Stroll (aka Race) through Orveito

Orvieto, just another small town in Tuscany, or is it? We had our first Saturday Stroll yesterday and it was so much fun.  Orvieto is definitely a small town, but there was so much to see and so little time to see it, despite the fact that we were (mostly) all up before 7am to catch the train.  Some people rolled out of bed a little late, although none as late as Leanna who planned the trip! Colin’s phone call woke her up at 7:20 and it’s a 20 minute walk to the train station.  She barely made it to our train before it left at 7:43. 

Once we got to Orvieto, we took a tram up to the top of the hill. Once there, we walked into the old castle courtyard to see the amazing views of the countryside/city below.  The fog and clouds made it hard to see much, but it was still a great view.  We got some great pictures and then headed into the city to find some caffeine and the Duomo (the city’s cathedral) so we could buy our tourist tickets. A few of us got a little lost from everyone else because we got distracted taking pictures, but we eventually found the Duomo and it was beautiful:

 

 After we bought our tickets, we walked through the interior of the cathedral, which was just as amazing as the outside.  It was massive inside and the frescoes were magnificently preserved.  Everything was in such amazing colors and the contrast of the bright paintings and the black and white walls and floors was incredible. We didn’t have much time inside because we had a tour of the city’s underground, but one could definitely spend hours staring at the frescoes and still not take it all in.

Orvieto has a huge underground, with over 1200 caves beneath the city. They had a variety of uses, including storage, bomb shelters, quarries, and olive oil making.  We visited two of the caves, one that was a quarry/olive oil press and another that was a pigeon roost. Getting into the caves was rather interesting, especially for those of the group that were over 6 feet tall.  The olive oil cave wasn’t so bad, but getting into and through the pigeon roost was definitely interesting. At one point, we ascended a very steep and narrow staircase that wasn’t bad for me, but Connor (who is about 6’5”) barely made it up.

 We also went down into a well on the edge of the city that is 175 feet deep. The stairs were steep and set at an awkward incline, but we all made it to the bottom and back up.  It was a little daunting, especially with the damp steps and having Colin and Michael racing through the well, but it was a lot of fun.  We definitely got some good pictures out of it too.  After we escaped the well, we attempted to find the Etruscan Necropolis ruins just outside the city, but we got lost several times in the process. We went to the museums by the Duomo instead, which were cool but were just expansions on the Ivan Bruschi museum that we had already seen here in Arezzo.

However, we did get directions to the ruins and we managed to find those as dusk started to fall.  The walk to the ruins wasn’t horrible and the Necropolis was breathtaking.  I was really grateful that I had taken that Roman Religion class last semester because I knew a lot about the necropolis and why it was outside the city and how it was used.  We spent a little time walking through the ruins and enjoying the sense of peace that the ruins radiated. 

Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time before we had to rush back up the hill and through the city to catch our train back to Arezzo.  While the walk down to the ruins hadn’t been horrible, the race back to the top was brutal.  The stairs and inclines were almost cruel at this point in the day, and by the time we go to the top we were all wheezing.  On the bright side, we made it back to the train with time to spare.

The cliff that we had to run back up from the ruins

It was a really fun and exhausting day.  We all walked almost 12 miles throughout the city and were on our feet from 7am to 8pm other than the hour train rides and the hour for lunch.  Definitely need a plan before we set out on our next Saturday Stroll. 

Carnevale in Arezzo

We had our second Getting to Know Arezzo yesterday.  We got to learn about Carnevale, which was so much fun.  We started out in class watching various videos about the different ways in which the towns practice carnevale.  Some towns do the typical parades and balls, but there is one town that has the Battle of Oranges every year.  It is literally a bunch of people that run around throwing whole oranges at one another! And only the people on top of the wall are wearing masks! Tourists are invited to watch or even partake in the battle, but the citizens really do it for themselves.  There have to be some serious bruises after that particular carnevale.

After we finished in the classroom, we took a bus to a nearby town called Castiglion Fibrocci.  We visited a little workshop where local volunteers make the masks and costumes for the town’s festival.  The people were so excited to see us and tell us about the masks and how they made them.  They even insisted (not that we were objecting) on letting us try on the masks! They were so cute and so excited.  Not to mention these were gorgeous, priceless, and one-of-a-kind works of art! Just trying on these masks meant for such an important event probably wouldn’t happen back home in the states.

Afterwards, we went to a museum that had some of the prize winning costumes from past years.  They were just as gorgeous as the pieces that we had just seen at the workshop, but infinitely more creepy.  They had actually painted eyes onto the manikins that the costumes were displayed on.  They were all through this little house, in the alcoves and even at the bottom of a couple of staircases.  They would definitely make an amazing monster on Doctor Who! Beautiful, with that touch of creepy that puts it over the edge. 

After we got back to Arezzo, we went shopping on the Corso Italia, the main street of Arezzo.  We went to a lot of stores, although all I bought was a pair of Timberland booties.  I needed a pair of shoes since I’m already wearing through a pair of shoes that I have here with me.  I also wanted a pair that would hold up over the next few months with all the walking that I’ll be doing!

I was going to combine this post with what we did today, but that will definitely run long so I’ll start a new one! In the meantime, pictures!!!

Exploring Italy, and Maybe Europe

Well, I’ve been staring at a blank page for about 5 minutes now trying to figure out what to write.  With it being the first week of classes, not much has really happened so far.  We did have our last two orientations yesterday, mostly about being safe on our travels while we are here and registering our trips so they know where we are.  Actually, we got to go to a grocery store here called Coop, which was interesting.  It’s kind of like a Walmart, but without the clothes and outdoor stuff.  It was the first time I had gotten out of the historic district of Arezzo since we got here, which was nice.

I’ve been trying to figure out what I want to do for spring break.  I want to go to the UK and maybe Paris, but I’ve got to figure out some sort of plan.  I’ve looked at some of the pre-arranged travelling tours, including some for students that are relatively cheap.  There’s one in Paris that takes you to the Eiffel Tower and to Versailles, which would be really cool.  I also really want to go to Scotland.  I was going to go to Ireland, but since the break is during St. Patrick’s Day, I’m not sure that’s a good idea!  I don’t know if anyone from the program wants to go to those places as well, so it’s been a little difficult to plan.

We’re supposed to have a “Saturday Stroll” this weekend that Leanna and Colin are planning, but we don’t know where we may be going yet! It’s supposed to be to the small towns near Arezzo, so it should be fun! And next weekend is our overnight trip to Padua, which is near Venice where Carnival is happening right now! We’re planning on staying a second night to go walk around Venice for the day and see the sights.  Should be a great time to get some pictures. 

Breakfast at Bar Bruschi

 Lunch at La Tua Piadina

The Bruschi's Pastry Shop

Live and Learn

Living with the Bruschi’s is going really well.  I went out with the sisters, Federica and Francesca, on Friday night to walk around the town and ended up running into some of the other OUA girls.  We went to a bar called My Way, which wasn’t exactly fabulous, but it had karaoke that we Americans kind of took over.  We scared the Italians off with a slightly overzealous rendition of Don’t Stop Believing, but it was fun.  Stefania and Domenico, the parents, are really great too.  Stefania is constantly trying to feed me.  On Saturday night, we had bruschetta, a quiche, and some beef that was covered with a tuna sauce that I was not a fan of.  Since I didn’t eat the meat, Stefania made me more bruschetta and then went down to the pastry shop to get some pastries to feed me.  Honestly, I was fine with the quiche and bruschetta! And last night she fed me two separate desserts and then tried to give me a third one!

Don’t get me wrong, the food is fantastic, but I just don’t eat that much (not any more at least)! And on top of that, the Italian eating timetable is much later.  They don’t eat lunch until about 2 and their dinner is around 830 if not later.  My whole schedule is all screwy right now! Thankfully, we’re getting our work schedules this week, so hopefully that will help.

View from the top of the hill down the Corso Italia

Classes finally started today!  I had my Italian and Italy through Italian Film classes.  The Italian class wasn’t bad, just like any other first day of a language class.  We went over some basic phrases and how to pronounce the vowels and some of the consonants that are different from English pronunciation.  My Film class, on the other hand, took forever.  It’s from 4 to 7 pm and we were all half asleep.  All we did was talk about Italian history, which isn’t exactly super boring, but the professor has a very thick accent to she was hard to understand.  Not to mention, the room we were in had terrible acoustics, so that made it even worse. 

On the bright side, we went back to this fantastic place for lunch called La Tua Piadina. They’re fast, cheap, and pretty healthy as well, which is definitely needed here.  Between classes, we got gelato and a coffee.  Well, I something that was supposed to resemble cioccolata calda (hot chocolate) but was more like hot pudding.  It tasted fine, but I would have had to spoon it out of the cup and that was just way to much work in the short amount of time that we had.  The cioccolata calda that Mamma Stefania makes me is much better. 

Tomorrow I have my Everyday Evolution class.  I may end up dropping Italian film and picking up the Contemporary Environmental Challenges classes. Lots of kids are in the film class, but I just don’t like sitting there for three straight hours.  My attention span isn’t that long, even after three years of lifeguarding!  At least I could potentially apply the environmental challenges class to my everyday life. 

Anyway, I’ll let y’all know how tomorrow goes! I may go shopping in the morning since everything is on sale right now.  And I can’t go between classes because of the afternoon siesta (everything closes 1-4). 

Il Mercado

I now know why so many Italians are in decent shape despite all the food they eat.  By noon I had already walked 4.5 miles! The past few days I’m averaging about 3 miles a day, and most of that is up and down hills.  We are definitely going to have some fabulous calves by the end of this semester.

We went to the Mercado this morning, which is a weekly flea market in Arezzo.  It was a lot of fun, even though I didn’t buy anything.  It was almost a full mile long, filled with clothes and shoes and other random things.  The food was toward the back of the Mercado, with people selling fresh fruits and veggies, cheese and meat, and some food truck type stands as well.  It was a lot of fun, even though I didn’t buy anything.  I did get some cool pictures of the fruit and candy stands though! 

One of a Couple Fruit/Vegetable Stands

I'm not really sure what these are, but they were super colorful.

Arezzo, The City of Wonders

Wow.  It’s only Thursday and it feels like it’s been at least a week already.  The past couple days we had orientation, which was mostly just meeting the staff here in Arezzo and filling out some paper work.  For dinner, we went to this amazing restaurant called Mariano’s on the Corso Italia, the main street in the historic district of Arezzo.  We actually got to meet Mariano himself, who was the quintessential Italian chef.  We started off with this cool little vegetable cake that was kind of like a quiche.  I’m not really sure what it was, but it was delicious.  Then we had a dish that was pasta, but not really, followed by lamb shin and mashed potatoes.  By the time that the second course had finished, I was already stuffed and we still had two courses to go! How do the Italians do it?! Lucio, who is one of the OUA staff and was born in Arezzo, polished off every course with gusto.  I honestly have no idea where he put it because he isn’t much bigger than I am!  Personally, I got back to the Giuliani house and slipped into a coma. 

                                     

                                      

Today, we went on a tour of historic Arezzo.  We were shown the coat of arms that are still present on a lot of the buildings, and our guide told us about how Florence took over Arezzo.  Her description was that even after Florence took over, Arezzo did a lot of little things to spite the Florentines.  The two cities seem to have a mutual hatred of one another, but it’s all bark and no bite.  We went to a museum that belonged to an antique collector by the name Ivan Bruschi (I’m not positive on the spelling) who died in 1996 and requested that his home become a museum.  He’s actually a relative of my host family.  The Bruschi family is very prevalent in Arezzo.  Not only do they have the pastry shop, the also own a bar and a couple other places around the city, or so I was told. 

After the tour, we had to go to the post office to submit our Permesso di Soggiorno Kits, which is just permission to live in Italy for the four months that we’re here.  It was an interesting process, considering it mostly consisted of standing at the counter and handing over the packet and passport while Lucio ran around to the various students helping them and swiping the University card to pay for the packet.  The Post office was gorgeous though.  The ceilings were covered in beautiful paintings and sculptures, nothing like the dingy little holes back home.  I wish I had taken a picture, but I felt like that was little too touristy at that point.  We have to go to the police station in March to finish the process, which I think is odd since it’s halfway through our time here in Italy! Italian time I guess.

Tomorrow we are going to the flea market in what I think is the more modern part of the city.  It’s supposed to be really cool and filled with color and people.  Leanna said that we need to throw our American personal space bubble away if we plan on going, since the people crowd close as is the Italian way.  We also need to watch our wallets, since it is prime pickpocket territory.  Should be fun!

Italy, Finally

I finally made it Arezzo.  Well, technically I made it about 3 hours ago, but I had a snack, unpacked a little, and took a nap.  After going for 48 hours on 6 hours of sleep, it was definitely needed.  Especially after the annoying trip that I had.  After my delay to Frankfurt, I made it to my next connection with about 10 minutes to spare, but my luggage didn’t make it with me.  Thankfully, it was on the next flight in from Frankfurt and, since I am doing a homestay, it didn’t really hurt anyone all that much to wait for my luggage.  After losing Lucio, one of the OUA employees, in the airport and having an interesting time getting back through into the baggage claim area, we were finally underway to Arezzo.

It was a beautiful drive from Rome to Arezzo, although the first half kind of resembled driving through the Arbuckles in Oklahoma but with Italian houses perched on top! Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures during the drive.  A) I really wanted to sleep and B) apparently lanes and merging in Italy are more of suggestions than anything, so I was trying to keep an eye on the road.  The driver of the van used all three lanes of the highway as he pleased.  I think the only time he stayed in his lane was when he was passing people.

Anyway, I have made it to my host family and they are wonderful.  Neither of the parents speak English, but that’s okay.  Means I’ll have to pick up Italian quick! After we put my suitcases in my room (which I’ll talk about in a minute), Federica gave me a quick tour of the house and then Stefania, the mother, made me a mozzarella and prosciutto sandwich.  She also kept offering me a bunch of other things while I ate it, including two different juices, a bowl of fruit, and several kinds of yogurt! Federica had to go to class after that, so I went back to my room to unpack a bit and sleep. 

Which leads me to the amazing room that I have.  It is surprisingly large for a Europe, and is complete with a bed, a wardrobe, a dresser, and a desk.  I also have my own bathroom with a shower, toilet, bidet, and vanity.  I’m not sure I’ll use the bidet at any point, mostly because I have no idea how! The ceilings of the room are over 10 feet high and have exposed woodwork.  I also have a window that looks out over the street below.  While I’m technically just staring at the neighboring house, it’s an Italian house so it’s much prettier to look at! I should probably reach out and close the shutters for the night (I think), but it’s cold outside and I’d much rather leave them open!

My beautiful bed.

The View out my window.  

It looked much better in daytime, I promise.

Well, I’m sure I’ll be posting quite frequently this week, so I guess I’ll wrap it up here. We are having tortellini for dinner I think, although I’m not incredibly hungry right now.  I’m sitting with the girls who are studying for their tests that are coming up soon.  It may only be noon there, but it’s nearly seven here, which I’m not sure I’ll be getting used to anytime soon.  Goodnight from Italy!