Yes, that's correct, folks. In episode 373 of the Italian Wine Podcast, Professor Attilio Scienza started to sing a "mountain song" with prompting from Stevie Kim. In reality, the premise of this Everybody Needs a Bit of Scienza episode was to answer a serious question posed by Vinitaly International Academy community member, Carrie Wong. Carrie, a VIA Ambassador and educator based in Hong Kong, asked the professor what profession he dreamed of pursuing as a child.

Listen to the original recording of Italian Wine Podcast Episode 373 and find, below, the English language transcript provided by the one and only Anna Carnera. Happy listening!

Translation by Anna Carnera

Stevie: OK are we ready? We’re ready to rock and roll!

Scienza: Ready? Let’s go!

Stevie: No, wait, what is your favorite song? And do you sing?

Scienza: I used to sing… mountain songs.

Stevie: Can you sing one for me?

Scienza: Eh?

Stevie: Sing me a song!

[Scienza sings in dialect]

[laughter]

Stevie: Listen, has anyone ever told you that you could have a singing career?

Scienza: No. No!

Stevie: Thank goodness!

Scienza: Maybe in the next life, ha ha ha!

Stevie: Ha ha you are too off-key!

Scienza: Mountain songs are like this.

Stevie: Ok, sure. Let’s move on. That was a little bit… unscheduled! But-

Scienza: -Unscheduled! Ha ha ha!

Stevie: OK we are back with “Everybody Needs a Bit of Scienza!”

Scienza: Ha ha ha, it might not be the Sanremo Music Festival but it’s our VIA Festival!

Stevie: Yes, exactly! Welcome everybody! We don’t want to lose you. That was kind of scary, I agree. “Everybody Needs a Bit of Scienza,” here, with Professor Scienza and Stevie Kim on the pod with Jacob, our military dude, well, military man, no, the podcast… I’ve gotta give him a hashtag. We’re missing Giulia. Giulia was with us for three years and it was one woman show. Now it’s up to Jacob to make this happen, to bring us to the next level.

Here we go. From our VIA community: Carrie Wong. She is an Italian Wine Ambassador from Hong Kong, an educator, and she sent us a very cute question for the Professore. So, let me read it to you:

“Hello. I don’t know why it came to my mind, but I just wanted to ask Professor Scienza: when you were a child, what did you want to grow up to be? And what has happened since then?”

[Stevie repeats the question in Italian]

Stevie: Go, Attilio!

Scienza: Monty, did you like my song?

[laughter]

Stevie: Ha ha ha, do you remember, Monty? That’s good. OK then, let’s answer Carrie’s question.

Scienza: Well, my parents really pointed me in the direction of agriculture. The viticulture came later, after my degree. So, my parents noticed that I was really enthusiastic about nature, the countryside. I really love country life. We had a lot of relatives that were farmers with some land.

There were vine growers on my father’s side - my grandparents and my great-grandparents. Those on my mother’s side farmed in the mountains and bred cattle. And then what happened? They were all sharecroppers and didn’t have their own land, so with the economic crisis of the ‘30s they were forced to leave.

I always think of this crisis like the one described in Steinbeck’s books, “The Grapes of Wrath”, “Of Mice and Men”, and “Tortilla Flat,” about people who leave the countryside and move to the city.

Well, my parents didn’t go away, as many did. Instead, they started to work for the public sector. My father was a petty officer of the finance police and my grandfather worked on the roads - he was responsible for a specific section of road.

Anyway, the connection with the land was always strong, so when they retired they bought a piece of land and came back to be farmers. Then I started my path in agricultural and viticulture. My parents understood my vocation before I did, they could tell the path I would follow. And I have to thank them for this: if it wasn’t for them I don’t know where I would be now.

And this also is a lesson for today’s parents: they have to guide their children. Often parents don’t know how to direct them but they have to observe their children and understand what is inside them. There is this seed that is developing even if it’s not visible yet - this could be the seed that will give rise to the child’s future calling.

Stevie: OK that’s it for “Everybody Needs a Bit of Scienza.” And I promise I will not let him sing again in the next segment, so we are safe from that. Carrie Wong from Hong Kong, thank you very much. Listen to the Italian Wine Podcast on SoundCloud or wherever you get your podcasts. And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and send your tweets to @itawinepodcast. And that is it for now. Ciao, arrivederci!

Scienza: Alla prossima. Arrivederci!