sun at the Arch of Peace, strolling through Parque Sempione and the grand Sforzesco filled with Italian tourist groups and happy kids jumping around, then along the shopping street full of Gelaterias and Lingerie-shops that make me wanna buy everything that´s on display; through old market arches at Piazza del Mercanti where the stones look so old they might just crumble on your head if you don´t pay attention, and finally onto the Piazza del Duomo with impressive Milan Cathedral.

Later, we saunter past the famous Opera Teatro alla Scala and an Ice cream place where lots of people queue up (but we really can´t eat more ice cream at this stage) and through Via della Spiga, the most expensive shopping street I´ve ever seen, with High-Fashion Haute Couture hanging from every rack and glinting out of every corner – Tiffany´s and Dolce and Gabbana send their greetings. We get hopelessly lost in the course, but we don´t mind.

One tip for the Milan traveller: find the GROM ice cream shops, it´s a chain and it has ice cream to die for. I don´t say this often, so just trust me on this!

GELATOoooo

After eating the cheesiest and biggest pizza slice I´ve ever had (and maybe ever will) and spending one of those mild summery evenings out in the bar area around our home sweet home for one night, we take the train the next day and venture out to our unknown wwwoofing destination in the mountains. Already the train ride along Lake Como is spectacular

and the hike up that was promised as taking 1,5-2 hrs takes us easily 3 hours (I´ll never be a mountain person. Never have, never will be) but when we finally arrive, all sweaty and on 800m altitude, we arrive in heaven.

At first, I´m excited about the pasta and cheese and biscuits with coffee for breakfast. After we realize that this is what is considered normal nourishment here, not so much anymore. Seriously, how can you dip a biscuit into café latte and then call it ´breakfast´? Or give someone as first or main course pasta pomodori like EVERY DAY. TWICE. Accompanied with red wine, and expect someone to be able to work after that?

Italians, ts ts ;-)

But apart from the fact that our diet is a bit heavy on the pasta side, we really can´t complain: goatling raised and butchered locally, nettle and water mustard vegetables that we collect ourselves near the waterfall, incredibly tasty mountain goat cheeses and hams, one day after a rainy night it´s grapevine snails that I wash and cook alive myself, and then we´re given “snail-watch” so their slimy foam doesn´t bubble over (I actually liked them. I mean, eating them. Not personally, of course. Others weren´t so convinced.). Panettone with sugared strawberries in champagne and mascarpone-whipped cream for dessert, Minestrone, and espresso for a lifetime.

Quickly, we become part of this adorable and unique group of charactersthat is surrounding us. There´s old Roberto, the backbone of the village and something like a chief here, with his right hand Elena with the super bad false teeth. There´s good-smelling Christina and super-lively Katherina always chatting to you in Italian and giving you seconds because she is obviously of the opinion that you might starve to death the next minute. There´s old Carlo, who looks so tiny but does his share of digging uncomplainingly, Gian-Marco, Gian-Piedro, those three middle-aged friends who always hang out together and smoke haschish nonstop. Oh, how I love this group. Like in a series they fight, argue, discuss over the dinner tables and they´re so welcoming and super cute.

Since we´re the only non-Italians and nobody really speaks English that well, we communicate in Spanish, broken English, and after a few days we find we start speaking some Italian, too. Stuff like Eh buono, fuori, Buon giorno, caldo –  and their English accents are so stereotypically Italian (I like to cutte sie breade si…).

The working hours of our newly attained megalopsychian life are spent plowing potato fields, working machines that don´t want to work, helping in the kitchen and cooking pasta (hmhmmm) and doing dishes (very meditative).

In the afternoons, we steal ourselves away whenever we can and venture out for hikes in the beautiful surroundings to the huts Brascia or direccioneSan Giorgio on the Tracciolino, a high path going through tunnels and waterfalls offering splendid views of the surrounding mountains.

When the last evening comes, I am so sad that I nearly cry into my pasta dinner. Roberto gives us locally made wooden key rings and tells us to come back, and I realize how close to my heart all these people have grown, and how much I´m gonna miss the beauty and tranquility of this place.

The next morning, we shoulder our backpacks and set off for the final hike back to Novate Mezzola and then on the train to Milan. This time, we are much fitter and the way only takes us one hour.

Off the mountain,

off to zivilisation.

I´m sure I´ll come back to this wonderful place. Ciao bello, eh Grazie per tutti!

How to budget Italy

AirBnB! And Wwoofing! I love them so much. Thanks those two, I actually got out of this holiday with a plus in my account, and I paid most of the stuff for both of us. I rented out my room via Airbnb in Berlin while we were gone, which allowed me to have an extra somewhat 200 EUR to spend. While in Val Codera, we volunteered as wwoofers, which means you work a couple hours per day and in return you eat, sleep and become part of the place for free. I wouldn´t do it any other way, really – the work is usually fun and it´s so interesting to see other realities and have a simple life for a change!

Now it´s your turn: Have you ever done Wwoofing? Would you do it as a holiday getaway, why or why not, and where (consider: there´s Wwoofing in nearly every country of the world!)? Have you been to Milan, did you like it and why?