…is the 1984 book of musings (as recounted to and translated by Henry Martin) by Italian artist Gianfranco Baruchello (b. 1924) who in 1973 decamped to a modest piece of land north of Rome, near Formello, to begin a life of farming as art – and after years of carrying around this little book which I knew I needed to read, I finally had the chance to finish it in one sitting this weekend while appropriately nestled into a friend’s big old country villa in a tiny old village on top of a hill in the steep rolling Sabina hills of Northern Lazio overlooking the plains of Rome – and the unfolding conversational ramblings covering everything from Duchamp readymades to sheep care made for an absorbing and pleasurable read, further inspiring my future farming fantasies.  (book link)