Stormy Times

On Sunday we decided to have a nice relaxing day. I don't think we realized how hard it would be to go to class 6 days a week. More specifically I don't think we realized how hard it would be to go to class 6 days a week and then spend our day off fitting in as many day trips as possible.

We realized that we had yet to hike to the top of the town. (In all of the pictures I post, the top of the town is the building surrounded by scaffolding, the Duomo (church).) We had the brilliant idea to hike up because the weather was cool so we figured we wouldn't die of heat exhaustion. As we started making our way to the top we realized that the storm clouds that seemed to be safely in the distance were starting to close in... did we stop? Nope. We are troopers.

We met up with Patrick and Allan (two boys in our class) who decided to join us for our hike. We made it up there (not before I almost busted my bottom by slipping while going up the incline of the "short cut") just in time. Look at the views of the storm. I have a video, and I am going to go to a restaurant in town to try to load it, but it is amazing. These pictures are too calm, the wind was amazing up there, I thought my camera might get blown away.

We made it down, and to Lauren's apartment, just in time. The rain started pouring and did not stop until late at night. While waiting out the storm at Lauren's (Lindsey and I naively thought it would stop at some point... since we did not have umbrellas or anything and were still a little far from home) Lindsey and I decided to investigate this random door in her apartment. Where does it lead? What's behind it? 

The best way to describe it would be a Scooby Doo episode (Lindsey playing Daphne and me being Velma - Thanks to Kate for helping me spell those correctly!). It was a dark and stormy afternoon, thunder was clapping and our imaginations were running wild. 

After finally figuring out how to use something (we tried butter knives, string, other random tools and items found around the apartment) to slide the latch back we unlocked the door and ran back up the stairs (we had completely sensationalized what may/may not be behind the door so we had freaked ourselves out).

We got Lauren to come and then explained to her that we thought she should open the door because she has a criminal justice background. She tried to point out that she is not an officer, and therefore was not a better choice than either Lindsey or I, but we didn't buy it. So Lauren went down the stairs to the door, opened it and ran back up.

We were not nearly as entertained by what was behind the door. No stolen art, no bodies, just junk. Apparently it is a storage space with paint and other odd items. A fun adventure anyways! :-)

I realized the other day you hadn't met Tulip! Lauren was smart enough to bring her dog with her for the summer, so we all claim her as our own since we miss our animals so much. Tulip (or Tulipana as the Italians call her) is an adorable, sweet, happy little puppy. I love her mainly because she is cat sized. It helps me resist the urge to "borrow" one of the cats I find outside my apartment. :-)

In her adorable bag.

Final updates to this blog and then I am officially caught up:

1. It is COLD (well... cold to a Florida girl) here... high of 69 today. We are going to try to get to Rome this weekend to buy a jacket or something. The clothes in the stores in Amelia are CRAZY expensive.

2. There was an earthquake on Monday night. We were out and about and I didn't realize it, but apparently other people had things shaking, etc. Neat! I lived through an Earthquake. :-)

3. The kids outside my apartment at night have decided to start using high pitch sustained whistling instead of talking... grrr. 

4. In Italy you cannot buy conditioner in a normal sized bottle. A 4 ounce container costs 6E, I don't get it.

5. You can buy a huge container of freshly made ricotta for 4 E.

We are going to a creepy sculpture garden today (you'll understand when I post pictures) so you should have something fun tomorrow. 

Ciao! 

The Whole Shebang

Ok, get ready for the longest blog ever. I am going to lump last week into one. I will try to be brief and entertaining. :-)

We are going to start at the Chalet. The Chalet is an outdoor bar in the park. Some of the girls and I will go to Zio Zeb pizza, order some pizzas and then walk over to the Chalet to enjoy a bottle of vino and the outdoors. I can't get over the location of the Chalet just yet. Europe is very diffent, case in point, the Chalet is positioned between two playgrounds and there are some toys AT the Chalet so that the children (we have seen infants to 13) that stay later than we do (we tend to leave around midnight) have something to play with.

Here is the actual bar. :-) We have got I would like a bottle of white/red wine with ___ glasses in Italian down pat. That's Lauren in the corner of the photo.

I have met two absolutely amazing people that I adore, John and Jane. John is in the program with me and Jane is his wife. They are, without a doubt, two of the most entertaining and kind people I have ever met. For instance, they are staying at a very nice palazzo (palace in Italian) and invited the entire class over for dinner one night. Here is a view of the backyard.

The food... oh the food. Jane is one of those people you wish you could be, but more than likely you'll never quite get it right. She and John run a business of their own, but oh no, she doesn't stop there, she is an amazing cook. She and her friend made all of the food for the dinner and I can say that I have never enjoyed an ENTIRE spread before in my life. Usually I will find one or two things I like, but not all. Not the case here, it was all delectable. 

The Palazzo is in the city walls of Amelia, and this is a view from the backyard.

So, the people that live and own the house are direct decendants of the original owner who was a Pope... or a Bishop... hmm... I'm going to have to look into that. Not a Pope... maybe a Cardinal? Maybe I should have waited to have my first glass of Prosecco until AFTER the tour.

The Palazzo is used as a B&B. In order to get a bathroom in one of the rooms, without affecting the structure of the home, they purchased this swanky piece and built a bathroom in it. SO neat!!

The view. I never get sick of these views and I hope you don't mind. They are not likely to stop anytime soon.

The Palazzo at night. I want a Palazzo. :-)

Suffice it to say that was my favorite night thus far. 

Next,  we went back to Crazy Johnny's (the place where we got the HUGE appetizer). It was just Lindsey, Lauren and I (I promise, I will start taking pictures of people soon) and Isabel and Michelle (two other friends) were at another table. 

Crazy Johnny's (that's not the actual name of the bar, I don't know the real name, but Johnny is the owner and he is crazy) is an experience in and of itself. The menu changes daily, so they don't print one... so you have to try to translate while listening to the waitress (NOT EASY). We have started asking for her notepad so we can read it. So we have had octopus here before, and weren't particularly wanting to have it again so we made sure not to order anything with Popoli in it... or so we thought.

Lauren and I ordered gnocchi and Lindsey ordered pan fried fish with basil... or did she? When her meal came out this is what she got:

A heaping bowl of baby octopi. YUUMMM!! I mean, they really do not taste bad. If you like fried squid (calamari) you'll like fried octopus. It's just the visual you have to get around.

So dinner was lovely and as we were wrapping up a huge group of handsome young men came in and sat at a few tables near ours. As we were getting ready to ask for the check (and finishing our 2nd bottle of wine... I'll help you do the math, 3 girls, 2 bottles) the boys sent over another bottle in exchange for a picture with their birthday boy. This is another example of, Amelians just like Americans. I can't imagine doing this in the States, walking up to a tourist and asking to take a picture with them, but it is always sweet and endearing. 

We took the picture and then started chatting. Amelia is a small town, and you know you are in a small town when you, as the outsider, start to make connections. Such as, our Italian Language teacher is apparently married to one of the guys that had been in the group, but left a little early. Turns out the group is the Amelian football (that's soccer for you American's) team and Monica's husband is the coach. I think Amelia could institute 2 degrees of separation and succeed easily.

To keep it short, we drank the third bottle of wine (only after enticing Isabel and our waitress to help), got another plate of fried octopus (the boys sent it over) and then dessert (the boys sent it over) then we went home.

A few days later we tried a pizza place that is quite a hike away, but has a view that is worth it. This is a picture of a house that we all claim we will own at some point in our lives.

This is a field of sunflowers. I cannot wait for them all to bloom. My mind cannot comprehend how beautiful that will be. 

View

The columns leading to the house we will all own one day. :-)

THE view. That is Amelia. It was an overcast day, so the pictures aren't as great as I would like, but you get the idea.

Nighttime view.

That's all for now! Ciao!

La Vida Loca

Oh the "charms" of Italy. We just got internet back after not having it for a couple of days. I cannot begin to explain to you how cut off you feel when you can't get in touch with anyone. Cellphone minutes here are quite expensive, so unless people call me, I am not calling them too much. I already blew through 45 euros worth of minutes. Yeah... crazy.. 19 days 45 Euros. YIKES!

Moving on. So what fun things should I update you on? I am going to cover my last weekend, but I am starting with a fun crazy story. 

Sergio is this man in town that we assume may be the town drunk. Everyone in Amelia looks at him like he is crazy (which he is) and he is always stalking people. Since our arrival we met two other American girls that are in Amelia, but not in our program. One of these girls has the severe misfortune of being the desired object of Sergio's affection. He will search for her all over town and sometimes will show up in our classroom because he assumes that since we are American we know were the other Americans are at all times. (this is a very hard thing to explain to the Italians... that we don't know all of the other Americans. Funny side note, when we were out an Italian boy asked Lauren if she was American, when she answered yes he asked if she knew Cindy Jones.)

Anyways (see... I am so excited to have internet and contact with you all that I am going on, and on, and on) below is a picture of a car on the median. Last Friday on our way home from class we noticed this big commotion. There was a huge crowd (which you can see) and some police cars, etc. So we realized it was a car accident... involving only one car. It seems that Sergio was driving his car (the tiny two door silver car below) and he decided to drive over a sign... the pole is visible in the lower right corner. 

Oh Sergio! The cops were laughing so hard. We aren't quite sure what led to him deciding to take the sign out with his car, but it was quite entertaining. Below is the sign. :-)

On Saturday we had an unexpected day off (we have class Monday-Saturday) and so Lindsey, Lauren, Kate and I trekked to Orvieto. Orvieto is a town about an hour away. Well... it is an hour away if you take the direct bus, which we didn't know existed until the end of the day on our way back, so we took two trains to get to Orvieto. One thing I have yet to get used to are the windy roads and the non-air-conditioned swaying bus. We typically get off and need to sit down and calm our stomachs. I am trying to remember to take ginger pills on those days. :-)

Our timing was remarkably perfect in Orvieto. We were completely unaware that something interesting would be happening, and when we arrived we were surprised to find tons of people in the square. They were unveiling a new statue in honor of the Corpus Christie Festival.

The firefighters unveiling the new sculpture! I have a video, but I think I will have to wait until I get home to share those with you guys.

We got gelato at the place below. Besides being absolutely beautiful it is regionally known for it's fantastic gelato. I got kiwi, blueberry and peach. Yummmm yum!

Here is another view of the Duomo after the unveiling. It is absolutely breathtaking in real life. I can't get over the size of things in Italy, you walk around the corner and are faced with the most beautiful awe inspiring things.

Another indication of our perfect timing, there was a Medieval procession going through the town when we went to leave. More men in tights (I swear, the Italian boys love tights). :-)

A close up shot for the ladies!

The view from Orvieto. Orvieto is a hill town, but it is very high. I think it would be pretty close to impossible to try to get to Orvieto without climbing equipment. The town has a trolley system installed because of the steep climb. It takes a trolley and a bus to get to the Duomo.

This is a view from the top of the trolley... or train... or whatever you want to call it. 

So then Saturday night we went to the Disco with our Italian friend Guilia (pronounced Julia, the Italians don't have J in the alphabet really). So... I have no pictures of this because I refused to be the American tourist... not that we don't stand out to begin with, more on that later.

We meet Guilia and she gets two of her friends to drive us to the Disco. Lindsey and I get in the car with two guys, Andrea and Agostini and set off on our trip to the Disco. About four minutes into the drive (we were told it would take about 5 minutes) we realized we were leaving the next town and driving up into the forest. Our American mentality had us convinced that Discos are in city centers, not in forests, so Lindsey and I started to plan our escape out of the car as soon as they stopped (I mean come on every horror film starts with two stupid girls driving into the woods with two boys they don't know). 

As we started to discuss how to dial 911 in Italian the road opened up a bit and we saw a massive amount of cars. Ah ha, apparently in Italy the discos are in the middle of nowhere on top of hills. Good to know. The disco was funny, it consisted of more opportunities for the Italians to take our pictures when they thought we didn't realize they were taking our picture and the DJ welcomed the American Girls. It is seriously like they have never seen American's before ever. Very entertaining!

We got home at 4:50am and had to meet at noon to go to our Dean's house in the country. Here is Madi's house (you can rent it if you ever want to head over to Italy).

This is the pool, yes I got in it, no I didn't get tan.

This is the view as the sun started to set (the sun sets at about 9pm here).

Another view... that's lavender in the foreground.

Another view.

There was a jazz band. The saxophonist is my friend Harasyn's house dad, very sweet very helpful. I love that they brought their instruments to a house party, so nice.

Sun setting....

My favorite sunset picture. I LOVE the mountain.

Ok... I am seriously working on catching up because I have about 3 more stories until we are up to today, and yet I am sure more stories will happen today, so I will try during class. :-) 

via Roma

I live on via Roma (Rome Street), so every time I goto write this blog I start out with via Roma, even though it isn't quite what I mean to be explaining. I figured you guys would allow me that liberty. So two Saturday's ago we went on a field-trip to Rome, I know, that in and of itself is amazing to say, a field-trip to Rome. However, because it was a class trip we weren't really able to run around everywhere. 

One of our first stops was at San Luigi dei Francesi, a beautiful church in Rome. We were stopping here because of the Caravaggio's that adorn one of the chapels there. Here they both are, the top one is The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew, and the bottom one is The Calling of Saint Matthew together they are The Inspiration of Saint Matthew. Obviously they are both much more impressive in person, but I thought you might appreciate it anyways.

I found the following angels to be quite interesting. If you look closely you can see that they are actually holding the balcony area up. I thought that was a nice touch. 

Next we went on to the Pantheon. I had missed this the last time I was in Rome, so I was very excited to see it (especially after seeing Angels and Demons). I cannot believe that I missed this the last time I was in Rome. Let me start with stating that this is by far one of the most amazing buildings I have ever entered. 

Once you walk into the building you are amazed by the enormity of the space. Here is a view of the dome with the famous hole at the very top.

However, my favorite part was this stray dog that wandered in. He was this adorably scruffy little dog and he simply walked in and relaxed on the floor. Once the security saw him this older man (below, in the blue shirt) tried to shoo him away (yes, I was "that" tourist taking pictures of all of this). What I loved the most is that when the security guy went to get reinforcements (he refused to touch the dog) the dog got up and proceeded to walk around the entire building as if he was a human visitor. When he got to the end and the police guy showed up he simply walked out of the building. I swear he must have been a person stuck in a dog's body, it was hilarious.

After the excitement of the Parthenon we all went on our own for lunch, then met at the Borghese Gallery for some more art fun! :-) No cameras allowed inside there, but here is a picture of us lounging outside (from left to right: Kate, Lindsey, Me, and Harasyn).

That's all for now! Ciao!