Italian Family - Life On A Farm

e [Applause] up the day begins early on an Italian Farm but this is true of farms the world over I suppose the ducks and chickens and turkeys wake up first and their loud voices let me know it's morning time to get [Music] up the cows also do not not like to wait long to be milked they complain if I'm late if you have a cow who needs a clock we Farmer Say Yeah on me my father is 74 he still works on our farm but not as hard as he used to of course my mother too is up early and as always for as long as I can remember the first thing she must have in the morning is her glass of strong black coffee fruits and vegetables have been picked yesterday in the cool of the afternoon and have been kept fresh in our Gro a cave dug deep into the hillside my father every morning takes them to the market in town the milk too will be taken into town where it will be sent to Rome and pasteurized [Music] on the armo let's go the truck is loaded sweet figs and pears and string beans and cans of fresh milk and the scale my mother uses in the market and off they go like racing drivers [Applause] [Music] [Music] so then the day has begun as [Music] usual the boys sleep a little later of course this is chesarino or as you would say Little Caesar named after my father he's always ready for Mischief this one and so is his brother Gano [Music] [Music] roughly translated this means stop that or I will come in there with a big stick [Music] as you can see the boys are terrified of that big stick ah what's this the pillow landed on a chicken my wife of course has breakfast ready for the children Adelina our daughter is almost finished breakfast a farm in Italy is simple but wholesome a big bowl of warm milk from our own cows with a bit of coffee in it and great chunks of Home baked bread cherino of course cannot resist temptation he must have some fun [Laughter] on a farm there are many kinds of jobs to do according to the season but some never change the cows must be taken to pasture twice a day and then down to be watered our farm is situated right on the lake lake brano there are not many lakes in this part of Italy and this is certainly one of the most beautiful we have the right to use the water of the lake to irrigate our crops the water is pumped up through pipes and then flows downward to The [Music] Terraces the climate here in central Italy is mild and we have plenty of water and good rich soil [Music] in the town of Bano beneath the old castle is the marketplace where my mother sells our fruits and [Applause] vegetables the boys have come to town with me bringing a young American friend whose family is visiting Italy for the summer [Music] we have no supermarkets in Italy except in the big cities but we do have many farmers markets like this [Music] one my mother tells the boys that business has been good today she can sell the things they have brought from the [Applause] [Music] farm once upon a time they say the entire town and most of the land around the lake was owned by the prince of a castle but that was some time ago things are [Music] changing on many a summer day there is a very strange sight on the [Applause] [Music] [Applause] lake h we [Music] [Applause] [Applause] peanuts potato chips olives soft drinks this man does a good business he claims rowing around selling a little here a little there it all adds up other parts of Lake brano are very commercial restaurants bathing establishments camping sites for tour fors but we have a beach mostly to ourselves our land goes right down almost to the Lakeside it is ches Rino's job to bring the wine and spring water from the gr where it is kept cool it is dinner time for us midday and no Italian dinner is complete without wine we make our own from our own grapes also no Italian meal is complete without pasta spaghetti perhaps or a soup to begin with this minr was made from our own vegetables the main course fish caught fresh this morning by a fisherman on the [Music] lake there is strong family feeling in it as with our family there are often three generations perhaps even four seated with their feet under the same table we have much to talk about always and we always enjoy a good laugh the meal ends naturally with fruit figs and pears and apples from our own trees Italy everyone say is shaped like a boot jutting into the Mediterranean Sea here in central Italy is the great city of Rome and about 40 km North Lake brano our home in some ways we have been very isolated here for years no telephone no electricity only the weak current generated by our window some days of course the wind forgets the blow soon however we will no longer have to depend on the Wind m [Laughter] first had come the men with the big machines to erect the concrete poles and now they are stringing the shiny copper [Music] wires shortly they say perhaps in a month we will have electricity we will see in Italy we have a saying better to count the eggs you have today than the ones you expect tomorrow at any rate I think we will keep our windmill there can be I understand power [Music] failures that same day my brother from the city of vbo paid us a [Music] [Applause] visit he brings always much excitement with him is brought my wife some cataloges of electrical appliances electricity means first of all for Adelina television for my wife it'll mean that but much more no longer will she have to do the family wash by hand in cold water from the spring [Music] my brother has brought me something of Interest all around the lake people from Rome are building weekend houses and many tourist hotels are planned our land becomes valuable he has a letter from someone interested in buying it all much money perhaps but if we leave here where will we [Music] go my brother is a Salesman of farm machinery his customers are the big mechanized Farms mostly in the north but some near Rome yay the boys find the big tractors on the farm [Applause] exciting I have a tractor also a small one it is true but big enough for our Fields everything here of course is small and probably oldfashioned we do most things by hand in the old ways my father taught me as a child to tie the Tomato vines with the stems of wild flowers as for harvesting our crops we must all pitch in yes the whole family young and old still what we grow is good we do not believe in using some Modern methods chemical fertilizers for example there's much difference too between my milkshed and the modern dairy farm Italy becomes like America everything mechanized [Music] there are many cities in Italy but Rome is the largest and the Romans say the most interesting there are many sites to see some dating from thousands of years ago like the famous Coliseum Adelina has studied ancient Roman history in school when school opens again after the summer vacation the boys too will study it they've been to Rome before all of them but I suppose much of it seemed to them just broken down old buildings old it is the Coliseum nearly 2,000 years old in the days of the Emperors though 50,000 people once sat here watching incredible and I think terrible spectacles lion and tiger hunts men fighting each other with swords and Spears [Applause] the foro Romano or the Roman Forum as it is called in English was the center of ancient Republican Rome the days of Julius Caesar and Brutus and Cicero it lies in Ruins now but once there were magnificent palaces and temples and meeting places here it was the center of the old Roman World whose armies at one time conquered most of Europe and Africa and much of Asia go to Rome go to Vatican City we Italians say a city within a city it is the spiritual home of the Roman Catholic religion here you can see St Peter's Cathedral and much else that is very beautiful but there is nothing more impressive I think than the cinee chapel painted more than 450 Years Ago by the great artist Michelangelo he worked on this vast ceiling all alone for nearly 5 years painting stories and themes from the [Music] Bible the ancient Romans like Julius Caesar is true conquer the world but I think that we modern Italians are much more proud of our great Architects and sculptors and Painters they too in a peaceful way conquered the world [Music] without electricity or television our evenings have been different for most families I suppose we have had to entertain ourselves [Applause] [Laughter] will all this change when the electricity finally arrives I wonder the days of the small farmer are over they say in Italy as in America but somehow if we can our family must stay here where else could we be happy [Applause] [Music]