Luka The Gardener

I get to talking to Luka the gardener that bought our cases in from the taxi. 

He is a 28 year old tall slight man with a crop of curly black hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, he has to be strong for his size as the cases are 30 kg each as I wanted to fit everything in the 2 cases for our trip from Roma. 

He is the oldest son of this family run agra-tourism business. I ask him about the permaculture garden  with it,s 500 olive trees that were planted by the monks some 600 years ago. The trees are broad at the girth and Luka pruned them back hard 10 years ago when they first came to to make harvesting easier. They produce enough oil for the house and the rest is sent to the local markets for sale. The grounds are quite over grown with the spring weeds and wild flowers, Luka tells me that this is not his passion but was the passion of his parents. His father now 55 had a stroke and heart attack some 5 years ago and that he has had to step into his father shoes to help support his 22 year old sister and 18 year old brother along with his mother. After the stroke Luka said "his mind now has no time for his own family"and went to live with his old parents and this house was the reason for his illness, a very sad story. Luke is studying telecommunications but there are no jobs in Italy for what he has spent several years studying for so at the moment his life will have to be here but hopes one day that he can have a life of his own!