Tramonti, into the mountains of the Amalfi coast, hidden between lemon trees and vineyards, there lay many tiny houses, with inhabitants so kind and hardworking.

A hike up to Tramonti is surely no easy feat. With an elevation of between 300m in Pucara and 900m in Cesarano, Tramonti counts 13 “frazioni”, with many people busily commuting between each one, by car, vespa, and back in the day, on foot. One of them may be Luigi, now an elderly shepherd most versed in navigating his goats and sheep along the tightly-wound paths that connect the different settlements. Most of these are now swallowed by forest and wild vegetation and need a strong hand to be brought back into shape. 

So, under one of the main objectives of the project, we tamed the trees obscuring the paths with machetes, knifes,

 saws, scissors and everything else we could find. To do this, our group of 12 diligent volunteers teamed up with Matteo Giordano, the man in charge of Acarbio, Antonio, and the Esc volunteers Hassan and Rzouga. 

Matteo is somewhat of a local authority when it comes to the hiking trails and has previously helped the municipality

 to restore them as an alternative to the main road that barely fits two cars, let alone pedestrians and is often dangerous to walk on. 

And so, on 6 mornings over the last month, we vowed to wake up at 6am to help the residents of Tramonti get back the trails once frequented by the village folk, goats and sheep. Of course, our and Matteos efforts also contribute to an encouragement of “Slow Tourism” in Tramonti, because it allows visitors to explore the mountain on foot. Since Matteo is currently organizing tours with visitors, we helped him build stairs on more than occ

asion, made from wooden stakes and earth, utilizing saws, nails and a whole lot of raw muscle power. Working early in the morning to avoid the hot amalfitan sun, but still sweating buckets, our efforts were supported by boiling hot espresso refined with lemon cest, served straight out of the good old thermos bottle by Matteo himself. 

Painting week in the Kindergarten

Our volunteers do not stop! During the last week of the project we are leaving our footprint in Gete, Tramonti. The first, in the Kindergarten and the second in the Church. Both of them we are renovating and painting as well. About the Kindergarten we have the help of Arman, the long term volunteer and artist who is carrying out the big mural 

that is being prepared to surprise each and every one of the children who arrive at the school this year. 

Have you heard of Alice in Wonderland? A small girl who is lost in a fantastic world where she will find a Rabbit, a Hatter, a Caterpillar and multiple fantastic characters to join her in her adventures. That is the theme of our mural in one of the kindergarten ́s classrooms. 

At the same time, to redeem ourselves from our sins, because we are young and wild, Gete ́s priest, Don Salvatore, kindly asked us to renovate one of the rooms inside the church. 

To accomplish both projects we had to start with empting the room as well as removing all the things hanging from the walls, scratch them, apply plaster multiple times to the holes and the cracks, and repeat until the walls are smooth. And then, the act of painting started. We go clean and motivated every morning and every midday we return completely white, dirty and tired. We wish that we are not going to Hell and satisfy all the community of Gete of Tramonti. They have always been so kind to us. 

Festa Del Vino in Gete

“Festa del Vino” or “Wine Festival” is a tradition that takes place in Gete and is completely organized by locals. It is an opportunity for the volunteers to come closer to the local community by helping with the preparations. That’s what we did. For two mornings and two nights at 11 and 12 of August we worked hard side by side with the elders peeling and curtains potatoes, tomatoes, onions and garlics. We are not gonna lie, it was harder than it sounds, though it was the small gestures of the local people that made us forget our exhaustion; a cup of homemade coffee, a couple of songs from Lika and Luigi, one of the oldest men around, their laughs and their tiredness. All of this and the help of Lena and Itzel -two volunteers from another project who came to help- gave us motivation and strength to finish the morning shifts. 

At 8pm the festival started. It consists of a route with several stops, where the visitors eat, drink and dance. 

 

We start at the village’s main square where we can enjoy our first Antipasto – Caponata with mozzarella and Ricotta – while we listen to live music. If we continue we will come across the second aperitivo: a plate of cold meat, which we can combine with our wines we got a few meters ago. Walking to our next stop we will find more live music and wine, after this we will reach the pasta and potatoes stand where we can listen to

 the traditional music that is being played at the church. We take another cup of wine and move forward the last dish, sausage with roasted eggplants. To finish this meal we just have to go back to the church where we can have a “dolce” and a little cup of limoncello. 

Each night our responsibilities were to help in some food stands and take care of the trash. So the twelve of us were divided in groups of two or three and were given trash bags and tape (to close the full bags). For five hours we got sweaty checking and changing the full bags of trash but as volunteers we had the privilege to visit the food stands between our breaks and enjoy the goodies the locals prepared with our help for free. It was a bit stressful to hurry from each corner of the route to the other through the narrow streets of Gete occupied by more than one thousand visitors of all ages, but with our good mood and the nice company of each other we managed to remember only nice moments we shared. Around half past twelve our job would stop and then the best part of the night began. 

Gathered in the yard of the church were all the visitors dancing with the locals to the traditional Italian beat. We had the best time putting in practice the skills we earned in traditional dances the last one and a half, such as tarantella. That didn’t last for long though because it was already late and that was when the true party started. The musicians gave the stage to the DJs and it was the time for the young people of Tramonti to shine! 

The whole experience of the Festa del Vino was so unique and precious that we are sure it will remain in our memory forever. 

 

CREDITS:
Kevin, Myrto, Eva, Kiara.