A Day at the Vineyard

   "We're here!" I unbuckled my seat belt and stepped out of the car. The first thing I noticed was the dirt. Actually, dust is a more accurate way to describe it. With every step I took a cloud of dust would form around my shoe. After a few steps I couldn't tell what color my shoes were supposed to be.
   "Isn't this awesome?" my mom asked, getting out of the car.
   "Yep." I replied.
   "All right everybody, circle up." Nello, the guy who had organized this event, called out. "Who's ready to go grape picking?" We all cheered. "All right, then, follow me." He started up the path and we all tromped after him.
   My mom was the one who had found out about this. We were at an Italian vineyard where we would spend the morning picking grapes. After that we would have lunch and then stomp on our grapes to make wine. At first we didn't think we could go. The cost was 20 euro for adults and 15 euro for kids. That would be 130 euro for all of us. Then Nello told us that he would let three kids come for free, and we decided to go. So here we are, following an old guy through a vineyard on a well worn path. I tried to concentrate on what he was saying.
   "We'll have a little snack, then we'll pass out the clippers and show you how to work them, and then we can get started. Here we are." We had arrived at a little table on the edge of a steep hill. Thankfully, there was a fence. On the table were two cakes and cups of juice. Once everyone had eaten and we had retrieved Lucan's shoe (he had accidentally kicked it of the side of the hill and would not stop screaming until someone had fetched it for him) Nello passed out the clippers. He explained how to open them, which grapes to cut, (the yellow ones, not purple) and where to cut. Then he gave us all baskets and showed us where to start picking. I worked with Kenna for a bit, then she found a little friend and ran off to play with her. I found a different spot and started picking by myself. Soon I was drenched in sweat, but I had a whole basket full of grapes. I filled half of another, then went to find my mom. We took a water break and sat in the shade for a bit. Soon it was time for lunch. We tromped back to the tables, washed our hands off, and found spots at the table. I would like to say that we had some yummy Neapolitan pizza for lunch, but instead we had hot dogs and fries. Some of the grown-ups had wine too. Warning, kids: Don't Try Wine! It tastes super bitter. I had to drink three cups of water before I could get the taste out of my mouth. It was almost as bad as beer (and that's saying a lot).
   While we were eating a couple of Italian guys serenaded us with some Italian music. They played the guitar really well, and we heard the real version of the song Veggietales based their "A great big squash just sat upon my hat," on.
  When everyone was done eating it was time for the grape stomping! There were two big containers filled with the grapes we had picked. Everyone who wanted to washed their feet in a tub of water, then stepped into the grape container and started stomping. Pretty soon the tub had more juice than grapes in it. After the kids had all had a turn some grown-ups joined in the fun.
   When everyone had their shoes back on we paid Nello and left. All in all, it was a pretty good day.