You Can't Take the Girl off the Farm

 There's an old expression: "You can take the boy off the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the boy."  Clearly, this applies to girls as well. When my brother and I get together, we inevitably end up sharing memories of growing up on our family farm. For our father's generation, farm life meant hard work and early responsibilities. For us, farm life meant freedom.

On my recent trip, I had a secret laugh on several occasions, in Slovenia and again in Italy, as outside my bus window, my window on the world, local farmers continued to do what they had always done. And I suspect I was the only interested observer.

 On the neat productive valley farms of Slovenia, remarkable after the hard-scrabble interior regions of Croatia that we had just crossed, I watched farmers cutting hay crops, an early harvest according to the calendar at home.

But most intriguing for me was the Veneto countryside around Jesolo, the resort area where we stayed outside of Venice. This land is flat and low-lying, alluvial plain bordering the Adriatic to the south. I was enthralled by the absolute flatness of the land and intrigued by the many canals and ditches crossing it and the abandoned rural villas from earlier times.

This morning I found this somewhat technical paper, of interest to no-one but me, I would suggest. But it answered all my questions

Our guide Vanya explained some of the region's history. The Piave and Assonto rivers flow into the Adriatic in the area. During WWI, Ernest Hemingway served with the Red Cross in the Veneto region, and was badly wounded on the Piave River. The experience found its way into his novel A Farewell to Arms. 

I've just learned about 'the Hemingway Route,' an eleven km. circular itinerary that traces places devastated by the war in that area. Here's a booking link if this interests you.