Day #66 in Orvieto

April 29, 2013 - Monday

I woke up wide-awake at 5:30am on Monday morning at Heather’s! I was so ready to go at 5:30 but my alarm didn’t go off until six, and by the time I got up at 6, I was exhausted. So weird. Heather drove me to the train station (I keep calling it “the airport”) and on the way there, we stopped at a café to get a cappuccino and they had muffins there! It was such a good muffin, which was odd because it was like the healthiest muffin ever. So many nuts and healthy things in it but it was surprisingly good/different from an average croissant. Anyways, she dropped me off at the train station and I had a good amount of time before the train. But my train was on the really far track which takes about ten minutes to walk to once you’re in the station – it’s pretty deceiving because it doesn’t even look that far away. The train back to Orvieto was fairly empty, but we randomly stopped on the tracks for ten minutes, and then continued on, but then the train was ten minutes behind! So I was supposed to arrive in Orvieto at 8:43 and take the funicular that runs at 8:50, but I got in at 8:53 and had to take the funicular that starts at 9:00 (CLASS TIME). So long story short, I arrived to class at 9:07 but it wasn’t a problem. And I had a feeling that even if my train was delayed a little bit, I would definitely be late. But thankfully I made it and arrived only a few minutes after class had started! After class we had chapter meeting in the sunshine, a great lunch, Italian class with Alessandro, which was fun because he told us a few jokes in Italian – although we didn’t laugh until he repeated them to us in English. I went for a walk with Jenna on Via del Popolo and soon Laura and Sara joined us. We made some secret plans for the rest of the week. I’ll write about the secret on Wednesday!

In the afternoon, I crashed and had to take a long nap before dinner. Which was going really well until the church bells started to ring at 7:23pm. Like… why would they do that? So after my interrupted nap, we had the usual dinner/Internet/cleaning/homework time for the rest of the night. I had a good amount of work to do but it was interesting stuff to work on. I read a bit more of Dante’s Inferno and I had to write a sonnet about an “encounter” that I’ve had with someone. 

Also, here are a few more pictures from Capalbio and the Garden of Tarot. :)

Day #65 in Orvieto

April 28, 2013 - Sunday

My alarm was SO LOUD this morning when it went off at 6:30. I'm not really sure what happened to it but it was blasting. I was packed and ready to go to Heather's, ate breakfast, and left the monastery at like 7:29 because I thought the funicular started running at 7am. But as I was walking over, it was obviously closed and there was a small bus parked in front of the funicular. I started running to the bus (because I remembered that the last bus goes at 7:30) and the doors on the bus started to close but I frantically jumped in as the doors tried to crush my backpack. Awkward. There were five American girls on the bus and they had about ten suitcases with them. I think they were leaving their semester in Orvieto (there are 2-3 groups of American students here) so they were like "Byeeeeee Orvieto!" as the little bus zoomed around the mountain to get us to the station. It was weird because that will be me in less than two months! Ah. Too scary to think about. 

Anyways, I made it to the train station, feeling pretty awesome because I was all by myself - being independent and stuff. Unfortunately, the "Euro night" train was what brought me to Rome. Apparently that's the train goes all the way from Germany to Rome at night. It was packed and I had to sit on one of the little seats in the aisle that pops out from the wall (kind of like a small ironing board). Soon we arrived in Rome though, and I had a few minutes of running around because I needed to buy a ticket to Trastevere... which wasn't hard at all, but I made it more difficult for myself by running around the train station when I didn't need to. But it wasn't a big deal because I took that short, 12 minutes train to Trastevere where Jon and Kilo picked me up from the station. Then we were off on our adventure to Capalbio, a town in Tuscany! I have a few pictures from Capalbio but I'll post them tomorrow, because I don't have my camera with me right now... 

We had lunch in Capalbio and I had some pasta with wild boar meat! Cinghiale meat. Orvieto loves wild boars (there is a stuffed wild boar on every street corner), but I always forget the word for wild boar, "cinghiale," and I usually want to say "chimichanga" instead. 

Then we went to the Tarot Garden, which seems impossible to explain and even my pictures don't really show what it was like. It was a lot of really cool sculptures. Since that's an awful explanation, here's the website: http://www.nikidesaintphalle.com/

After that, we made our way back to Rome and went somewhere for dinner where we got the best steaks ever! Seriously, so good. Once again, I can't even explain how good they were but they were sizzling and awesome. I was so excited that I burnt my mouth on the first bite, but it didn't stop me from eating the whole thing. After dinner, we went to "the keyhole." We went up this hill and there were a few people looking through the keyhole of a door. When you look through the keyhole, you can see the dome of St. Peter's Basilica!

In the Tarot Garden

STEAK

I took this picture from Google... but this is what it looked like. Except we were there at night!

Day #64 in Orvieto

April 27, 2013 – Saturday

Today was really cold and rainy but I can’t even remember the last time it rained here. It’s been so sunny every day! I slept in, went to the travel agent to get train tickets (because I’m going to Rome to meet Heather tomorrow), then I walked through the market on my way back to the monastery. The market was closing up though because it was starting to rain, so unfortunately the dried fruit stand was already gone – this was a little bit depressing but it was probably for the best. We had a new kind of pasta at lunch and I have no idea what it was but it was sooooo good. Kind of like mini lasagna noodles with cheese and artichoke stuff. I think. It was easily one of the best lunches we’ve had! After the pasta, we had meatballs. We often have these at Locanda and they’re good… but the first time we had them, someone said that they look like cat food and so now it’s a struggle for me to eat them whenever they are served for lunch. They’re actually really good, but once I am reminded of the cat food comment on Day #1, I can’t think about anything else when I start to eat them…

Anyways, that was random. After lunch, I went straight back to my room and took a nap for the rest of the afternoon because I’ve had a cold for the past few days (again!). Since it was so rainy and cold outside and I wasn’t feeling well, it was a good day for a nap. Then I had to read most of Dante in Love, which is actually interesting because it gives a lot of background information on Dante and The Divine Comedy. We are making our way through the Inferno now, so it’s nice to read Dante in Love at the same time. We had dinner at the monastery, then Internet time, and pretty much just hung out and read some more before bed! 

This is such a random picture but this is our sala / living room! Which is where I spent most of my day today... 

Day #63 in Orvieto

April 26, 2013 – Friday

Today was an average (but wonderful) day to start the weekend. We had a brief chapter meeting in the morning, ate breakfast together downstairs, and then I ambitiously decided to go for a run after breakfast. It looked pretty cloudy out but I didn’t think it would rain during my run… it did. About ten minutes in, it started to rain – more than a sprinkling rain but not exactly pouring rain. So I had a few minutes of indecision before I decided to just return to the monastery to get ready for lunch. After lunch, Jenna and I went on a walk around town (there are still a lot of tourists in the streets and we’re wondering if this is what the next few months are going to be like!). We walked by the duomo, went into a few leather shops, mostly because I had a dream that I bought a whole leather shop last night. After walking around, we met everyone else at the tourist center because everyone wanted to do this Orvieto Underground tour that we’ve been planning to go on since our first week here. So our appointment was at four and we followed our tour guide down into two of the caves. Apparently there are 1200 caves under the hilltop town of Orvieto but most of those are still wine cellars and basements for private residences. So we only went in two of the caves but the tour still lasted for about 45 minutes. I took a few pictures but it was pretty dark down there. In the first cave we went into (cave #563), our tour guide told us how it used to be an Etruscan temple, but was then made into an olive oil press room, then a wine cellar, and then turned into a well in the middle ages.

In the next cave, cave #6, there were multiple rooms where pigeons lived. There were little pigeonholes in the walls, a window so they could go outside, and then a “watering hole” so they could drink. The Etruscans needed these because when they were under attack for two years, they didn’t leave the cliff during this time and they needed food and water – food from the pigeons and water from these wells.

Anyways, the caves were really cool! The day ended with pizza for dinner and then a “sleepover in the sala” at the monastery. Pretty much this sleepover included the movie, What about Bob?, a double batch of brownies (I KNOW. EXCITING), and everyone retreating back to their rooms at 1am to conclude the sleepover. Pretty much I felt like I was home because we were eating brownies and watching a movie that is set on Lake Winnipesaukee (but not filmed there, apparently…).

View of lower Orvieto from inside the cave!

What used to be the Etruscan temple 

Pigeonholes

Day #62 in Orvieto

April 25, 2013 – Thursday

I just wrote the date as “Orvieto 25, 2015.” Like… what? Not sure what’s up with that… but I did just wake up from a nap so maybe that’s why I’m confused.  Anyways, today was our last day of class for the week! Which is so crazy because I feel like this week just started. We just finished reading Vita Nova by Dante and now we’re working through the Inferno. The painting class is also incorporating the Inferno into their final project so during class today, we went down to the studio to read the first canto/chapter out loud to them while they painted. Which was a nice way to spend part of class, and it’ll be interesting to see what their final projects are in a few weeks! After class and an early lunch at 12, Laura, Sara, and I walked around to some venders and eventually made our way to the duomo. It’s Independence Day here so there are a million people out on the streets, so we took a few back roads on our way back to the monastery.

In other news… I almost saw my favorite cat, “Happy Cat,” almost get run over by a car which was more traumatic for me than it was for him, I think. He just casually rolled out from underneath it while I was freaking out. Happy Cat made another appearance today during our (silent) midnight soccer game at the soccer field near our monastery! It had to be a silent game though so we wouldn’t bother the neighbors. Anyways, Happy Cat watched us play the whole game and then when we were all sitting in the middle of the field, he came over to play. But then he started to get too feisty and it wasn’t fun anymore because I didn’t want to get rabies from him or anything. So I didn’t play with him anymore… also I don’t think we should call him Happy Cat now because he was a little aggressive. 

Chillin in our courtyard

Happy Cat chasing me into the monastery. I shut the door right after this picture

Day #61 in Orvieto

April 24, 2013 – Wednesday

Laura and I are going to visit Kelly in Edinburgh!!! From May 9-12th. It’ll definitely be a crazy/busy weekend with a lot of traveling on the first and last day but the flights were pretty cheap and we really want to go visit Kelly! Thankfully, after three visits to the travel agent, we were able to figure something out that didn’t conflict with class (because this isn’t an “official” travel weekend” but it’s the last weekend Kelly will be in Edinburgh). Our flights are cheap because we leave super late at night and then we have to return really really really early on Sunday morning. I’m so excited! It’ll be so nice to actually see the places that Kelly’s been talking about and to see her again, also. I can’t take credit for these pictures because they’re obviously Kelly’s… but hopefully Laura and I will get to see these places too when we visit in TWO WEEKS!

Day #60 in Orvieto

April 23, 2013 – Tuesday

Today was our first 3-hour Dante class, and it was really good! We did a lot of writing and poetry as we tried to “imitate” Dante, which doesn’t sound like it would be that fun, but it was pretty enjoyable. I’m excited about the class although it will definitely be a lot of work. After class, we had chapter meeting and Prof Doll was there! He was in the States this past week and he brought us back a ton of candy which was so exciting and it made chapter meeting significantly more exciting and interesting (not that it isn’t always exciting…). We went to lunch as usual and then came back to the monastery to do some work. Laura and I went to the travel agent this afternoon because we wanted to figure out if it was possible to visit Kelly in Edinburgh within the next month. The travel agent told us how much it would cost so then we left because we weren’t sure but then a few hours later, we returned to the travel agent. So indecisive! But then something was wrong with her computer so we ended up leaving again, ticketless! We’ll try to go back tomorrow though.

For the last hour before dinner, I decided to go on a walk around the perimeter of Orvieto, which was so peaceful, and I hadn’t been to visit the duomo in a while. It’s weird because the duomo looks so different at any point in the day, depending on where the sun is. Today it looked glowing and almost orangey-yellow in the sunset. Anyways, then I went to dinner (soup) and we all went back to the monastery for Internet time and the movie, Megamind! I didn’t really watch the entire movie though because I had to read a little bit and write a poem for class tomorrow. 

Reflection

How can two months seem like the longest amount of time but also like the shortest amount of time, simultaneously? While part of me feels like I was just sitting at home over an incredibly long winter break (where I watched Netflix and hung out with middle schoolers), the other part of me feels like I’ve been in Italy forever and will be here forever. But I also only have two months left! Which once again, feels so long and so short. When I think about the two months until June, I can’t believe I won’t see my family (and cat) for another two months, but then I start to panic and think “I ONLY HAVE TWO MONTHS LEFT.” Because I know that these two months will go by so quickly and I’m going to miss it once I’m gone! If only it was so easy to be in two place at once.

It’s also crazy to think about everything that’s happened in two months - I went to three times and plan to go back again, Florence twice, Arezzo, Pisa, Corneglia, Manerola, Riomaggiore, Siena. I’ve spent my days with nineteen other people that I only met two months ago and had no idea what it would be like when we first met at the airport on February 23^rd. I can get around Orvieto now without getting lost (for the most part). I’ve realized that I love to go on trains because it feels like an adventure but I also love to be back home in Orvieto after being away for a day or a few days. I’ve never seen greener grass than Siena’s and I’ve never seen better sunsets than Orvieto’s (except for sunsets back home on Lake Winnipesaukee). I didn’t know how much I would love gelato or that Orvieto sometimes has more cats that people in the streets. I didn’t know the kind of friendships that happen when you live together, eat together, go to class and church together, and travel together.

Having only 1 ½ hours of internet time is challenging but so simplifying. I don’t need to check my phone throughout the day and if I really need something, I can go to a café for wifi. But there isn’t the constant pressure of always being available online. I don’t feel homesick in the sense that I would go home if I could, but I do miss my family and wish they could share this with me because I know they would love it here. So I don’t really miss home but I do miss my parents, my grandparents, my brother, sister, and cats. I also miss Dunkin Donuts iced coffees and Grammie’s cooking, but other than that, that’s the only food I miss. :) I miss my friends too but I’m used to being away from them for months at a time.

I’m excited for the lake this summer, seeing my friends, preparing for field hockey, and working at the preschool camp. But there’s still so much that will happen here before then! A trip to Assisi with the group, a trip to Pompeii and other parts of southern Italy, possibly Edinburgh with Laura to visit Kelly, two more classes (Dante and Poetry), visiting Heather a few more times in Rome, more hikes to la Rocca Ripesena, day trips to Lake Bolsena, Saturday mornings at the market, cooking lessons with Hannah, days working at the farm, and more gelato of course! :) How will I fit everything in?!?

La Rocca Ripesena 

Disegno book projects

Colosseum

With stub-tail-cat

The girls in Rome

Rome with my roommate!

Museums in Rome

Laughing with Alessandro at the art show

Our first day in Orvieto

Adrianno's 

Arezzo

Sunset Park

Siena

La Musa

Riomaggiore

Riomaggiore

Orvieto sunsets

Cat city

Orvieto Duomo

Ligurian Sea

Day #59 in Orvieto

April 22, 2013 - Monday

Today was the first day of our new class! Professor Foster from Wheaton will be teaching the Dante class that I’m in. We had a short class today because he just arrived last night, but it was great to do some introductions. We went around the room and talked about our weekends, because almost everyone was away this weekend (in Cinque Terre, Pompeii, Paris, or Croatia). So there was a lot to talk about! Soon it was time for lunch and it was SO WONDERFUL to be back at Locanda to eat after five days of being away! We had spaghetti, potatoes, and meat kabob things. After lunch, we had an hour before Italian so I mostly hung out at the monastery, cleaned my room, etc. It was a pretty average day until I walked down to Italian class and there was Alessandro, holding a HUGE package with that said “Megan & Jenna” on it! I took and from him and started running around the monastery, yelling for Jenna. We only had a few minutes before Italian started but we decided to rip the box open anyways. It was from our friend, Amy, and some of our other friends included stuff in the box. Amy sent us a bunch of candy and Easter things, Bobby sent me some cereal (so now I’ll have something other than cornflakes!), and we also got BROWNIE MIX. Jenna and I have been craving brownies since we got here so it was so exciting. It made me miss my friends a lot but I was so happy the rest of the day! They are great. 

Two hours before dinner, Sarah, Laura, Jenna, and I went to Montanucci's for chocolate cake because we wanted to hang out and catch up after our weekend apart! It was so nice to just talk for a few hours about the past two months and talk about what we want to do in the next two months!

We were so excited!!!!!!!!

The best chocolate cake from Montanucci's

Day #58 in Orvieto (Roma game)

April 21, 2013 – Sunday

We woke up this morning still so exhausted from our trip! After having breakfast and gathing our stuff for the day, we took the funiculare down to the train headed to Rome. On the train, there was the cutest little boy (probably 4-5 years old) and he kept trying to come over to our seats but his mom would bring him back. He smiled at us the whole way to Rome, and when Joeli took out her apple he started to excitedly yell MELA! MELA! (APPLE! APPLE!). So the whole train ride was entertaining. We arrived in Rome and then made our way to the metro, which dropped us off at Piazza del Popolo and then we had to get the tram to ride up to the stadium. We were running a little bit late – we were supposed to meet the rest of the group outside the stadium – but our train was a little late so we were behind. We made it through security and proceeded to get into the stadium with a million other people, all decked out in Roma gear. Thankfully, we walked in the general direction of where our seats were and Alessandro was there to happily greet us. We were the first group to arrive which was surprising because we thought we were so late! There was another group coming from Pompeii and their train was late too. But soon everyone arrived to the stadium safely and the game started. I definitely felt like a rowdy Gryffindor quidditch match – Rome’s colors are maroon and orange or red and yellow, everyone had scarves on, etc. I wish I could’ve understood the cheers/chants but at the same time… Alessandro said that we didn’t want to know what they were saying. Roma was supposed to beat Pescara by a lot but it ended as a 1-1 tie. So the Roma fans were pretty angry. While it was cool to watch the game, it was just as interesting to watch people! 

After the game, we didn’t have much time to hang out in Rome so we traveled back to the train station and hung out there for about half an hour before our train to Orvieto. I realized that this was the 10^th train I was on in the past four days (four trains to Riomaggiore, 4 trains back to Orvieto, one train to Rome, and the last train to Orvieto). While the trains were fun at first, I was ready to be done! Laura and I decided to go for a walk on the train after the first 45 minutes because we thought that our friends that were returning from Paris might be on the same train. So we walked up and down the whole train and we got a lot of glares from people. We weren’t sure why but everyone kept looking up and staring. We both had our ROMA football/soccer t-shirts on and as we walked through the train, there was one boy (this one was maybe 8 years old) that was sitting with his family, and he started to jump up as we walked by! He unzippered his jacket and ripped it open (in a Superman way) and showed us his ROMA t-shirt that matched ours! I pointed at my shirt and grinned, but I couldn’t think of anything to say! So we both grinned at each other for like five seconds before Laura and I continued on walking. But then we reached the end of the train and turned around to pass the family again, and I glanced at the little boy – he pointed at his shirt again and was like ROMA!!! and I made the same exact grinning face at him and pointed to my shirt… because I couldn’t think of anything to say the second time, either! It was ok though because it was one of those moments that didn’t really need words. He was just so excited that we were wearing the same shirt! 

Day #57 in Orvieto (Cinque Terre trip)

April 20, 2013 – Saturday

We woke up at 8am on Saturday morning to a dark and rainy day. We packed up our apartment and went to a café to get wifi, because we wanted to see if there was anything to do in Riomaggiore in the rain – there wasn’t really anything. We walked to the water because we wanted to see it one last time before we caught our train. We ended up spending another hour and a half by the water because it was so cool in the storm! It wasn’t raining too hard but the waves were crazy and we took a bunch of pictures. We tried to take a group picture in front of on of the cliffs (don’t worry though, there was a fence before the clif) and we were trying to take a cute picture but suddenly a HUGE wave came over the side and soaked all of us, mid-picture. Joeli captured it on her camera though which was good, but we were all soaking wet and laughing. It was soon time to head to the train station, so we made our way there. I gave Laura some money and she ran off to get fish and chips for the two of us before we had to get on the train, but unfortunately the line was too long so we didn’t have time. We took the seven-minute train to La Spezia, and then the hour-long train to Pisa. We had regional tickets so we didn’t have to be on the trains at specific times, which was nice. 

We decided to stay in Pisa and take a later train, because someone told us that the Leaning Tower of Pisa was right near the train station. So in Pisa, we got directions to the tower and it was about a three-minute walk from the station! It was kind of weird because you walk through Pisa, which doesn’t seem like a nice town to visit, and then all of a sudden you turn the corner and BAM there’s the tower. There were a million tourists but it was cool to see the tower and I can check it off my list now (even though I didn’t really have it on my list of things to see). We then took the train from Pisa to Florence, and stayed in Florence for a few hours. We went shoe shopping (although they didn’t have my shoe size….), got some gelato, sat in a park, hung out by the river, etc. Then we walked back to the station to take the train from Florence to Orvieto from 7-9:30ish. We arrived in Orvieto, exhausted and a little bit red from the sun, but it was a great weekend! But as usual, it was wonderful to be back home in Orvieto. 

Stormy Ligurian Sea

Riomaggiore

Beach with the slippery rocks

Pisa duomo (with the Tower behind it!)

Leaning Tower of Pisa