Day #71 in Orvieto

May 4, 2013 – Saturday

Today was an average, relaxing Saturday in Orvieto. I was going to wake up at 9ish to start the day, but somehow I slept until eleven. The monastery was really quiet because about 10 people went to work on the farm early this morning (I didn’t go this time). I made my way to the market and bought some dried strawberries, then it was time for lunch. We had pasta with red sauce, which was unusual – most of the pasta we have is with a white, creamy sauce. At lunch, Hannah told me that Federico finished making my bag! Which is crazy because I ordered it on Thursday and he finished it yesterday, but I couldn’t get it then because we were in Assisi. So after lunch, I pretty much ran to Federico’s shop to pick it up! 

After that, a few of us walked around Orvieto to see if the gelato festival had any new flavors. There was a wine flavor that looked interesting, so we tried that one. At the gelato festival you pay 5 Euros to get 5 little tickets, and then you can use these tickets throughout the week/weekend. So I I have one more ticket left for tomorrow! We made our way back to the monastery neighborhood and went to the soccer field. Prof Doll’s two kids were playing against each other in the “second graders vs. third graders” soccer game rematch (although they’ve had 3 different rematches so far since we’ve been here). It was 5-1 when we arrived and the third graders were winning, but then Alessandro’s son scored a few goals and then they tied 5-5! Which was impressive because Alessandro’s son is a little kindergartener. So it was very exciting and there were cheerleaders (four girls running around with pompoms). And everyone got a medal at the end, of course. 

At 5pm, Hannah gave us a cooking lesson. Right now we’re learning how to make fresh pasta. She gave us a little demonstration and tomorrow we are going to make the pasta for dinner. It looked pretty easy, but I’m not sure if it would turn out that well if I tried it on my own. We’ll see though. For the rest of the night, we had take-away Locanda dinner at the monastery, I read some Purgatorio for class, and spent time outside because it was beautiful weather today!

The church behind the kids is the church that our monastery is attached too!