Cuddling the Computer

Another class day down, which means one day closer to four days of travel.  Saturday the whole class will be spending the day in Rome and then directly from Rome, a group of us will be traveling to Cinque Terre. So excited.  

My second paper of the trip is due tomorrow, so I spent much of my free time today working on it.  At 4:30 my professors offered optional museum tours.  Desiring some Orvieto kulture, I decided it was in my best interest to go. Well, after class I had an hour and a half of down time before the museum visits.  When I got to my room, I decided to lay on my bed for just a short while before working on my paper.  I was so convinced that I would only rest for a second that I held my computer in my arms as I allowed my head to fall on the pillow.  Exactly an hour and 25 minutes later I woke up, still tightly hugging my computer.  Reluctantly I woke up Caroline (she said she wanted to go to the museums also, but she’s also warned me that she’s not pleasant when abruptly woken up). 

After a few pokes, she woke up, nicely, and we dashed downstairs to meet the group.  We should have known that on an optional museum trip during our free time, us two would be the whole group.  Thankfully, a few more stragglers came later.  Knowing we all had our papers to work on, we dashed through the museum. I’m sure the professor understood.

The rest of the night was filled with eating good pizza (same spicy salami from a new place) and paper writing.

Mmm Pizza

The best part of my day was buying train tickets for my Cinque Terre trip this weekend and going to the super mercato at lunchtime. Beside that, I just had to sit through class and then work on my second paper of the summer due Friday.

At the super mercato, I stocked up on cheese, buying two new kinds, and fresh fruit. If I ever remember the names of the cheese, I’ll make sure to kulture you.  One thing I’m really going to miss about Italy is the freshness of Sidis super mercato in Orvieto. Walmart just won’t cut it.

For dinner, Caroline and I went to Pizzeria Charlie’s, which was absolutely delicious. This is the pizza place where we had the welcome dinner at the beginning of the trip. My pizza really didn’t stand out to me that night, but it sure did tonight. I ate the whole Dracula pizza, covered with mozzarella cheese, gorgonzola cheese, and spicy salami.  I could have eaten a another one. Easily.

After dinner, we filled the night with paper writing, procrastination, and distracting Max.   

The Car-less City

My time in Venice ended today after a few more church visits. The churches did start to blend together, but I really tried to appreciate each one by thinking about what it would be like to go to Mass there.

Canals of Venice behind me. There are over 200 bridges in the city.

I'm standing on one of them. 

The most exciting part about the six hour journey back to Orvieto was me almost exploding from drinking too much water. Parts of Italy are very hilly and curvy, and that makes my head spin a bit. During our lunch stop, I decided to buy the biggest bottle of water the gas station sold to help me feel better. Well, I felt better, but a couple hours later on the bus it hit me. After driving up to STAND STILL TRAFFIC (luckily just a short time), we stopped for a break and I was the first to restroom. Just baby sips of water after that.

We have three straight days of class this week, and then I’ll be travelling to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is an area on the northern coast of Italy made up of five towns. (Cinque means “five” and terre means “land.” Kulture at its finest.) A few groups visited Cinque Terre during our last free weekend (when I went to Florence) and absolutely loved it. Next weekend: lots of beach, hiking, and swimming. My perfect vacation.

So more pictures from the weekend. 

Grand Canal in the background. 

In the city.

Dinner at Trattoria Bepi. The seafood place.

I took over gondola rowing for a bit. 

Gelato candid. This is the incredible dessert you're missing out on in America. 

The great gondolier and tour guide.

Jane and I about to get on the bus boat. Last ride in Venice!

Scarf Dress

Venice is now one of my favorite places on earth, even after seeing one too many churches and scribbling lots of notes. For the past two days the class has been traveling around Venice, and we’ll have a short day here tomorrow before heading back to Orvieto.

Yesterday was spent half traveling and half touring. We had about a five hour bus ride to our hotel and then a quick boat ride to the city. Venice is a car-less city. How neat is that? To get into the city, we took a little party barge type boat that acts like a bus. You buy a ticket, stop at all the boat stops, get off where you’d like, and then it circles around again.

Arrival in Venice. 

Our touring yesterday was going to start with San Marco (famous cathedral), but we missed it by one group. They closed right after they let the big group before us go in. Then we visited the Rialto and saw the Grand Canal (big river through the city). Since Venice is known for its seafood (ha), I found a Rick Steves restaurant for us with seafood. We went to Trattoria Bepi, known for good seafood. Everyone seemed to like it a lot. I thought the seafood was…subpar. I understand, I biased. The shrimp were the size of a dime.

This morning’s touring was filled with lots of churches. I’m not going to name them all because by the end, they all started to look the same. The most memorable one was San Marco (the one we tried yesterday). I had to tie my scarf around my legs to cover my knees. I wasn’t about to buy a cloth to cover them for one euro. Nevertheless, the church was beautiful.

Jane and I...knees covered. For free. (Sorry it's a bit blurry.)

For lunch and dinner, we picked up sandwiches on the go. And today we did a gondola ride! It was definitely worth the price we bargained for. We got to see Venice from a different perspective, and our gondolier was great.

On the gondola ride through Venice. 

More pictures to come.  

The night in Venice ended outside in the picturesque Piazza San Marco, listening to the grand piano music playing for all the rich folks dining on the outside patios. So romantic and beautiful. Oh, what a night.   

Siesta

Ah, what a fabulously relaxing day. I don’t have too much kulture to share with you considering today was our FIRST FREE DAY. No long classes, no early morning bus rides, no sprints through the city. Needless to say, the free day was well deserved.

I had to wake up to turn in my essay at least by noon today.  So I hit snooze on my alarm five times and finally woke up around 10 am.  The rest of my day was very relaxing. I went on a run in the morning, walked around browsing shops in Orvieto with Caroline, then did as the locals do and went in for “siesta” in the afternoon. (Here’s some kulture for you: In Orvieto, the whole town shuts down after lunchtime. The typically social streets are empty. All shops and restaurants close and people go home to rest before dinner. That’s siesta. Siesta means “nap,” so that’s where it comes from.)

For dinner, I had some of the best pasta in Italy. L’Oste del Re is the restaurant.  And any great dinner is always topped off with gelato.  Lucky for us, our favorite gelato place is right next door to L’Oste.

Looking forward to the weekend in Venice with the class—beginning at 5:45 am tomorrow morning.

Just Call Us Locals

Going to Florence with the class yesterday was a bit like a marathon. We had a lot of distance to cover, and we were racing through it all.  Most importantly, I saw the Renaissance Man.

Our first stop, and the most important stop of the day, was the Accademia.  If that doesn’t mean anything to you, I’ll kulture you.  It’s home to Michelangelo’s David.  THE DAVID.  It was incredible to see the statue in person.  Nearly 17 feet tall, and Michelangelo did it when he was in his twenty’s.  I hope I can accomplish something that great in the next ten years.

His name is David.

Lunch takes the cake for the biggest adventure of the day.  As we were walking around as a class before our lunch break, Caroline and I decided on a Rick Steves restaurant.  He has yet to steer us wrong when it comes to food, so we were really looking forward to this lunch.  I had it circled on the map and was ready to explore.

Now sometimes the Rick Steves restaurants are difficult to find because he uses a hand drawn map.  Once the break started, we gathered the rest of the group and then the six of us were off to find the restaurant.  I warned everyone at the beginning (as I usually do) that it might be difficult to find but I’m not stopping until I get there…and if anyone doesn’t feel like looking, they can leave now.

Well, being deprived of food since breakfast at 6 am is not a good start to an adventure.  When looking for the restaurant, there were plenty of groans about whether we should keep looking.  I just reminded everyone that they do not have to continue on the journey.  Feel free to breakaway and eat on your own.

After a while of searching and a couple wrong turns, we finally found Trattoria Mario’s.  It was quite the hole-in-the-wall, with handwritten menu on the door and a single crowded room.  We put our name on the list for six and waited.

Realizing that the restaurant wasn’t going to clear up anytime soon, the waitress comes to me with a question, in very rough English.  “Uh, first time here downstairs? Downstairs before? Been here?”  I answered no, thinking that was probably the right answer.  She replied, “Uh, downstairs little different.  Uh…like home. Come. I show you.”

So we all followed this lady downstairs to figure out what the hell she’s talking about.  She takes us to a room with three tables set up; two of them already filled with serious Italian locals.  The room was filled with boxes of wine and extra supplies and also meat hanging from the ceiling.  If it meant eating, we were in.  So we took the table.

The other two tables cleared out within five minutes of us sitting down, and we had the downstairs to ourselves.  The food turned out to be FABULOUS.  The service was great, and everyone agreed that it was one of the best meals we’ve had in Italy.  We felt like locals.  After getting some food in our tummies, we were all happy with the lunch choice.

What a success.  We also got some photos of the great meal.

After lunch was a whirlwind tour of the Santa Maria Novella church, a run by Orsanmichele, and then a sprint across the Ponte Vecchio.

What a day. 

Gabrielle

Midterms down. One paper this week and then traveling to Venice for three days! Another away weekend will be much appreciated. Tomorrow we’re visiting Florence as a class for the day. When we arrive, I’ll feel like such a pro having maneuvered around that city this past weekend without my chatty professors.

After taking my two midterms, I celebrated by watching the Bachelorette online. I was interrupted at 5 pm to go climb to the top of the clock tower in Orvieto. The whole class had to go climb. I’m not exactly sure why they chose the day we were all exhausted from studying to climb 300 stairs. But at least now I can check it off my list. Kulture. Gotta love it.

At the top of the bell tower in Orvieto.

My other celebration today was a delicious dinner in a cave. Remember when I visited the underground caves in Orvieto? Well, the restaurant we dined at tonight was built in one of them! My pizza tasted even better knowing that I was underground. And the last celebration of the night was gelato, of course. I got my usual flavors (fior di latte and capricco) and ate it outside on the Duomo’s steps.

Here we are at dinner. The delirium from midterms kicked in.

Gabrielle wants her shout out (and rightly deserves one): I skyped Gabrielle tonight before writing this blog post. Bene!

Un-Fun

This summer I’m spending five weeks traveling all over Italy. Pretty great, I know. But there’s a catch.

Midterms.

I have two midterms tomorrow for my classes. So, today has been lots of studying and preparing for everyone here—considering we were all away traveling somewhere great this weekend.

I’d hate to bore you with the information I’m forced to study, so I’ll go ahead and just get back to working.

Success

So second class seats are supposed to have air condition! On the train ride back from Florence today, we found our seats refreshingly cool. On my first train ride to Florence, we just happened to pick the one car with broken air conditioner. How lucky.

My weekend in Florence was a great success. I learned a lot from traveling on my own. Instead of blindly following professors, it was my job to get on the train, maneuver around the city, and plan the day. Florence was fabulous but much different from Orvieto. I’ll appreciate the next few days in our calm and quiet small town until Venice.

This morning before our train back to Orvieto, we made one last stop at the market. Walking around the city carrying half our luggage quickly made us tired and sweaty. Although, I did make a couple good purchases at the market.

The Florence train station is about ten times as big and twenty times as busy as the Orvieto station. Getting our tickets and getting on the train was more stressful this time around. Stepping on the 13:13 train to Orvieto and feeling a cool breeze made it all better.

Train ride back to Orvieto.

Caroline wasn’t back from her weekend trip to Cinque Terre when I got back to the room, so I took advantage of the emptiness. Showering got first priority then unpacking. I knew I would have to do laundry at least a couple times while in Italy. And by doing laundry, I mean hand washing clothes in the room. I made it up as I went: I filled the bathtub with hot water, put some soap in there (shampoo was all I had), threw some clothes in, and scrubbed. Caroline came home to numerous articles of clothing hanging all over the bathroom. Surprise!

I made a run to the super market after laundry. This was the first time going by myself, and that was obvious when I got lost walking there. I tried to casually turn around when I realized I was going the wrong way. My deli experience was much better. I spoke by few Italian words to order my cheese and was on my way.  

Being exhausted from the weekend and craving English, I turned on the TV to CNN when I made it back to the room. CNN is the only English channel we get. I fell asleep to it. After waking up from my nap, I watched an interview with the 22 year old guy that won the US open and anxiously awaited Caroline’s return. Then we shared lots of stories from the weekend. Yay.

Midterms and only a couple class days this week then a full weekend in Venice. More kulture coming your way.

Florence

What a weekend of kulture. Since I didn’t blog last night, I’ll give you the rundown from my past two days in Florence.

1.     Climbing to the highest point in Florence

To avoid long lines and sweaty stairs, I convinced everyone to climb the Duomo’s 463 stairs bright and early Saturday morning. The Florence Duomo (Duomo = cathedral; many big cities in Italy have a Duomo) is the highest point in Florence, or so I think. The Duomo has a huge dome on top of it designed by Brunelleschi. So on Saturday morning, we climbed the stairs from ground floor to the top of the dome to overlook the city. Sweating in the narrow and nauseating staircase was worth it when we reached the top.

My view from the top of the Duomo, overlooking Florence 

2.     Shopping with cow noses

Besides all the fabulous art, Florence is also known for its markets. The San Lorenzo market is filled with street venders, a bit like a flea market—lots of leather and scarves. The other market we visited is the Mercato Centrale. It’s a big mall filled with produce stands and meat markets. We planned to only look around for 45 minutes, but we quickly realized we needed more time (Rick Steves said you could spend a whole day shopping). My purchase at the San Lorenzo market was a very nice leather purse. It was a little pricey. But once the seller lit a match, pushed it against the purse, and it remained unharmed, I was sold. So now I’m sporting a great new purse.

The best purchase of the day was at Mercato Centrale: a 50 cent HUGE bottle of water. Water seems to be just as pricey as my leather purse here in Italy. Then I spotted the cheap water. Others on the trip have bought bottles 1/3 the size and three times the price. I’m pretty good at finding bargains.

Max and I with our best purchases of the day.

We also got some great roast beef sandwiches for lunch.

3.     Taking pictures of the pretty David

Everyone goes to Florence and sees the David. As in, THE David. Sculpted by Michelangelo himself. Well at the Bargello sculpture museum, there’s another famous David (by Donatello) that just isn’t quite as popular as THE David. Into order to kulture myself, I spent some time at the Bargello on Saturday. I learned about this inferior David in my art history class, so I appreciated seeing it. I also snuck a couple of pictures. Oops, photos weren’t allowed.  

The lesser David.

4.     Going to Italian mass

The Duomo, being a cathedral, also offers mass every Sunday. So this morning, I went to mass there. The whole thing was in Italian, so I really couldn’t understand anything. It wasn’t until AFTER mass that Keara and I found the program that had the whole mass written in English.

5.     Hanging with Botticelli

Florence’s two major museums are the Accademia (with the famous David) and the Uffizi Gallery. When we visit Florence as a class, we’ll be going to Accademia. So today we visited the Uffizi Gallery. My feet have never hurt so badly. I was told to wear comfortable shoes. But I didn’t. The most famous painting at the Uffizi was Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. I didn’t get to snap any pictures this time.

6.     Visiting the Ponte

When I decided that I was going to Italy this summer, I was instantly excited. What better way to show my excitement than change my computer background? So I googled “Italy” to find a good picture. I picked a picture with some pretty houses over water. Now that I’m in Italy, I realize that the picture I picked is a big deal. It was a picture of the “Ponte Vecchio.” The Ponte Vecchio is a bridge over the Arno River, towards the southern part of the city. It was one of the only bridges to not get destroyed during some war (kulture). Now very expensive jewelry shops line the entire bridge.

Ponte Vecchio behind me.

7.     Watching the birds

After walking the entire Uffizi, my feet needed a break. We sat on the Duomo steps with gelato (from the Grom—delicious) and did some people watching. The number of people walking around was incredible. But even more incredible was the number of birds flying around. We were sitting next to two children who also found the birds entertaining. They realized the birds were even more fun when they threw pieces of waffle at them. The birds fighting for the waffle pieces entertained us until the kids threw almost an entire waffle on the ground. The birds ATTACKED the waffle. Breaking into pieces, flying all over the place. As some pieces fell closer to us, the birds would swarm. One bird almost crashed into a lady’s head. The children were completely oblivious to the attack because their mom gathered them for a picture with the flock of birds fighting for the waffle.

Gelato outside the Duomo. 

Great weekend in Florence and heading back to Orvieto tomorrow. Let’s hope the train ride is just a tad cooler than 100 degrees… 

Second Class Seats

After a long two hour, non air-conditioned train ride, we finally made it to Florence. It is a group of six of us that travelled here together. We left after class finished to catch the train. The best part about my first train ride is that I almost missed it. The schedule board said the train was delayed 15 minutes, so Max and I decided to run and look for something to eat. Well thank goodness the only food place near by looked disgusting. We walked in and then walked straight back out towards the train station. As we neared the platform, we see the rest of the group hopping on the train. The board lied. The train came at 18:05, exactly on time. Even though they tried calling, it was clear that the group wasn’t going to actually wait for us. Every man for himself.

We arrived in Florence around 8 pm. Everyone went to the rooms to relax after the exhausting train ride. But since Max and I had missed out on food earlier, we went for dinner. And guess what? I saw someone I knew at dinner. AT DINNER IN FLORENCE. How crazy. It was someone I met at LASC a few years ago. Max made sure say the guy’s name loudly in conversation so that I could make sure it was actually the guy. It was. Thanks, Max.

Lastly, I would like to thank technology for skype. Lucky for me, our hotel in Florence has free internet so I skyped for the first time here in Italy. Thanks for spending a good couple hours chatting with me, Mitch. And you, too: Mom, Dad, Tyler, and, reluctantly, Trevor. Now Sam, you’re the only one left.

Roommates are still not back yet. When they went out, they gave me the key because we’re not supposed to take it outside the hotel. What’s up with that? Now, I have this medieval key that weights nearly 5 pounds sitting next to me as I wait for them. Well guys, hurry up.

Exploring Florence tomorrow. Expect some kulture. 

Fast Food

Bagnaia and Bomarzo. I had never heard of either of these places, but that’s where our adventures led us today. This morning after a quick breakfast we made the walk down the hill to meet our bus. Usually the bus rides put me right to sleep, but I think my body is finally curing itself of jetlag. Normal sleeping habits commence.

In Bagnaia, we visited the Villa Lante. Apparently, the villas in Italy are a big part of the country. Before our visit I didn’t know that—learning more kulture everyday. Hope you are too. Villas were used as getaways for rich people back in the day. The Villa Lante was a villa that belonged to the papacy. So whenever the pope needed a break, he could go there and relax. The whole villa was a huge, beautiful garden with fountains and a central lodge. I wouldn’t mind being the pope for a day.

Here’s the coolest picture ever taken at Villa Lante: got it on the first try.

After the Villa Lante, we went to Bomarzo. But it was near lunch time. And where else to eat some great Italian lunch in Italy than at the gas station? Well, that’s where we ate lunch. I decided to buy some Italian cookies and call it a day.

Italian gas station. Was there no better place to go?   

Bomarzo: a garden of weird statues. I’m not exactly sure what kulture there was to be learned at this place, but we went anyway. The statues were all huge, mostly monsters and mythological creatures. That’s all I have to say about it.

One of the many very large monster statues in the garden.

On the walk from the bottom of the hill (where our bus drops us off) to the top of the hill (where our hotel is), there is a place that sells gyros. It’s the closest thing to fast food in Orvieto. Unlike in America, where you can find just about any type of restaurant you desire, Italy only has Italian restaurants. The Italian food has been great, but I was craving something different. I decided on the way up the hill to stop and grab a gyros. Greek food at its best.

Tomorrow I’ll be traveling to Florence for the weekend! My train, which will be my first train ride of the trip, leaves after we finish classes. So for the next couple days, you’ll be hearing from me in Florence. Rick Steves has given me some suggestions for the weekend, but if you have any more for me, send them my way.

Another picture at the Villa Lante: Hunt Scholars in Italy!

500 Caves

Five hours of the same class today. Thank goodness we’re travelling tomorrow to the villas. I’m not exactly sure what the “villas” are, but I’ll keep you posted.

The highlights of my day today in Orvieto were 1) seeing underground Orvieto and 2) eating at the best restaurant here for the third time this week.

Underground Orvieto is a system of caves below the city, created a very long time ago. The tour guide did not speak very good English, so I zoned out for bits of her talk.  I know the caves were used for olive oil production and also raising pigeons.  Nearly 500 caves have been excavated, but that’s only half.  Many of the caves are private property, belonging to the people who own the land above the cave.  Often times, the owners use their cave as a wine cellar because of the temperature. And that’s all the kulture I have for today.

Our restaurant, Trattoria del Moro, is a hole-in-the-wall kind of place. Mom, please look up a recipe for “carbonara tradizionale.” I had this pasta twice within our three visits. Clearly, it’s delicious.

Outside Trattoria del Moro.

"Da Portar Via"

Classes today. Classes tomorrow. A trip the next day then Florence this weekend! I know I missed watching the Bachelorette last night, sadly. I don’t want to know anything.

I made another small grocery store run today during our long lunch break. Going in this time, I felt like a pro. The first time I went, I walked around the two aisle store nearly 10 times just to figure out where things were located. I had to carefully study pictures on all the packages, no reading possible. All in Italian. This time I knew the exact places I needed to look. Such a local.

Of course after the grocery store run, a gelato purchase was in order. I’m learning at a very fast rate how to operate in the gelato shop. They’ll have my order memorized by next week.

When we have class days in Orvieto, we also have a lot of free time. You must understand this little town. When we get out of class at 4:30, there is not much to go “do.” We’re not in a sightseeing town, as I mentioned earlier. That’s what all of our travel days are for. Let me give you a run down of an Orvieto local’s day: Open their shop at 9 am. Hang out in the streets. Work until 1 pm. Go home for lunch and a nap (about a 3 hour break). Come back later to open shops until dinner time. Hang out in the streets. Eat 3 hour dinners. Hang out in the streets. Go to sleep.

Clearly, Italians like to socialize and eat. At restaurants, waiters will never ask if you want the check and will never put it down without you asking. Many times you need to make a request for the bill multiple times before actually getting it 30 minutes later. If you don’t want to be out for hours, start asking for the check early. There’s some Italian kulture for you.

Caroline and I learned an important phrase today. We didn’t want to have a sit down dinner tonight and decided we wanted to pick up something instead. We ran into a cute pizzeria, and then I spotted the name in my Rick Steves! He gave it great reviews. We wanted the pizza to-go so we said, “Da portar via” and then enjoyed it on the terrace at the hotel. Bene!

Eating my delicious pizza on the terrace.

The Smell of Cheese

Waking up early this morning wasn’t so bad when I awoke to the news of the game last night.  LET’S GO MAVS! Champions.

Today we traveled to Siena and Piensa.  Last semester I took an “Introduction to Art History” course, which covered major artworks of the last few centuries.  I’ve been looking forward to seeing some of the major artworks here in Italy, and that journey started today! Mitch, I hope you recognize some of the art.

Siena is known for it’s Duomo (which is a cathedral, just like in Orvieto), the Duomo museum, and Il Campo piazza (the public square). Gabrielle, first Campo sighting!  In the Siena’s Duomo, I saw Pisano’s pulpit.  Every church has some sort of pulpit, but this one is extra special because the artist Pisano is famous.  I studied about this one in class so I was super excited to see it.

Here’s me in front of the pulpit.

I was looking at pictures of this in my textbook just a few months ago. Pretty neat, huh?

The museum was rather small (I think. I don’t normally do museums. Too much reading and thinking.), but it had very special art.  No pictures allowed in the museum, so I’ll just brag in words about famous pieces I saw.  Duccio’s Maesta altarpiece.  Altarpieces are decorations put in the front of the church.  The tradition started back when priests faced the front of the church, keeping their backs to the congregation.  I also saw Pietro Lorenzetti’s Birth of the Virgin and Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Effects of Good Government on the City and Countryside.  The Effects of Good Government was my favorite art today.  This artwork is a huge mural covering all four walls in a room in Siena’s civic building.  The entire painting tells the story of good and bad government.  As the class was gathered in the room, listening to our professor talk about the artwork, I realized we gained a classmate.  It was an old man (clearly just visiting the museum with his wife) in the middle of the sea of students, nodding his head to everything Professor Knox said.  Being the good student he is, the old man continued with our class through the rest of the tour.  Looks like I’m not the only one getting some kulture in Italy.

On Siena’s famous Il Campo. 

Many say it’s the most beautiful in Italy.

We hopped on the bus after lunch in Siena and traveled to Piensa.  Piensa is a very small city, known for it’s cathedral built by one of the popes.  We stayed there for a short time, and all I remember in the strong smell of cheese in the streets and the beautiful views.

By the city walls in Piensa over looking the gorgeous Tuscany countryside.

For dinner tonight, Caroline, Max, and I went to a restaurant in the Rick Steves book—Trattoria del Moro Aronne.  Actually, Caroline and I both went to the same place last night.  It was so good, we convinced Max to come and went again tonight.  At the restaurant, I spotted THREE DIFFERENT PEOPLE with their Rick Steves guidebooks.  I held mine up proudly so show that I was one of them.

Thanks again for the book, Mom.

Flaming Pigeons

According to the five week schedule, I will be traveling outside of Orvieto every other day, on average.  Three different times I will have three straight days traveling.  One weekend in Venice with the class.  One weekend in Florence.  One weekend in Cinque Terre.  For me, class days will simply fill the idle time between trips.  And today was a class day.  So you know what that means.

Good news about my classes: I do particularly enjoy one of them.  And it’s pretty much because of the professor.  Being a left-brained person, the art history stuff is hard to follow sometimes.  I always feel like the lessons could be more efficient and streamlined.  But then there is Giles Knox.  Professor Knox has an undergraduate degree in biochemistry.  I liked him from the moment he said that.  He did graduate work in art history, and that is why he’s here teaching us about art in Italy.  I find all his lectures, whether in the classroom or on site, to have a purpose.  He talks in an organized fashion.  And most importantly, when he’s done, he’s done.  Other professors like to go on and on, losing me to boredom.  Professor Knox knows where his lecture on a subject ends, and he ends it there.  And for that, I thank you.

Exciting things happened in Orvieto today. The quiet town turned into a huge celebration for Pentecost, which took place in the piazza in front of the Duomo. (If you’re truly kulturing yourself, you’d remember that the Duomo is Orvieto’s claim to fame.) Our professors had been telling us about the “flaming pigeon” show that was going to take place in the piazza.  A few of us walked over to see the spectacle.  The flaming pigeon wasn’t quite as cool as I expected, but still very interesting.  There was a zip line strung from one balcony to the top of the Duomo.  After hearing a band play, some fireworks went off and our eyes went straight to the zip line.  A container, decorated with fake flames, zipped down the line from the balcony.  When it arrived at the Duomo, the container flung open and two doves flew out.  Not quite as cool as a real flaming pigeon, but I’m glad I went—for the kulture.

Here’s me at the Pentecost celebration.

When the container hit the end of the string at the top of the altar, they flew out.  

The lineup for this evening is dinner and then lots of sleep to prepare for tomorrow.  Tomorrow, we’re making a trip to Siena and Piensa. I’ve read that Siena is a favorite in Italy.  After my trip, I’ll let you know how I liked it.  But more importantly, LET’S GO MAVS!  I won’t be able to see any of the game here in Italy, but I’ll be anxiously waiting to here the results. 

An Evening in Roma

Sam, I’m a terrible sister. I should have given you a shout out yesterday for your birthday.  Happy birthday, from your loving sister who’s really busy in Italy.

Today was Rome.  I was strangely awake this morning when my alarm went off.  Maybe my body knew a busy day was ahead.  After breakfast and a two hour bus ride, we arrived in Rome. 

In the Colosseum.

First thoughts: it’s really old.  During the next 5 weeks, I will be visiting two more times.  Every visit to Rome will be with the entire SMU group here in Italy.  The visit today was centered around ancient Rome.  That means, we walked around and toured the oldest stuff in Rome: the Pantheon, Colosseum, and the Roman Forum.  Sprinkled between our stops at each of these very old exhibits, we also stopped at “piazzas,” which are public plazas.  Our professors were our tour guides the entire time, talking into a microphone throughout the journey.  We all had ear phones stuck in our ear so that we could hear the professors at all times.  This also led to us hearing their conversations about happy hour and lunch.

During the Forum tour, we stopped at every station and listened to one professor talk in detail while we students scrambled to take notes, snap pictures, and avoid getting pick pocketed.  This made me very frustrated.  I would have much rathered just listened and observed, culturing myself of course.  Then Rick to the rescue!  I opened my Rick Steves book during one of the stations and realized that he knew EVERYTHING my professor was telling me.  So instead of taking mediocre notes, I just read along in my guide book.  I think I learned more that way because I wasn’t so annoyed.  Sam, thanks for convincing me that Rick Steves knows his stuff.

Pizza for lunch near the Colosseum.

One of the coolest things I saw today was a part of Rome that is now underground.  Let me explain.  When new structures were built in Rome, builders built them right on top of existing places.  Now the city is levels above what it used to be. The ground I walked on today was much higher than the ground the ancient Romans walked on.  Underneath one of the churches we toured, we got to walk the “real” ancient streets.  The church built on top of this area. Years later, the underground area was excavated so that people could walk down below and see original Roman streets.  Pretty cool.

Look, Mom! It says Cannella! 

(I'll rotate the picture later.)

A kulturing day for sure.  Also very hot, a little rainy, and a bit exhausting.  Ancient Rome was a little like a black and white movie for me.  I’m really looking forward to our next Rome visits, consisting of a private tour of the Vatican and a visit to the Trevi Fountain.  I don’t know how I’m going to sit through class tomorrow after learning in Rome today. 

Maybe I’ll just skip. 

Kidding, Dad. 

Tracchino

Adventures to tell you: first day of classes, excursion to the Italian grocery store, and the city for dead people.

I’m taking two classes while here in Orvieto.  I won’t bore you with too much information about them.  On Orvieto class days, we attend one class in the morning from 9:00 to 11:30 and then the other from 2:00 to 4:30.  So today, I did that.  Some class days are fields trips, and we travel to other places in Italy.  Jetlag wasn’t on my side in class today.  By 3 o’clock, my eyelids kept wanting to close on me.  On field trip days, I promise I’ll be much more attentive.   

For lunch today, I went to the Italian grocery store for the first time. It was quite an experience!  I browsed for a very long time before checking out because I couldn’t read anything.  My mission was to buy food to make sandwiches for lunch.  I found cheese that looked great in the package and then the only American chip brand, Pringles.  Then it was time for meat.  I wanted good turkey, just like I eat at home, but that meant communicating with the little Italy man behind the counter.  After watching a few Italian ladies make their requests and asking Katie for some tips (Katie is one of my friends from SMU that speaks a little Italian), I figured out what I needed to say.  I practiced a few times.  Then I felt good about my Italian order.  When my number was called, I confidently said, “Due l’etto tracchino.” (Two somethings of turkey. “L’etto” was the word everyone else was using to tell the man how much meat they wanted, so I used it too.  Katie used it before me and got what she wanted.)

The man understood! He said “turkey” and quickly went to grab the turkey and slice it for me.  Watching him the whole time, I realized I said it right and was so proud!  When he finished, the amount he sliced was exactly what I needed.  Enough to make several sandwiches.  The little man then turned around, ready to package the meat.  Then, heaven forbid, he asked me a question in Italian!  I was completely frazzled and had no idea what he said.  Perhaps I made my Italian meat request so perfectly that he thought I was a native. Probably not.  Feeling completely dumb and with no one there to help me (Katie had already walked outside), I replied, “Yes!” and gave him a thumbs up.

I guess he got the picture. He gave me my meat.  Next time, Katie, you’re staying with me the whole entire time.

Caroline (my roommate) and I with our new groceries.

 Sam- Guess what? Italy has vanilla Chupa Chups!

I spotted them in the grocery store as I was checking out. 

This afternoon after my second class, the professors took the students to one of the few tourist sights in Orvieto:  the Etruscan Necropolis.  It is the “city of the dead.”  Basically in Etruscan culture, dead people were so important that their burial sites were planned out like cities.  This Etruscan necropolis, created nearly 25 centuries ago, was made up of many tombs laid out in a grid.  The necropolis was very organized with paths connecting all the tombs in the area.  My professor said more of the city was still underground and had not been excavated.  How about that for some kulture?

That's me standing in one of the tombs. 

View from the hill where Orvieto sits. 

Later today we have a big group dinner, and then it’s Rome tomorrow.  Our day starts at 5:45 am tomorrow.  More on Rome tomorrow!

6330 Miles

Ciao! After 24 hours of traveling and nearly 6,330 miles of flying, I’m now in Orvieto, Italy.  The plane ride from New York to Rome was uneventful, minus the “electric power issues” that occurred as we were sitting in our seats READY FOR TAKEOFF. Talk about freaking me out before flying over the ocean for the first time in my life.  I thought about texting Mom and telling her I was scared but decided she was probably already nervous enough.  I quickly made friends with the girl sitting next to me because I needed some comfort. I told her how scared I was and she said, “Stop freaking out. Read your book.”  So I started reading my Ricks Steves’ Italy guide book and soon enough we were in the air.

After arriving in Rome, we took a bus to our new home for the next five weeks: Orvieto.  Orvieto is a small town between Rome and Florence.  If the town is known for anything, I think it’s the Duomo.  Since I’ve had so many questions about where Orvieto is located, I provided you unkultured hooligans with a map.

The town sits on a hill, and the bus only took us to the bottom of the hill.  The town is too small and quaint for the giant charter bus to drive through the cobblestone streets. We made a 15 minute walk from the bottom of the hill to the top where our hotel is. The program director, Professor Kathy Windrow (but we’ll call her Kathy), had given all the students a list of items not to forget to bring on the trip.  On that list was rain gear.  Of course it was raining when we got off the bus, and I had nothing to keep me or my laptop dry.  So as we’re briskly walking to the top of the hill, winding through the narrow alleys filled with shops, I spot umbrellas.  I bought one and gave the lady whatever money she wanted for it. I figured any price was worth not losing my laptop to the downpour.  A wise 5 euro investment.

The hotel where we’re staying is cozy and cute, right in the middle of the town.  We moved our stuff into our rooms, attended a quick orientation with the professors, then had a guided walk around town.  There are three professors on the trip and I think they are all going to be excellent.  One of them is an Italian native.  He has friends that own shops in Orvieto (that’s how native he is).  One of them is the creator of this SMU-in-Italy program, which began in 1984.  The other is Kathy.  As director, she’s running the show for the next five weeks.

Me and Caroline's beds. 

After the tour, a group of us went to dinner and enjoyed great Italian food outside on the patio.  Relying on my Rick Steves’ guidebook, we went straight to his recommended gelato shop near the Duomo after dinner.  I’m not the only Rick Steves geek in Italy.  Walking out of dinner, I saw an elderly couple, around the age of 75, sitting at their table waiting for their food.  The woman had a book open in front of her, and I instantly recognized the Rick Steves hand drawn map she was studying.  I leaned down, held out my guidebook and said, “Hey, I like your book.”  She looked up, saw our matching books and responded, “Ah, you have good taste.”

First gelato in Italy.