So, it turns out today is a holiday. Well, not a holiday so much as a Holy Day, but regardless my liturgical calendar has been offset since my arrival so I had no idea that today is the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. Thus, I arose at a still way-too-early hour to go to the 11:30 mass. I headed out at 11:15 and was surprised to find a) a giant image covering the pavement next to the fountain and in front of the church, a dove and flowers made out of herbs and petals (look at the pictures when they go up, there's no way I can actually explain it in words!); and b) the church itself, which had been practically empty last Sunday, completely packed. Standing room only, with extra folding chairs scattered about - and this was with 15 minutes to spare?!
A quick commentary about mass in Italy: a big part of it is really the social aspect. You go to mass not just for the religious experience here, but to see everyone in your town. It's a very communal, interactive event.
So as testament to this fact, all the people around me were walking around greeting each other but I didn't know anyone so I was just kinda standing there trying to figure out what was going on. It didn't help that I couldn't see anything going on at the altar because a) I was in the back of the church, and b) I'm short. But fortunately I could hear, and the first thing I heard was the priest telling the congregation to share with each other the sign of peace. I shook the hands of those around me, but I was alarmed - HOW had I managed to *miss* the mass that I had come to 15 minutes early?!
Another commentary about mass in Italy: it's kinda really unorganized. When people go up for communion, it's literally a free-for-all. There's no system, no order to the procession, you just throw yourself into the line and do your thing.
So as a testament to this fact, all the people around me were walking around the back of the church, talking, basically just hanging around and not paying attention to anything going on at the altar, as if it wasn't a religious service. I was becoming more confused by the minute but then people started streaming down the center aisle so I figured it was time for communion and even though I hadn't been there for the whole mass I figured I should still receive the Eucharist, so I headed over to join the "line," if you can call it that. The problem is that I get really nervous about angering people by cutting them off in the "line" even though there really *is* no organized line. Sigh. But it turned out that wouldn't be an issue today because they weren't actually going up for communion, they were just joining the procession that, as I somewhat understood the priest explain, was going to go from that church to another church, where the service would conclude. So I ran over to one of the chapels with candles and statues and prayed quickly, then ran to join in the procession, grabbing the paper with all the responsorial songs on it as I went.
By the time I made it out, the procession was already a little bit away; there were hundreds of people following this tent-like thing covered in a gorgeous cloth, under which the clergy walked carrying the Eucharist. Several altar servers or brothers or some sort of religious people were positioned intermittently along the edge of the crowd holding speakers for everyone to hear the readings. I got sidetracked by a group of little children playing in the herb/petal dove scene, throwing the petals up in the air and rolling around in it and it was all so cute and meraviglioso that I decided to sprint the 50 feet back to the hotel to grab my camera before catching up to the procession.
After that and a few photos I rejoined the procession and just continued becoming more and more amazed by how incredible the whole thing was. Literally HUNDREDS, possibly even over a thousand, of people all walking through the streets of Perugia together, singing praises to God and listening to scripture readings. (WHY DOESN'T THIS HAPPEN IN AMERICA?!) I had no idea what church we were going to, but we passed alllll the way down Corso Vannucci (the main street off which is my hotel), past Piazza Italia, and started our way down the winding, sloping road that leads toward the park that I read at with Rachel and Hannah. People came out of their homes and shopowners out of their shops to watch the festivities, and when we passed through Piazza Italia there was a row of police/military-like uniformed people standing out front with the flags of Italy and the region. I felt like the quintessential awestruck tourist who just kept gaping at everything going on and snapped a million photos, but at least I knew some of the songs (the Latin ones though, not the Italian, strange as that sounds. They sang Ubi Caritas, Dad! Was there a sale at CVS?! Hehe.) so hopefully I fit in at least a little bit.
The procession was just gorgeous. The cloth covering the Body and Blood was beautiful - cream colored with red/pink flowers. There were also several groups of nuns and brothers marching, and it's rare to see them in America these days so that was a happy surprise.
Finally, the procession arrived at its destination, the church of San Domenico, the exterior of which was also sprinkled with flower petals. We all entered and took seats, and the priests gave a final blessing - as well as a very sincere thank you to all of Perugia for coming out in such force to show a love for Jesus and for the Catholic faith. It was a really touching little speech of appreciation, and afterward I stuck around to check out all the chapels and pray in them for a little bit (partially, I will admit, to confess my guilt at missing the actual mass!). I lit candles for my loved ones, so everyone who is reading this can consider him/herself blessed and prayed for! :)
I'm still on this super happy cloud 9 just because that was such a cool experience and I love being in a country where, in some way or another, religion is always present. It's really special for me, especially because I feel like in America it is considered more of something that we should keep private and personal and not be too open about. I love being able to walk down a random street and look up to see a statue of the Madonna and Christ child draped in fresh rose petals, or go into a shop and see a crucifix displayed in a place of prominence on the wall, or join in a beautiful procession of hundreds and hundreds of people singing glory to God. It's a wonderful thing, and something I feel truly blessed to have been able to experience today and throughout my time in Italy. I definitely feel my faith being strengthened through the constant reminders of God I come across in daily life here - the positive aspects of this trip never seem to cease! Grazie a Dio :)
Con pace e amore, (with peace and love),
Michelina
26 giugno 2011
25 giugno 2011
La dolce far niente - The sweetness of doing nothing
Finally a day to sleep in! Well, until 9:45, at which point Rachel and I rushed down to the breakfast terrace in our pajamas to smuggle food into our room before breakfast closed at 10. After a lovely breakfast in bed (fortunately I got the nutella off the bedspread with my handy Tide to Go, love that thing) we took a walk over to the "mercato coperto" where we bought yummy fruits and veggies to sustain us for the week.
After the market, we took a stroll over to the (somewhat) nearby park that Antonella had showed us on our tour of the city, books in tow. We were all tired from yesterday's trip and it was yet another GORGEOUS day out, so reading (I loveloveloveeee that I can read books in other languages! It's actually like the coolest thing EVER!) outside under trees in this little park was an absolutely perfect way to spend the afternoon.
After the market, we took a stroll over to the (somewhat) nearby park that Antonella had showed us on our tour of the city, books in tow. We were all tired from yesterday's trip and it was yet another GORGEOUS day out, so reading (I loveloveloveeee that I can read books in other languages! It's actually like the coolest thing EVER!) outside under trees in this little park was an absolutely perfect way to spend the afternoon.
24 giugno 2011
A Lot of Men in Medieval Garb
Guess who was up at 5:45am?! Nope, not me. But Rachel and Hannah actually got up on time. I did get up at 6(ish) though, and we were out the door by 6:30(ish) to head over to the bus station for our 7:30 Sulga bus to Florence. It cost 17 euro for a round-trip ticket, coming back at 6pm, and it was just about a 2 hour trip both ways. I slept basically the whole way there, so I was finally wide awake when we arrived. So much to see in so little time!
The first thing we did was walk over to the Duomo, and as soon as we approached it there were massive crowds and church music floating out from St. John's Baptistery. We didn't know what was going on, so we casually continued our touristy things, oohing and aahing over the stunning beauty of the Duomo and the cathedral and how detailed and amazing the architecture is (but like seriously, HOW IS THIS COUNTRY SO GORGEOUS?), and then when we started to head in the direction of the Galleria Accademia, our path was blocked by a very regal procession from the Baptistery into the cathedral. Everyone was cheering and photographing but all we could see from our distance in the crowd (and my lack of height) were these giant colored feathers poking out from the people's hats. Then an important figure of some sort must have walked by, because everyone really cheered and he waved to the crowds as if they were all there for him. We made a mental note to Google it later and proceeded on our way.
La Galleria d'Accademia is the museum that houses the famous statue of David by Michelangelo, so of course there was a massive line. We had read in Rachel's guidebook to Tuscany (there are endless perks to having an ever-informed roommate) that the line usually takes about an hour, and we felt like it was something you kinda have to see while you're in Florence, so we decided to wait it out even though we were literally a full block down away from the entrance when we got on line.
An hour and a gelato each later (mint chocolate chip; classics never go out of style) when we had yet to move more than ten feet forward, and we were starting to rethink that decision. So we went through that whole debating phase (do we leave now, so we can have time to go see other things? vs. do we stick it out because we're already an hour invested and we do want to see it? etc. etc.) that everyone who knows me knows I am really not good at, and eventually the group decision (it was Rachel and Hannah's decision, really, because everyone who knows me knows I cannot make decisions) was to stand strong (okay, we sat on the curb eventually) and wait. After a grand total of about 2 hours and 15 minutes, we got into the museum and got our tickets at long last. We didn't exactly know how to navigate the museum, but we followed the throngs of people and, naturally, ended up at David.
W.o.w. It was truly amazing. I was awed by the incredible detail, not to mention the size - David is *17* feet tall. To put that in perspective, over *3* of me. :O But Michelangelo was seriously, brilliantly talented. You can see every vein in David's hands (which are disproportionately large, we all agreed) and his face has so much emotion. He appears "plussed," as I so eloquently referred to it - I meant it as in the opposite of "nonplussed" because he's so alert and almost a bit alarmed; as if he was not basking in the glory of his victory but ready for any impending battle. His brow is furrowed and he's staring pointedly into the distance, as if waiting for Goliath, intimidated but ready. But while his face is so intense, his body is in a relaxed pose; the slingshot is flung almost casually over his shoulder, one arm just hangs at his side while the other holds onto the rock, his legs are positioned naturally. It's an interesting contrast. And even the cracks in the marble seem to perfectly align with the positioning of human veins.
AND it was completed in 1504. And is still not only standing, but awe-inspiring, and so anatomically accurate. I can't even wrap my head around that.
We sat and analyzed David for a while (seriously, his hands are disproportionate). Hannah had done a project on him in high school, and both she and Rachel are considering some type of concentration/secondary field in History of Art and Architecture, so they're awesome people to go to a museum with. Hannah had learned that David's hands were designed to appear proportionately sound when the viewer looks up at the statue, so by default they'd look really big from far away... but we tried that, and they were still definitely really big from that angle too. But despite my 1 academic year and approximately 3 weeks in Mepham Drawing & Painting classes, I'm not quite qualified to judge Michelangelo ;)
After seeing David, we walked around the museum for a while. Most of the exhibits were Byzantine, middle-ages Virgin and Child diptychs and the like, which isn't my favorite time period of art, but it was still interesting. Some paintings were annotated to teach specific religious symbols in the painting, which was cool, and there was an entire exhibit devoted to Lorenzo's Bartolini's sculptures of the human form. Literally you walk into the exhibition and there are tens upon tens of heads on display.
After the long wait and the long museum trip, we were tired and starving. Following the advice of the Umbra staff though, we wanted to cross the Ponte Vecchio to eat on the other side of the Arno. Ponte Vecchio was so, so pretty. All I can think all day, every day that I've been here is how impossibly beautiful EVERYTHING is. I can't even take it all in, and it's even sadder knowing that my camera will never be able to capture the spectacular views as they actually appear in front of me, so I'll never be able to show everyone at home :(
[Speaking of sharing photos with people at home, I'm working on getting the slideshow at the top of the blog to work properly... right now for some reason it's set on a show of sample photos which appear to be ranging from convertibles to beach sunsets to a scantily clad Eva Mendes... my apologies!]
After posing for pictures with the Ponte Vecchio, we headed across and began the search for something, anything, to fill our hungry tummies. Of course though, we had totally forgotten that between 1 and 4pm basically everything closes. So there were very, very few trattorias or snack bars open to find food. Fortunately, we stumbled across a cute outdoor restaurant, 4 Leoni, and before long were dining on mixed salad, Italian bread and pasta. Dad asked me earlier what the most surprising thing about being here has been so far and I didn't have an answer; now that I think about it, it's definitely the quality of the bread. I have yet to have a piece of bread that I have enjoyed in Italy (pizza excluded, of course), which is so weird because I love "Italian" bread in America. Hmm.
Anyway, after our meal, we headed back towards the Duomo, but were stopped a little before getting there by a giant mob of people gathered along the street. Curious, we pushed our way through (one of the perks of being short) toward the front and were greeted with the sight of... a lot of men in medieval garb. Including hats with the giant colored feathers like we'd seen this morning leaving the baptistery! Of course, we still had no clue what was going on, but it was just awesome so we joined in with the cheering crowd and took a ton of photos (which will eventually make it onto this blog, I promise!). The men came in swarms of different colors, all bright and complete with matching tights and clogs and large flags bearing the emblems of the city and wealthy historic Florentine families. The parade would stop every so often for flag throwing, drum beats, or when a horse or mule or other animal (draped in similar attire to the man walking it) made its way slowly through the line. The marchers were intensely organized and stared straight ahead - keep in mind they were also wearing full out medieval gear in 90 degree heat. It was so much fun just to be there to watch, even though we weren't exactly sure WHAT we were watching. I love that stuff like this happens here pretty much all the time - you just don't see this in America.
When the parade ended we headed back towards the bus station just to be safe. On the way, we stopped for cannoli (my first cannolo in Italy!) and then walked around the Congressional gardens for a bit. Soon we were headed back to Perugia. (I tried and failed yet again to find a comfortable bus-sleeping position. So sad.)
So when we got back to the room, I googled June 24th in Florence and it just so happens that it was the feast day of San Giovanni - St. John the Baptist - who just so happens to be the patron saint of Florence. There's a big medieval parade through the city and then it concludes when it reaches one of the piazzas where the men play a game of soccer - IN their medieval attire! And of all days to be in Florence, we randomly chose this one - che fortuna! And apparently there's also a fireworks show at night over the Arno. Now of course, I am still of the belief that it was really all just as a celebration of my dad's birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! :)
Day's Recap:
Hours spent in transit: ~3 total
Hours spent waiting in line to see David: ~2.5
Hours actually spent in the museum: 2?
Numbers of times I said "WOW" throughout the day: approximately 238497 (keep in mind that's a conservative measure)
Flavors of gelato tasted: Biscottini and menta. (Figuring out my favorites and becoming less adventurous with my choices, sorry!)
The first thing we did was walk over to the Duomo, and as soon as we approached it there were massive crowds and church music floating out from St. John's Baptistery. We didn't know what was going on, so we casually continued our touristy things, oohing and aahing over the stunning beauty of the Duomo and the cathedral and how detailed and amazing the architecture is (but like seriously, HOW IS THIS COUNTRY SO GORGEOUS?), and then when we started to head in the direction of the Galleria Accademia, our path was blocked by a very regal procession from the Baptistery into the cathedral. Everyone was cheering and photographing but all we could see from our distance in the crowd (and my lack of height) were these giant colored feathers poking out from the people's hats. Then an important figure of some sort must have walked by, because everyone really cheered and he waved to the crowds as if they were all there for him. We made a mental note to Google it later and proceeded on our way.
La Galleria d'Accademia is the museum that houses the famous statue of David by Michelangelo, so of course there was a massive line. We had read in Rachel's guidebook to Tuscany (there are endless perks to having an ever-informed roommate) that the line usually takes about an hour, and we felt like it was something you kinda have to see while you're in Florence, so we decided to wait it out even though we were literally a full block down away from the entrance when we got on line.
An hour and a gelato each later (mint chocolate chip; classics never go out of style) when we had yet to move more than ten feet forward, and we were starting to rethink that decision. So we went through that whole debating phase (do we leave now, so we can have time to go see other things? vs. do we stick it out because we're already an hour invested and we do want to see it? etc. etc.) that everyone who knows me knows I am really not good at, and eventually the group decision (it was Rachel and Hannah's decision, really, because everyone who knows me knows I cannot make decisions) was to stand strong (okay, we sat on the curb eventually) and wait. After a grand total of about 2 hours and 15 minutes, we got into the museum and got our tickets at long last. We didn't exactly know how to navigate the museum, but we followed the throngs of people and, naturally, ended up at David.
W.o.w. It was truly amazing. I was awed by the incredible detail, not to mention the size - David is *17* feet tall. To put that in perspective, over *3* of me. :O But Michelangelo was seriously, brilliantly talented. You can see every vein in David's hands (which are disproportionately large, we all agreed) and his face has so much emotion. He appears "plussed," as I so eloquently referred to it - I meant it as in the opposite of "nonplussed" because he's so alert and almost a bit alarmed; as if he was not basking in the glory of his victory but ready for any impending battle. His brow is furrowed and he's staring pointedly into the distance, as if waiting for Goliath, intimidated but ready. But while his face is so intense, his body is in a relaxed pose; the slingshot is flung almost casually over his shoulder, one arm just hangs at his side while the other holds onto the rock, his legs are positioned naturally. It's an interesting contrast. And even the cracks in the marble seem to perfectly align with the positioning of human veins.
AND it was completed in 1504. And is still not only standing, but awe-inspiring, and so anatomically accurate. I can't even wrap my head around that.
We sat and analyzed David for a while (seriously, his hands are disproportionate). Hannah had done a project on him in high school, and both she and Rachel are considering some type of concentration/secondary field in History of Art and Architecture, so they're awesome people to go to a museum with. Hannah had learned that David's hands were designed to appear proportionately sound when the viewer looks up at the statue, so by default they'd look really big from far away... but we tried that, and they were still definitely really big from that angle too. But despite my 1 academic year and approximately 3 weeks in Mepham Drawing & Painting classes, I'm not quite qualified to judge Michelangelo ;)
After seeing David, we walked around the museum for a while. Most of the exhibits were Byzantine, middle-ages Virgin and Child diptychs and the like, which isn't my favorite time period of art, but it was still interesting. Some paintings were annotated to teach specific religious symbols in the painting, which was cool, and there was an entire exhibit devoted to Lorenzo's Bartolini's sculptures of the human form. Literally you walk into the exhibition and there are tens upon tens of heads on display.
After the long wait and the long museum trip, we were tired and starving. Following the advice of the Umbra staff though, we wanted to cross the Ponte Vecchio to eat on the other side of the Arno. Ponte Vecchio was so, so pretty. All I can think all day, every day that I've been here is how impossibly beautiful EVERYTHING is. I can't even take it all in, and it's even sadder knowing that my camera will never be able to capture the spectacular views as they actually appear in front of me, so I'll never be able to show everyone at home :(
[Speaking of sharing photos with people at home, I'm working on getting the slideshow at the top of the blog to work properly... right now for some reason it's set on a show of sample photos which appear to be ranging from convertibles to beach sunsets to a scantily clad Eva Mendes... my apologies!]
After posing for pictures with the Ponte Vecchio, we headed across and began the search for something, anything, to fill our hungry tummies. Of course though, we had totally forgotten that between 1 and 4pm basically everything closes. So there were very, very few trattorias or snack bars open to find food. Fortunately, we stumbled across a cute outdoor restaurant, 4 Leoni, and before long were dining on mixed salad, Italian bread and pasta. Dad asked me earlier what the most surprising thing about being here has been so far and I didn't have an answer; now that I think about it, it's definitely the quality of the bread. I have yet to have a piece of bread that I have enjoyed in Italy (pizza excluded, of course), which is so weird because I love "Italian" bread in America. Hmm.
Anyway, after our meal, we headed back towards the Duomo, but were stopped a little before getting there by a giant mob of people gathered along the street. Curious, we pushed our way through (one of the perks of being short) toward the front and were greeted with the sight of... a lot of men in medieval garb. Including hats with the giant colored feathers like we'd seen this morning leaving the baptistery! Of course, we still had no clue what was going on, but it was just awesome so we joined in with the cheering crowd and took a ton of photos (which will eventually make it onto this blog, I promise!). The men came in swarms of different colors, all bright and complete with matching tights and clogs and large flags bearing the emblems of the city and wealthy historic Florentine families. The parade would stop every so often for flag throwing, drum beats, or when a horse or mule or other animal (draped in similar attire to the man walking it) made its way slowly through the line. The marchers were intensely organized and stared straight ahead - keep in mind they were also wearing full out medieval gear in 90 degree heat. It was so much fun just to be there to watch, even though we weren't exactly sure WHAT we were watching. I love that stuff like this happens here pretty much all the time - you just don't see this in America.
When the parade ended we headed back towards the bus station just to be safe. On the way, we stopped for cannoli (my first cannolo in Italy!) and then walked around the Congressional gardens for a bit. Soon we were headed back to Perugia. (I tried and failed yet again to find a comfortable bus-sleeping position. So sad.)
So when we got back to the room, I googled June 24th in Florence and it just so happens that it was the feast day of San Giovanni - St. John the Baptist - who just so happens to be the patron saint of Florence. There's a big medieval parade through the city and then it concludes when it reaches one of the piazzas where the men play a game of soccer - IN their medieval attire! And of all days to be in Florence, we randomly chose this one - che fortuna! And apparently there's also a fireworks show at night over the Arno. Now of course, I am still of the belief that it was really all just as a celebration of my dad's birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! :)
Day's Recap:
Hours spent in transit: ~3 total
Hours spent waiting in line to see David: ~2.5
Hours actually spent in the museum: 2?
Numbers of times I said "WOW" throughout the day: approximately 238497 (keep in mind that's a conservative measure)
Flavors of gelato tasted: Biscottini and menta. (Figuring out my favorites and becoming less adventurous with my choices, sorry!)
23 giugno 2011
Tests and tours
Last night and this morning were suuuuper nerve-wracking for me because we had our first big exam today. When push comes to shove, I KNOW that I know Italian grammar (or at least the parts of it that were on the exam) but I still get sososo nervous! Fortunately I think everything went well (and I thinkkkk I got the maximum 8 bonus points! I'm a huge fan of extra credit.), and after that it was the weekend and I'm going to Florence tomorrow and it was just such a nice weight to have lifted.
To treat ourselves after the stress of studying, my roommate Rachel and I took a trip down the block to Feltrinelli. I kind of love bookstores. They make me absurdly happy. And I kind of lovelovelove the language sections of bookstores, except in the US they're usually pretty small and basically limited to Spanish. So I absolutely ADORE Feltrinelli. So many books I want to read in Italian! Oh, I also love and adore children's books in other languages, so the kid's room is my favorite. There was an entire shelf devoted to Gianni Rodari, who I've loved and adored since my freshman year in high school when I recited one of his poems at the Stony Brook competition. He writes the absolute CUTEST books/stories/poems for kids, and most of the books are illustrated and it's just the cutest thing ever. Plus they had little flip books of Disney stories in Italian - they had 101 Dalmatians in Italian and I am soooo tempted to go back and buy it... this will probably happen before the end of my stay here because it's literally a 3 minute walk to the bookstore and it cost 3 euro.
Rachel and I were overwhelmed with joy, so we decided it was safest for our wallets to return at a later date when we weren't in the post-exam-stress BUYBUYBUY mindset. But as we're leaving we hit the language-learning section of the store... ¡Ay dios mio! I've actually never met anyone (my age) who fully understands how excited languages and all kinds of language learning materials and everything in foreign languages excites me... buuuut now I have! Rachel and I were actually freaking out in the aisle - we awwed over the cute little pocket dictionaries (they even have Italian-Albanian... soo tempting!), cooed over the little synonym reference books, drooled over the giant Zanichelli dictionaries that are sadly too big for us to take back into the US :'( and just generally were filled with joy at the love of languages and it was the greatest thing everrrr to have someone to share in that happiness with!!! Leaving was actually painful, but I ended up sneaking back later and buying a French grammar intensive book... IN ITALIAN. I'm going to re(kinda)-learn French IN ITALIAN. HOW COOL IS THAT? And how amazingly helpful will that be, to be able to compare the two languages side by side and make connections?!?! I'm SO EXCITED.
Yeah, so that was my day of intense stress and then intense roomie bonding. I'm still in such a smiley state just thinking about it... I know, no one really gets it, but I love this stuff. Just that feeling of happy passion joy-ness totally solidified (ignoring the fact that it already was solidified) my commitment to my major. While we were standing in front of the shelves all fluttery I said to Rachel, who can't really commit to a major for more than a couple days (Sto scherzando ;) Rachele!), "YOU HAVE TO DO RLL!" and she was like, "I knowwwww aaaah!" soo maybe I'll have a friend in my concentration now (by that I mean actually KNOW someone else with my concentration now... haha).
As hard as it was, we had to buckle down for our afternoon class with Antonella. After a brief class, she took us on a walking tour of the historical sites of Perugia. We walked a loooong way, down a bazillion steps and by the train station and then all the way over to this pretty park by a monument to June 20th... there are a few days (like the 4th of November and the 20th of June) that are CRUCIAL to Italians; there's at least one street or piazza named after them in every city. As we walked we stopped at these monuments and examined the differences in wording on them and how the diction is reflective of the people's opinions of that leader or event. It was really intriguing, and Perugia has such an interesting history for a smallish town. It's the perfect size to live in and explore and really get to know without being overwhelmed. It's too easy to fall in love with this country. Really, though. I'm falling head over heels here :) P.S. that's another crazy thing, like ALL the women here wear crazy high heels EVERY DAY. And the streets are all super uneven cobblestones! I'll stick to my flip flops, especially because I'll still be a foot shorter than the average person even with heels :P
Day's Recap:
Books purchased: 1 (so far)
Books want to purchase: Decline to comment for fear of parental lecture
Steps walked up/down: 932847923 (approximation)
Cutest thing I saw in Perugia today: when we went to class in the morning, there was an enormous groups of little elementary-school aged kids (from a camp, from what I could figure out) all gathered in front of the big church and they were dancing/singing along as some of their counselors (or maybe hired people like the Wiggles or something who dance/sing with kids for a living? Not sure, had to rush to cram more before the exam..) stood up on the steps of the church to lead them in the motions. The songs were super cute, about like getting ready in the morning and playtime and stuff, and all the kids knew the hand movements and were SO into it. Adorableee! (Kinda like pocket dictionaries... okay, I'll stop now.)
L'amore e libri (love and books),
Michelina
22 giugno 2011
When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, thaaaaat's AMORE :)
Yup, you read right. Pizza for dinner, yet again. But I actually don't mind at all, because every night there's something a littleee bit different that makes that pizza special and yummy and I love it. I wish my parents were here to try all this pizza because there definitely HAS to be something here that can convince them to stop opting for frozen pizza over fresh. (I'm distraught over this, guys. Where is the Italian blood in you?!)
But anyway, before we get to that we'll start from the top of the day. Paola had promised to help us set up the wifi a bunch of us had purchased yesterday, but of course my kit was the only one that the man at the store had forgotten to put the money cards in. I went back to the store on my lunch break and luckily he believed me without any questions and gave me the cards so I finally was able to call and activate everything, buuut it'll probably be an extra 24 hours on top of the original 36ish until I can get my internet to work :(
We had our first lecture with Zach this afternoon (For some reason I keep thinking his name is Luke, so don't get confused if I write that accidentally). Like I said in the earlier post, he's a Food Studies professor, so we talked about the origins of Italian cuisine today. We focused on Pelligrino Artusi, who compiled a huge book of recipes from all the different regions of Italy, though primarily from Emilia-Romagna and Toscana. Along with the recipes, which he received from people all across the country, were little stories that gave each one a personalized touch, storielle in Italian. The book was written primarily for the middle class, and in Italiano "standard" (as opposed to regional dialects), which were both unique approaches for that time, and it served a purpose of unifying the nation, both in its cuisine and its language.
That evening we continued our lessons in food history, focusing on pizza. Zach/Luke took us to a pizzeria that is in a converted monastery; he knows the family that owns it and the pizziaolo gave us a demo on how to make pizza, though I am no expert, so don't expect anything. While we were waiting for the pizzas to cook, Zach/Luke told us the story behind pizza, which I LOVE. It's probably a myth, but it's still really cute. So once upon a time there was a princess, Princess Margherita, and a pizziaolo named Rafaele Esposito went to the palace and made her three pizzas. The first she didn't like because it had garlic, which was considered a food of the poor (until Artusi clarified that in his book). The second she didn't like because it had anchovies on it, and she didn't like fish. But the third was juuuust right: simply tomatoes, cheese, and basil. Which, by the way, are the colors red, white, and green... so in this way, pizza IS the food of Italy. It represents it, it unifies it, it characterizes it in the minds of many foreigners. (And it's flat out delicious!)
There were a bazillion different kinds of pizza on the menu but I just ordered the Margherita. To be honest, I don't WANT all these crazy things on my pizza... salad, sausage, mushrooms, buffalo wings, fish, etc. I like my pizza plain and simple and classic. It's good every time, it's red, white and green, and it's juuuuust right. So it was yet another delicious pizza dinner for me, and another great close to the day. (Well, kinda. We didn't get home until around 11, and I actually have HOURS of homework ahead. Oh, well. Nothing us Harvard kids aren't used to by now!).
Day's Recap:
Pizzas eaten so far this week: 3?
Museums visited: 1 (Galleria Nazionale d'Umbria - the advanced group had a homework assignment to pick out a work of art that we believed was somehow representative of a character or other aspect of the novel we're reading. Only about 12 rooms were open at the gallery, and it was mostly Byzantine/medieval Madonna and child paintings, but it was still really neat, and is right in between the hotel and the institute!)
Hours of homework left tonight: >4
Hours of sleep anticipated tonight: <4
Anneganda in compito e piena di pizza (drowning in homework and stuffed with pizza),
Michelina
But anyway, before we get to that we'll start from the top of the day. Paola had promised to help us set up the wifi a bunch of us had purchased yesterday, but of course my kit was the only one that the man at the store had forgotten to put the money cards in. I went back to the store on my lunch break and luckily he believed me without any questions and gave me the cards so I finally was able to call and activate everything, buuut it'll probably be an extra 24 hours on top of the original 36ish until I can get my internet to work :(
We had our first lecture with Zach this afternoon (For some reason I keep thinking his name is Luke, so don't get confused if I write that accidentally). Like I said in the earlier post, he's a Food Studies professor, so we talked about the origins of Italian cuisine today. We focused on Pelligrino Artusi, who compiled a huge book of recipes from all the different regions of Italy, though primarily from Emilia-Romagna and Toscana. Along with the recipes, which he received from people all across the country, were little stories that gave each one a personalized touch, storielle in Italian. The book was written primarily for the middle class, and in Italiano "standard" (as opposed to regional dialects), which were both unique approaches for that time, and it served a purpose of unifying the nation, both in its cuisine and its language.
That evening we continued our lessons in food history, focusing on pizza. Zach/Luke took us to a pizzeria that is in a converted monastery; he knows the family that owns it and the pizziaolo gave us a demo on how to make pizza, though I am no expert, so don't expect anything. While we were waiting for the pizzas to cook, Zach/Luke told us the story behind pizza, which I LOVE. It's probably a myth, but it's still really cute. So once upon a time there was a princess, Princess Margherita, and a pizziaolo named Rafaele Esposito went to the palace and made her three pizzas. The first she didn't like because it had garlic, which was considered a food of the poor (until Artusi clarified that in his book). The second she didn't like because it had anchovies on it, and she didn't like fish. But the third was juuuust right: simply tomatoes, cheese, and basil. Which, by the way, are the colors red, white, and green... so in this way, pizza IS the food of Italy. It represents it, it unifies it, it characterizes it in the minds of many foreigners. (And it's flat out delicious!)
There were a bazillion different kinds of pizza on the menu but I just ordered the Margherita. To be honest, I don't WANT all these crazy things on my pizza... salad, sausage, mushrooms, buffalo wings, fish, etc. I like my pizza plain and simple and classic. It's good every time, it's red, white and green, and it's juuuuust right. So it was yet another delicious pizza dinner for me, and another great close to the day. (Well, kinda. We didn't get home until around 11, and I actually have HOURS of homework ahead. Oh, well. Nothing us Harvard kids aren't used to by now!).
Day's Recap:
Pizzas eaten so far this week: 3?
Museums visited: 1 (Galleria Nazionale d'Umbria - the advanced group had a homework assignment to pick out a work of art that we believed was somehow representative of a character or other aspect of the novel we're reading. Only about 12 rooms were open at the gallery, and it was mostly Byzantine/medieval Madonna and child paintings, but it was still really neat, and is right in between the hotel and the institute!)
Hours of homework left tonight: >4
Hours of sleep anticipated tonight: <4
Anneganda in compito e piena di pizza (drowning in homework and stuffed with pizza),
Michelina
21 giugno 2011
Ed elli a me: 'La mia scrittura è piana..."
Disclaimer: don't get too excited for this post, because nothing THAT interesting happened today (minus several language-lover moments).
We had our usual 10-1 class, and then at 2 we had our first lecture with a professor we're going to be working with about every other day for the next 3 weeks of classes. Her name is Antonella and she is an expert on basically all aspects of Italian literature / history / opera / contemporary society / culture in general. And of course, like everyone at the Umbra Institute, she's awesome. Today's lesson was tough - Dante, Petrarch and Machiavelli. For the readings, we had English translations in addition to the Italian, but those were pretty difficult to understand too... the quote in the title is from Canto VI of Dante's Purgatorio of The Divine Comedy, and its translation is, "And he said to me: 'My writing is plain..." Yeah, not so much, buddy :P
But as difficult as the readings were to read and discuss, the lecture was FASCINATING. I've always been nervous (excited, too, but really, REALLY nervous) about the full semester + of classes I'm going to have to take in the upcoming years that focus solely on Dante, but Antonella really raised my interest. I love when teachers are so intensely passionate about their subject matter - it really makes all the difference! I also really want to read more Petrarch. We read an excerpt from Canzoniere for class and Antonella was contrasting his views of Italy from Dante's - you can tell from his writing that Petrarch was absolutely crazy about Italia. He treats the country with such affection, choosing the most lovely words to describe it, and he's so full of hope for its future. Whereas Dante can often tend toward a more pessimistic outlook, Petrarch has a beautifully positive message in Canzoniere. As Antonella described this all to us, fireworks and exclamation points and smiley faces were jumping up and down in my mind because it was like, YAY! THAT IS EXACTLY HOW *I* FEEL ABOUT ITALY! I literally wrote in the middle of my formal notes *READ MORE PETRARCH* :)
I spent most of the afternoon at the Institute taking advantage of the free wifi. I bought my own internet "chiavetta" (portable wifi key thing) today but it will take at least 36 hours before all the activation sets in. Then I headed over with Rachel and Hannah to a pizzeria a little far away but worth the walk because the pizza was free, courtesy of the Institute. There were about 239847 people there though, so it took actually like almost 2 hours for us to get our food. We were STARVING by then, but fortunately, the pizza was super yummy and worth the wait (as food tends to be here). I actually ate all but one slice of my personal pizza. :O Plus since we were one of the last tables there, I pilfered a half-full bottle of Coke back to the hotel (yay for big bags), which surely beats paying for the can that's sitting in our mini fridge tempting me every day.
ALSO, the Umbra Institute has t-shirts/sweatshirts! Might have to treat myself before we leave for Vasto... :)
Day's Recap:
Hours spent waiting for dinner: ~2
Minutes spent consuming dinner: ~2 ;)
Pieces of pretty ceramics bought for mommy's kitchen: 2
Euros discounted from my ceramics purchases: 4! (the old man selling it said I was pretty :) hehe love Italy)
We had our usual 10-1 class, and then at 2 we had our first lecture with a professor we're going to be working with about every other day for the next 3 weeks of classes. Her name is Antonella and she is an expert on basically all aspects of Italian literature / history / opera / contemporary society / culture in general. And of course, like everyone at the Umbra Institute, she's awesome. Today's lesson was tough - Dante, Petrarch and Machiavelli. For the readings, we had English translations in addition to the Italian, but those were pretty difficult to understand too... the quote in the title is from Canto VI of Dante's Purgatorio of The Divine Comedy, and its translation is, "And he said to me: 'My writing is plain..." Yeah, not so much, buddy :P
But as difficult as the readings were to read and discuss, the lecture was FASCINATING. I've always been nervous (excited, too, but really, REALLY nervous) about the full semester + of classes I'm going to have to take in the upcoming years that focus solely on Dante, but Antonella really raised my interest. I love when teachers are so intensely passionate about their subject matter - it really makes all the difference! I also really want to read more Petrarch. We read an excerpt from Canzoniere for class and Antonella was contrasting his views of Italy from Dante's - you can tell from his writing that Petrarch was absolutely crazy about Italia. He treats the country with such affection, choosing the most lovely words to describe it, and he's so full of hope for its future. Whereas Dante can often tend toward a more pessimistic outlook, Petrarch has a beautifully positive message in Canzoniere. As Antonella described this all to us, fireworks and exclamation points and smiley faces were jumping up and down in my mind because it was like, YAY! THAT IS EXACTLY HOW *I* FEEL ABOUT ITALY! I literally wrote in the middle of my formal notes *READ MORE PETRARCH* :)
I spent most of the afternoon at the Institute taking advantage of the free wifi. I bought my own internet "chiavetta" (portable wifi key thing) today but it will take at least 36 hours before all the activation sets in. Then I headed over with Rachel and Hannah to a pizzeria a little far away but worth the walk because the pizza was free, courtesy of the Institute. There were about 239847 people there though, so it took actually like almost 2 hours for us to get our food. We were STARVING by then, but fortunately, the pizza was super yummy and worth the wait (as food tends to be here). I actually ate all but one slice of my personal pizza. :O Plus since we were one of the last tables there, I pilfered a half-full bottle of Coke back to the hotel (yay for big bags), which surely beats paying for the can that's sitting in our mini fridge tempting me every day.
ALSO, the Umbra Institute has t-shirts/sweatshirts! Might have to treat myself before we leave for Vasto... :)
Day's Recap:
Hours spent waiting for dinner: ~2
Minutes spent consuming dinner: ~2 ;)
Pieces of pretty ceramics bought for mommy's kitchen: 2
Euros discounted from my ceramics purchases: 4! (the old man selling it said I was pretty :) hehe love Italy)
20 giugno 2011
Ditching before Dining
Rise and shine for the first day of classes! From 10-1 we were at the Institute for our Italian language grammar-based class with Paola. The "advanced" group of me, Anna, and Brittanie were pulled out to work with Professor DiFabio for the last half hourish of class; we got the novel we're going to read (Tra due mari by Carmine Abate, an Italo-Albanian author I read in class this past semester) and talked about logistics for the class. We're going to be doing more museum visits and making up activities for the other group, and we do translations from the novel and from our textbook. Hopefully it'll be good but not TOO intense because in all honesty, I want a little bit of relaxation this summer! :P
During our break in between the language class and the culture lecture, I went and got gelato (keep reading to find out the flavors!). I probably should've gotten something caffeinated though, since I had a really hard time staying awake during the lecture. Fortunately, it's the only lecture we have with that particular professor, but it actually was somewhat interesting when I wasn't zoned out. It focused on ancient Roman eating habits and the the culture of food. Turns out the ancient Romans used to eat meals reclining on their sides. Now that's livin' the good life. Can we do that at home, Mom? ;)
At night I took Anna out for her belated birthday dinner. We couldn't decide where to eat, so we were walking around checking out menus. We went down an alley to this one cute place and looked at the menu, then we saw a sign further down for another restaurant so we figured we'd go check that out and compare the two before deciding. The prices at the second restaurant were MUCH cheaper (like, sketchily cheap), but we sat down anyway. Kinda reluctantly. We weren't sure if we were going to stay but the waiter came over and just stood there, and even when we told him we needed a moment to look at the menu he would NOT leave. So finally Anna ordered water (they charge for water here... what is up with that?) and he went inside and we frantically debated whether the suspicious $6 advertised steak dish + the sketchy waitstaff + the fact that there was literally NO one else in sight coming to dine there or dining there or leaving after dining there OR anywhere in the whole alley at all were just cause to leave before the water got there... and we did. We literally ran through the alley and past all the customers at the other restaurant and all the way back into the square. Then we finally found a restaurant called Al Mangiar Bene that was situated allllll the way down a long flight of stairs and decided to go there, a) because the menu looked good, and b) because we figured the waiter wouldn't be able to find us there. Sigh.
So then we got to the bottom of the long staircase and of course, we were the ONLY ones in the restaurant, yet again. But the food ended up being DELICIOUS - Anna got eggplant parm and I got ravioli in a tomato and basil sauce (plain and classic and always yummy) for first course and then we split a rosemary meat dish with really really good potatoes and green beans. And there was actually some half decent bread! Oh yeah, and we also split cake... Yum yum yum. The only difficulty was in paying, largely because the waiter and I had some communication issues. We were speaking Italian but mostly gesturing with the money and not really getting anywhere, and then he started trying to speak English (darn it, I HATE when people realize I'm American!) except I didn't realize that's what he was trying to do because his English was really bad. When I finally picked up on it, I told him he could speak Italian and he was like "Ah, va bene!" and proceeded to say something along the lines of "Sdlfjklsjflrrrrrr skldfjiosej alsfjlsfjlsl ewiuoouwlks!" To which I responded with a clever, "...Si. Ciao." Lol.
Day's Recap:
Classes taken: 2
Number of times zoned out (and maybe dozed briefly) in class: 1... possibly 2... apologies in advance to all my teacher relatives, I promise it won't happen again! 0:)
Restaurants ditched: 1
Restaurants dined: 1
Gelato flavors tasted: Fragola (strawberry) and cioccolato ... think chocolate covered strawberries :P
During our break in between the language class and the culture lecture, I went and got gelato (keep reading to find out the flavors!). I probably should've gotten something caffeinated though, since I had a really hard time staying awake during the lecture. Fortunately, it's the only lecture we have with that particular professor, but it actually was somewhat interesting when I wasn't zoned out. It focused on ancient Roman eating habits and the the culture of food. Turns out the ancient Romans used to eat meals reclining on their sides. Now that's livin' the good life. Can we do that at home, Mom? ;)
At night I took Anna out for her belated birthday dinner. We couldn't decide where to eat, so we were walking around checking out menus. We went down an alley to this one cute place and looked at the menu, then we saw a sign further down for another restaurant so we figured we'd go check that out and compare the two before deciding. The prices at the second restaurant were MUCH cheaper (like, sketchily cheap), but we sat down anyway. Kinda reluctantly. We weren't sure if we were going to stay but the waiter came over and just stood there, and even when we told him we needed a moment to look at the menu he would NOT leave. So finally Anna ordered water (they charge for water here... what is up with that?) and he went inside and we frantically debated whether the suspicious $6 advertised steak dish + the sketchy waitstaff + the fact that there was literally NO one else in sight coming to dine there or dining there or leaving after dining there OR anywhere in the whole alley at all were just cause to leave before the water got there... and we did. We literally ran through the alley and past all the customers at the other restaurant and all the way back into the square. Then we finally found a restaurant called Al Mangiar Bene that was situated allllll the way down a long flight of stairs and decided to go there, a) because the menu looked good, and b) because we figured the waiter wouldn't be able to find us there. Sigh.
So then we got to the bottom of the long staircase and of course, we were the ONLY ones in the restaurant, yet again. But the food ended up being DELICIOUS - Anna got eggplant parm and I got ravioli in a tomato and basil sauce (plain and classic and always yummy) for first course and then we split a rosemary meat dish with really really good potatoes and green beans. And there was actually some half decent bread! Oh yeah, and we also split cake... Yum yum yum. The only difficulty was in paying, largely because the waiter and I had some communication issues. We were speaking Italian but mostly gesturing with the money and not really getting anywhere, and then he started trying to speak English (darn it, I HATE when people realize I'm American!) except I didn't realize that's what he was trying to do because his English was really bad. When I finally picked up on it, I told him he could speak Italian and he was like "Ah, va bene!" and proceeded to say something along the lines of "Sdlfjklsjflrrrrrr skldfjiosej alsfjlsfjlsl ewiuoouwlks!" To which I responded with a clever, "...Si. Ciao." Lol.
Day's Recap:
Classes taken: 2
Number of times zoned out (and maybe dozed briefly) in class: 1... possibly 2... apologies in advance to all my teacher relatives, I promise it won't happen again! 0:)
Restaurants ditched: 1
Restaurants dined: 1
Gelato flavors tasted: Fragola (strawberry) and cioccolato ... think chocolate covered strawberries :P
19 giugno 2011
Sconfinamento - Trespassing!
We were up early yet again this morning (whyyyy won't they let us sleep in even once?!) because one of the Umbra professors, Zach, took us on what he declares to be an internationally renowned walking tour of the "Nooks and Crannies" of Perugia. Zach is seriously awesome though... he was sitting across from me and Rachel at the faculty dinner so we learned his life story - he's from upstate New York, went to Kenyon College in Ohio (they have an amazing writing program!) and studied Italian at Middlebury and has been living in Italy for the past 12 years, working at the Umbra Institute for most of them. He teaches in the Food Studies Program - as he told us in class, he's not actually that interested in food, but in how food and the act of eating is the meeting point for fields like history, political science, and sociology. He's just really cool and so the tour was worth getting up early for. Plus, while we were waiting we got to see the Fiat 500 Club drive past... well, kind of. It's basically a parade of old men with classic Cinquecentos that they adorn with flags and drive by on Sunday mornings, except they were apparently lost so a few minutes in, just as they were passing us, someone told them they were going the wrong way and the poor old men just stopped there. Their 500s were still idling when we headed out on the tour :(
We saw all the sights and learned a lot about the history of Perugia, ie why there's no salt in the bread here (it's gross). and it ended with Zach taking us illegally onto private property and whispering a little about the history before telling us that while the tour was fun, class will be serious, and we have 50ish pages of reading to do by Wednesday. Yikes.
Before the tour, I went to 8:30am mass with Luciana. It was my first mass here, and it was an interesting experience. I was surprised by how few people were there - maybe 20, tops, and also the lack of... regal feeling? For instance, there was no procession of the priest, altar servers, cantor, etc., through the center aisle; the priest just kinda popped up from a door in the side and started the service. There was also no real uniformity as to when the congregation sat/stood/knelt, so I basically just did whatever Luciana did. I also paid close attention to the responses so that I'll be able to partake more in the mass in the upcoming weeks, as they're not a direct translation from what we say at church at home. One linguistic aspect I really liked though was the fact that God (il Signore) is addressed using the "tu" form; this is informal, as if to show that we have a personal rapport with God, that he is a close friend and someone we are on a tu-form-basis with. (It's kinda a big deal here to use the tu form with an "authority" figure / someone of high regard / someone older than you in general - you almost always use the "Lei" form which is formal, until they specifically tell you that you can use the tu form.) Language nerd moment :)
Day's Recap:
Hours spent walking: ~3
Pieces of cool information learned: 237+
Pages of homework done: 2
Pages of homework left to do: approximately 3294 :(
Flavors of gelato tasted: Biscotto (think cookie dough with pieces of cookie in it... SO good) and cioccolato bianco (white chocolate)
Datemi del tu,
Michelina
PS - Happy Father's Day, Daddy! Miss and love you - and ate a gelato for you! (that you technically paid for...hmm)
We saw all the sights and learned a lot about the history of Perugia, ie why there's no salt in the bread here (it's gross). and it ended with Zach taking us illegally onto private property and whispering a little about the history before telling us that while the tour was fun, class will be serious, and we have 50ish pages of reading to do by Wednesday. Yikes.
Before the tour, I went to 8:30am mass with Luciana. It was my first mass here, and it was an interesting experience. I was surprised by how few people were there - maybe 20, tops, and also the lack of... regal feeling? For instance, there was no procession of the priest, altar servers, cantor, etc., through the center aisle; the priest just kinda popped up from a door in the side and started the service. There was also no real uniformity as to when the congregation sat/stood/knelt, so I basically just did whatever Luciana did. I also paid close attention to the responses so that I'll be able to partake more in the mass in the upcoming weeks, as they're not a direct translation from what we say at church at home. One linguistic aspect I really liked though was the fact that God (il Signore) is addressed using the "tu" form; this is informal, as if to show that we have a personal rapport with God, that he is a close friend and someone we are on a tu-form-basis with. (It's kinda a big deal here to use the tu form with an "authority" figure / someone of high regard / someone older than you in general - you almost always use the "Lei" form which is formal, until they specifically tell you that you can use the tu form.) Language nerd moment :)
Day's Recap:
Hours spent walking: ~3
Pieces of cool information learned: 237+
Pages of homework done: 2
Pages of homework left to do: approximately 3294 :(
Flavors of gelato tasted: Biscotto (think cookie dough with pieces of cookie in it... SO good) and cioccolato bianco (white chocolate)
Datemi del tu,
Michelina
PS - Happy Father's Day, Daddy! Miss and love you - and ate a gelato for you! (that you technically paid for...hmm)
18 giugno 2011
Buon giorno, Perugia! -aka- "We'll move"
The title of this post is a little misleading, since we actually spent the day in Assisi. The Umbra Institute arranged a last-minute day trip and tour for us, so we set out by train around 9:30 and were in Assisi by 11. As a quick aside, Italian public transportation is by far my favorite. I took a subway a couple days ago in Rome and it was super nice and clean and airy (also, the poles were set up differently so it's like a center pole with 3 curved poles attached to it so like 5 different people can actually reasonable hold onto one pole - brilliant), and then today we took the Mini Metro (picture one car of a train, but smaller and taller and on this elevated track that goes throughout the city... if you've seen the Incredibles, it actually looks somewhat like their train thing!) to the train station and then took the train to Assisi, where we met our guide, Marco.
Oh, Marco. He was... interesting, to say the least. He apparently wasn't used to giving Americans tours in Italian and not English, so he enunciated eeevvvvvveerrryyythinggg he said (making it less clear, counter intuitively) and constantly asked us, "Ci siamo? Capite?" and other questions along the lines of "Are you with me; do you understand?" But he did it in a really condescending manner (though he wasn't trying to be condescending at all!), and we all felt dumber because of it. He would also target his gaze directly at once of us for a few minutes at a time, and constantly shouted out his conjunctions and make rapid hand gestures to accompany them. Very dramatic. While in one of the churches he focused on me and said, I kid you not, "Lui era un veg-et-ar-iiiiiii-aaahh-no. Capite? He was a vegetarian. He didn't eat meat. You with me?" Sigh. We also kept joking among ourselves about his repetition that "Assssiiiiiiiiiiiissii è uuuuna ciiiiiitttààà diiiii paaaaaaaaacccccceeeee" - Assisi is a city of peace, as he told us time and time and time again.
Peaceful it was, though. It was truly a lovely little town, actually one of my favorite places I've been so far. And of course, it was SO pretty. Also, there were cats everywhere. It's a city of cats. And animals in general (I had my first Pomeranian citing in Italy!) to go along with the whole St. Francis thing. [Oh and by the way, it turns out his body and St. Clare of Assisi's were relocated from the outskirts of town to the city, so St. Clare's waxed corpse is on display in the basement of Santa Chiara church... there is actually like at least one dead saintly body encased in every church I've been to here. Not gonna lie, I find it kinda creepy.] There are a TON of churches in Assisi, but we only got to see / go into four - the Basilica of Santa Chiara, the Basilica of San Francesco, the Cathedral of San Rufino, and Chiesa Nuova (which is at the birthplace of St. Francis). All were of course GORGEOUS and Luciana and I took some time to pray in each one, so it was a really spiritual day for me. I especially liked Santa Chiara's Basilica because they have the replica San Damiano crucifix that he prayed before, and which he was praying before when he received the message from God that he was to rebuild the church, and Marco talked to us about its significance (he WAS very knowledgeable and passionate - I'll give him that).
The San Damiano crucifix depicts Jesus on the cross suffering, but serene. There are bright colors, emphasizing His glory and strength in the face of torture. He is at peace, His face reflective, inviting Christians to follow His example. There are also several other saintly examples to follow in the figures that are standing next to Jesus – the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, and St. John the Baptist, among others. No one knows the particular artist who made the original crucifix, but it is thought to have been a Syrian (!), and it is now cherished by the brothers of the Franciscan order as a symbol of their lifelong commitment to God and the Church. And there is a whole lot of brilliant symbolism that’s really cool and inspiring that you can ask me about if you’d like. Or Google it, that works too :)
The prayer that St. Francis prayed before this crucifix was framed in several languages around the cross, so I kneeled and said it in Italian, Spanish and English (and also took prayer cards in each of those languages) because I really find it a beautiful prayer, one with values that people of any faith can appreciate. I also bought myself a 1 euro necklace of the San Damiano crucifix so I can keep those thoughts with me throughout the day :)
Here's the prayer, for those who may be interested:
Most high, glorious God,
cast your light into the darkness
of my heart.
Give me, Lord, right faith,
firm hope,
perfect charity
and profound humility,
with wisdom and perception,
so that I may carry out
what is truly Your holy will.
Amen.
Here's the prayer, for those who may be interested:
Most high, glorious God,
cast your light into the darkness
of my heart.
Give me, Lord, right faith,
firm hope,
perfect charity
and profound humility,
with wisdom and perception,
so that I may carry out
what is truly Your holy will.
Amen.
During our lunch break (aka break from Marco), Rachel and I first got gelato (yay!) then took a walk around (okay, first she had to follow me as I went in and out of souvenir shops indecisively...) the town. We went through this little broken wooden gate at one point and the view was simply STUNNING. I was just in awe of how beautiful it all was, and as we walked back down to the center of the piazza I texted my mom saying, "Why do we live in the US when a country this beautiful exists???" to which she responded, "We'll move."
I think that's a grand idea. :)
Day's Recap:
Number of times Marco said "Capite?": approximately 526
Cats seen: approximately 124
Flavors of gelato tasted: Limone (lemon - first fruit flavor, that was for you Mom!)
Pace,
Michelina
17 giugno 2011
Arrivederci, Roma!
So I ended up getting 15 minutes of sleep (yay!) and getting all my packing done way in advance of our 9am departure time. Around 7:30 I headed back over to the Vatican for the last time (everything was still closed...) and sent out my first batch of postcards (should be arriving soon - keep checking your mailboxes!) because I had already purchased Vatican postage (1.60 euro to send a postcard???) and had to send it from there. But it was still too early to even get breakfast or anything, so I headed back to the hotel for the final time.
We ended up getting to Perugia at 12:48pm; I got some much needed rest during the two and a half hour bus ride. [Note of advice: when traveling, make sure beforehand that you are fully capable of handling your luggage. I fail at transporting my stuff anywhereee.] From the bus station, we took cabs (love it when transportation is paid for) to the hotel we'll be staying at, Hotel Priori. Elgin Eckert, our academic alliance at the Umbra Institute was in our cab, and she's SUCH a cool person. She's originally from Germany but then went to grad school at Harvard and was a TF for Professoressa DiFabio, and now she works here as Associate Director for Academic Programming at the Umbra Institute, which is this awesome place that basically is the academic base for a bunch of study abroad programs in Perugia.
We soon found out that in addition to being really cool, Elgin is kind of a force of nature. When we arrived at Hotel Priori, we divided ourselves into groups for rooms, but when Luciana, Rachel, Hannah and I walked into our "quad" we barely fit. There were bunk beds basically right next to another two beds pushed together, a tiny bathroom, and not quite enough oxygen to go around. Elgin literally said, "You're not staying in this hellhole" as she was walking out the door, and within 5 minutes we were dragging our luggage down the hall to another room. This time it was two adjoining doubles. Slightly more breathing room, but still no air, darker, and sketchier. But whatever, we'd get by. Luciana had just started unpacking her stuff when I pulled back the covers on my bed to find not 1, not 2, but *3* insects (all different varieties, I may add. At least they keep things interesting) crawling around having a grand old time on my pillow. Now, running on 15 minutes of sleep, a day of dragging heavy suitcases around (though at least they made it to the destination this time) while my cold has been dragging me around, and the whole being-in-a-foreign-country thing all combined to make me not so happy with that situation. Fortunately, a half second chat with our TF, Paola, and Elgin meant a transfer to another room, and this one is lovely. I'm rooming with Rachel, who is soo sweet, plus we're both super language-y people (she's also studied Italian, Spanish and French!) so it should be tons of fun. Our room is on the first floor (#151, nice and easy to remember since that's my address at home!) overlooking the breakfast terrace and the generally stunning landscape of Perugia :D
Elgin took us on a "practical walking tour" in the afternoon - supermarket (called the Coop. We can never quite escape Harvard...), pharmacy, cheap places to eat, church, school supply stores, etc. Useful stuff, but I was tired, so I probably won't remember and will end up getting lost. Oh well. Later in the evening we went out to dinner with the faculty of the Umbra Institute at La Cambusa, a pizzeria right near the hotel (with great pizza). The entire faculty is American transplants to Italy, so their Italian is super easy to understand, and they're all really awesome people with such a passion for everything Italian. YAY.
Also, Perugia is GORGEOUS. *HOW* is this country so beautiful?! And this is just the perfect city for study abroad. It's a city with two universities, so it's a little bit of a college town and it's a lot smaller than Rome, so I don't feel nearly as stressed about getting around and seeing things and can really just enjoy being here. We got our course syllabus for the next 3 weeks at the Umbra Institute and I think it's going to be great: we have class twice a day, grammar/literature with the Harvard faculty from 10-1 and then a cultural lecture or outing from 3-4:45. Lots of Roman history and Renaissance art and Dante and Petrarch and the advanced section of the class will finally start meeting and there are no bugs in this room and YAY!
So all in all, a successful start to our stay in Perugia! SO excited for the next 3 weeks here!! :)
Day's Recap:
Days spent in Rome: 5ish
Days spent in Perugia: 1ish
Hours spent traveling: 2.5
Suitcases lost in transit: 0!
Bugs found in bed: 3
Hotel rooms moved out of within 10 minutes: 2
Excitement level: 329082309 :)
Baci (like the Perugina chocolates - had my first one today!),
Michelina
We ended up getting to Perugia at 12:48pm; I got some much needed rest during the two and a half hour bus ride. [Note of advice: when traveling, make sure beforehand that you are fully capable of handling your luggage. I fail at transporting my stuff anywhereee.] From the bus station, we took cabs (love it when transportation is paid for) to the hotel we'll be staying at, Hotel Priori. Elgin Eckert, our academic alliance at the Umbra Institute was in our cab, and she's SUCH a cool person. She's originally from Germany but then went to grad school at Harvard and was a TF for Professoressa DiFabio, and now she works here as Associate Director for Academic Programming at the Umbra Institute, which is this awesome place that basically is the academic base for a bunch of study abroad programs in Perugia.
We soon found out that in addition to being really cool, Elgin is kind of a force of nature. When we arrived at Hotel Priori, we divided ourselves into groups for rooms, but when Luciana, Rachel, Hannah and I walked into our "quad" we barely fit. There were bunk beds basically right next to another two beds pushed together, a tiny bathroom, and not quite enough oxygen to go around. Elgin literally said, "You're not staying in this hellhole" as she was walking out the door, and within 5 minutes we were dragging our luggage down the hall to another room. This time it was two adjoining doubles. Slightly more breathing room, but still no air, darker, and sketchier. But whatever, we'd get by. Luciana had just started unpacking her stuff when I pulled back the covers on my bed to find not 1, not 2, but *3* insects (all different varieties, I may add. At least they keep things interesting) crawling around having a grand old time on my pillow. Now, running on 15 minutes of sleep, a day of dragging heavy suitcases around (though at least they made it to the destination this time) while my cold has been dragging me around, and the whole being-in-a-foreign-country thing all combined to make me not so happy with that situation. Fortunately, a half second chat with our TF, Paola, and Elgin meant a transfer to another room, and this one is lovely. I'm rooming with Rachel, who is soo sweet, plus we're both super language-y people (she's also studied Italian, Spanish and French!) so it should be tons of fun. Our room is on the first floor (#151, nice and easy to remember since that's my address at home!) overlooking the breakfast terrace and the generally stunning landscape of Perugia :D
Elgin took us on a "practical walking tour" in the afternoon - supermarket (called the Coop. We can never quite escape Harvard...), pharmacy, cheap places to eat, church, school supply stores, etc. Useful stuff, but I was tired, so I probably won't remember and will end up getting lost. Oh well. Later in the evening we went out to dinner with the faculty of the Umbra Institute at La Cambusa, a pizzeria right near the hotel (with great pizza). The entire faculty is American transplants to Italy, so their Italian is super easy to understand, and they're all really awesome people with such a passion for everything Italian. YAY.
Also, Perugia is GORGEOUS. *HOW* is this country so beautiful?! And this is just the perfect city for study abroad. It's a city with two universities, so it's a little bit of a college town and it's a lot smaller than Rome, so I don't feel nearly as stressed about getting around and seeing things and can really just enjoy being here. We got our course syllabus for the next 3 weeks at the Umbra Institute and I think it's going to be great: we have class twice a day, grammar/literature with the Harvard faculty from 10-1 and then a cultural lecture or outing from 3-4:45. Lots of Roman history and Renaissance art and Dante and Petrarch and the advanced section of the class will finally start meeting and there are no bugs in this room and YAY!
So all in all, a successful start to our stay in Perugia! SO excited for the next 3 weeks here!! :)
Day's Recap:
Days spent in Rome: 5ish
Days spent in Perugia: 1ish
Hours spent traveling: 2.5
Suitcases lost in transit: 0!
Bugs found in bed: 3
Hotel rooms moved out of within 10 minutes: 2
Excitement level: 329082309 :)
Baci (like the Perugina chocolates - had my first one today!),
Michelina
16 giugno 2011
Auguri, Anna!
Today is Anna's 19th birthday - Tantissimi auguri, cara! :) We all came into her room singing at midnight, it was cute :)
We made plans to celebrate at night because during the day we had a scheduled outing to Campagnano, a little outside of Roma, where we were meeting some of Professoressa DiFabio's relatives. Francesca, their youngest daughter who is a year or so younger than us, led us on a guided tour around the historical part of the town, and then we returned to their casale for pranzo. There we met everyone else - nonna, zia and so forth. And then we feasted.
And I mean FEASTED. So much good food; I've never been so full in my life. (Except I seem to be saying that after every meal here. Life is good.) All the food was homemade in their wood oven with fresh ingredients from their enormous vineyard and orto (vegetable garden). Appetizers of fried mozzarella balls, prosciutto e melone, zucchini flower pizza (they use the flowers here!), fried artichoke hearts; mixed green salad; homemade pasta (pasta here is the PERFECT "al dente" - sosososo good!) in tomato sauce, rosemary potatoes, baked/breaded zucchini strips (I ate those too, grandma); some kind of veal dish that was good even though I don't like veal... and so on. I didn't actually know what some of the other things that showed up on my plate were, but by the 3rd course I just accepted it and ate everything. "L'appetito vien mangiando" - appetite comes with eating ;) And then there came dessert. Homemade biscotti, homemade gelato, homemade flan-like dish, fruit, happiness, and total gastronomic satisfaction were all on the menu.
So of course, we all went to sleep when we got back to the hotel. Sonno - sleep - also vien mangiando :P I actually couldn't take a nap, but I rested a little and then my friend Rachel and I went over to climb to the top of the cupola at St. Peter's, which, as has been my luck with the Vatican, was closed :( So we walked around in that area for a while and stumbled upon a big open market which demanded our perusal. Then we realized we were actually standing in front of Castel Sant'Angelo (don'tcha just love when things like that happen?) so that was another site to check off the list. While we were walking around the market, we talked to a few of the vendors, one of whom asked what part of Rome we were from, then asked me "Sei sicura?" - Are you sure? - when I told him I was from the U.S., so that made me happy. Plus we found a little pink Vespa keychain to give Anna as a regalino - little gift - because she adores Vespe. (Well who doesn't? Though I am more of a Fiat Cinquecento girl myself.) So Anna (I know you'll eventually be reading this, and if not you, then at least Frapp will see it and comment on it :P!), I hope you enjoy your Vespina, and that your hopes weren't too crushed when I came into your room exclaiming that I bought you a Vespa for your birthday ;)
To bid farewell to both Anna's youth and Rome with a bang, we left our textbooks behind and headed out to explore the city in a more ... shall we say, 'practical' manner. I will leave the details sparse (as to creep out my parents to the utmost possible extent) and just say that this practical exploration involved an ice bar, aka an indoor igloo in which we had to wear really attractive capes to protect us from the cold, a random siting of the Roman Forum en route to a discoteca in Campo dei Fiori, and a 4am arrival home, leading into my first all-nighter out of the country. Will catch up on sleep during the 2 hour bus trip to Perugia :)
Day's Recap:
Hours spent eating: 4-5
Hours spent sleeping: 0...
Number of people in Rome who asked *me* for directions: 4 (yay!)
Flavors of Gelato Tasted: nutella and another one I'm trying to think of the name of
PS - Mom and Dad, stop worrying :P
Stanca morta - superrrr tired,
Michelina
We made plans to celebrate at night because during the day we had a scheduled outing to Campagnano, a little outside of Roma, where we were meeting some of Professoressa DiFabio's relatives. Francesca, their youngest daughter who is a year or so younger than us, led us on a guided tour around the historical part of the town, and then we returned to their casale for pranzo. There we met everyone else - nonna, zia and so forth. And then we feasted.
And I mean FEASTED. So much good food; I've never been so full in my life. (Except I seem to be saying that after every meal here. Life is good.) All the food was homemade in their wood oven with fresh ingredients from their enormous vineyard and orto (vegetable garden). Appetizers of fried mozzarella balls, prosciutto e melone, zucchini flower pizza (they use the flowers here!), fried artichoke hearts; mixed green salad; homemade pasta (pasta here is the PERFECT "al dente" - sosososo good!) in tomato sauce, rosemary potatoes, baked/breaded zucchini strips (I ate those too, grandma); some kind of veal dish that was good even though I don't like veal... and so on. I didn't actually know what some of the other things that showed up on my plate were, but by the 3rd course I just accepted it and ate everything. "L'appetito vien mangiando" - appetite comes with eating ;) And then there came dessert. Homemade biscotti, homemade gelato, homemade flan-like dish, fruit, happiness, and total gastronomic satisfaction were all on the menu.
So of course, we all went to sleep when we got back to the hotel. Sonno - sleep - also vien mangiando :P I actually couldn't take a nap, but I rested a little and then my friend Rachel and I went over to climb to the top of the cupola at St. Peter's, which, as has been my luck with the Vatican, was closed :( So we walked around in that area for a while and stumbled upon a big open market which demanded our perusal. Then we realized we were actually standing in front of Castel Sant'Angelo (don'tcha just love when things like that happen?) so that was another site to check off the list. While we were walking around the market, we talked to a few of the vendors, one of whom asked what part of Rome we were from, then asked me "Sei sicura?" - Are you sure? - when I told him I was from the U.S., so that made me happy. Plus we found a little pink Vespa keychain to give Anna as a regalino - little gift - because she adores Vespe. (Well who doesn't? Though I am more of a Fiat Cinquecento girl myself.) So Anna (I know you'll eventually be reading this, and if not you, then at least Frapp will see it and comment on it :P!), I hope you enjoy your Vespina, and that your hopes weren't too crushed when I came into your room exclaiming that I bought you a Vespa for your birthday ;)
To bid farewell to both Anna's youth and Rome with a bang, we left our textbooks behind and headed out to explore the city in a more ... shall we say, 'practical' manner. I will leave the details sparse (as to creep out my parents to the utmost possible extent) and just say that this practical exploration involved an ice bar, aka an indoor igloo in which we had to wear really attractive capes to protect us from the cold, a random siting of the Roman Forum en route to a discoteca in Campo dei Fiori, and a 4am arrival home, leading into my first all-nighter out of the country. Will catch up on sleep during the 2 hour bus trip to Perugia :)
Day's Recap:
Hours spent eating: 4-5
Hours spent sleeping: 0...
Number of people in Rome who asked *me* for directions: 4 (yay!)
Flavors of Gelato Tasted: nutella and another one I'm trying to think of the name of
PS - Mom and Dad, stop worrying :P
Stanca morta - superrrr tired,
Michelina
15 giugno 2011
Nella cucina - In the kitchen
Well, that Spanish mass I mentioned in my post last night? Yeah, that didn't happen. And not even because I didn't wake up in time (I know that's what you were thinking, Mom...) but because everything at the Vatican was closed because of the general audience with the Pope that happens every Wednesday. So Luciana and I got up at the crack of dawn and headed over only to find everything closed off :( We made the most out of it and ate breakfast at a cute little cafe down the block from St. Peter's (cornetto con cioccolato = heaven) and walked around a bit until it was time to try to navigate our way to our cooking lesson, which we had today in place of class.
This lesson, however, was at the home of a professor at AIA, our partner school in Rome, and apparently after 3 days here we are expected to be able to find our way around with ease. Luciana and I did not, though, and ended up being a tad late to the lesson even after asking 6 different people how to get to the professor's street (and receiving very different directions every time, including one comment that "Via Quintino Sella (the street name) does not actually exist, this entire area is just called that." Maybe the Italians need maps more than the foreigners!)
Anyway, I was in the group making lunch (with Luciana, Rachel, Sebastian ("il beato fra le donne," as everyone calls him, since he's the only guy on the trip), Francesca and Hannah) which was a blessing because there's noo way I would've been able to find my way back later that night for the dinner shift. The chef's name was Antonella, and she taught us how to make a wonderful pranzo of puttanesca, fagioletti a corallo, vitello, and a mousse cioccolato con panna (but don't expect me to be able to replicate it at home!). Buon appetito!
This lesson, however, was at the home of a professor at AIA, our partner school in Rome, and apparently after 3 days here we are expected to be able to find our way around with ease. Luciana and I did not, though, and ended up being a tad late to the lesson even after asking 6 different people how to get to the professor's street (and receiving very different directions every time, including one comment that "Via Quintino Sella (the street name) does not actually exist, this entire area is just called that." Maybe the Italians need maps more than the foreigners!)
Anyway, I was in the group making lunch (with Luciana, Rachel, Sebastian ("il beato fra le donne," as everyone calls him, since he's the only guy on the trip), Francesca and Hannah) which was a blessing because there's noo way I would've been able to find my way back later that night for the dinner shift. The chef's name was Antonella, and she taught us how to make a wonderful pranzo of puttanesca, fagioletti a corallo, vitello, and a mousse cioccolato con panna (but don't expect me to be able to replicate it at home!). Buon appetito!
After lunch, we were all exhausted, and I've had a bit of a cold, so we returned back to the hotel and napped (first, however, we stopped at Fetrinelli bookstore, where I bought a copy of Heat Wave, the book by Richard Castle of the TV show Castle - which is well worth watching if you don't already watch it! - in Italian), and when I woke up it was already almost 9! Luciana and I went out for gelato at a place called Old Bridge Gelateria that our TF had told us about; it's apparently very well known and there is always a tremendous line, but it wasn't long at all tonight, so we waited and a few minutes later I was licking an absolutely delicious cone. So well worth the wait.
And now I'm off to rest up for our field trip in the morning!
Day's recap:
Hours spent lost: ~1 (better!)
Hours spent in the kitchen: 5 (probably more than I've ever spent there before...)
Flavors of gelato tasted: menta (peppermint) and bacio (cioccolato e nocciola - chocolate and hazelnut... think nutella!)
Hours spent lost: ~1 (better!)
Hours spent in the kitchen: 5 (probably more than I've ever spent there before...)
14 giugno 2011
Lo stato più bello del mondo - The most beautiful state in the world
Sorry, New York (and Massachusetts) - Vatican City, officially lo Stato della Città del Vaticano - is beyond a doubt the most beautiful 'state' I have ever been to.
Today after class, lunch, and over half an hour waiting for bus #492 to arrive (not a huge fan of bus #492 after the past couple days), we spent the day exploring the Vatican Museums until close. My friend Luciana and I coughed up the 7 euro for an audio guide in Italian per praticare and spoke only in Italian throughout the day - it is amazing how quickly you can see improvement in fluidity when you completely block out everything but the one language you're studying. [We all took a Language Pledge to speak only Italian yesterday, but it's not going so well when we're out of the classroom. There are a few of us that want to really immerse ourselves in the language but for the most part the other students have only studied Italian for a year or less, so it isn't entirely possible for them to swear off English communication because their vocabularies are a little limited.]
Anyway, the Vatican Museums... wow. I just don't understand how it's even possible to walk from one astonishingly, intricately, stunningly beautiful room of art straight into another equally astonishingly, intricately, stunningly beautiful room of more art. Seeing the Sistine Chapel was one of the most incredible experiences. It was like the slides I had to memorize for my History of Art and Architecture 10 final brought to life, but SO many times more impressive of couerse. The key to looking - REALLY looking - at the ceiling is to tilt your head back, because that way you see all the figures, which truly do look 3D, like they are actually physically present. It is an absolutely amazing sight; I wanted so badly to just lie down on the ground on my back and gaze up and take it all in, but that would've been frowned upon in a room so packed... or most places in general, for that matter :P
Luciana and I also visited the Basilica di San Pietro at the Vatican, the Catholic church with the largest interior in the world. You could spend DAYS walking around inside and even still not have seen and admired each and every ornate section with the attention it deserves. So, so, so very beautiful.
Time for homework (soooo much tonight :( !) and sleep, so I'll be able to get up for 7am mass at St. Peter's... in Spanish!
Day's recap:
Days spent in Rome: 2.5
Days left in Rome: 2.5 :(
Hours spent walking: ~6. OW. Legs falling off.
Hours of homework awaiting: Yuck.
Circondata da bellezza - surrounded by beauty,
Michelina
13 giugno 2011
La valigia più viaggiata a Roma - The most traveled suitcase in Rome
Well, the suitcase is finally here in my room at Residenza Candia, but before getting here it wandered through the streets of Rome, took a picture with the Trevi Fountain, and went down all 138 of the Spanish Steps.
Let's start from the beginning: my wonderful parents were on the phone with Delta almost all night US time (keep forgetting about the difference!) trying to work out the luggage issue (thank you so much guys!). Turns out the suitcase got to Fiumicino around noon, but the receptionist had copied down the wrong address, instead writing the address of AIA, our classroom building. It was thought at the time that they hadn't signed for it and that the bag was thus on its way back to Fiumicino, and would be shipped back to JFK if not claimed in a certain amount of time. Che disastro! My parents, myself, Claudia, and Paola tried everything to rectify the situation, but met insurmountable resistance from the Delta people.
Pause that thought, and let's start with the morning. Woke up at 8:15 (SO EARLY), got ready (minimal prep time because I only had one outfit and no makeup - thanks Anna!), headed over to class, which is 9:30-12:30 every day. It's a pretty far trip to La Piazza delle Cinque Scole, which is in the Jewish Ghetto of Rome, but the building is stunning. I can't believe people actually go to school there (no offense, Harvard. Or Mepham.).
Class was very basic grammar/verb review, and after we were free for 4 hours... uh, make that 2, since Anna and I spent the first two wandering the streets of Rome, very, very lost. We eventually ended up walking through the Vatican briefly; I cannot wait to go back and explore it in more detail - che bello! When we finally made it back, we went shopping for clothes in the event that my luggage didn't come (I just bought socks, underwear, and eyeliner - you know, the essentials!). We hardly had time to rest before our afternoon activity, a scavenger hunt type thing on Negozi Storici - historic stores of Rome. While we were planning out our voyage in the classroom, lo and behold, MY SUITCASE ARRIVED THERE. Gorilla luggage tag and all! I've never heard Mom so relieved on the phone! I thanked God again and again and left it there to pick up after the activity. Anna and I went to the first place, an old jewelry shop, and had an awkward encounter with the employees there, we'll just forget that happened.
By then, we had to go back to get my luggage before AIA closed. The suitcase bounced down all the flights of the winding staircase, then came with us to get gelato and find the second place, an old pharmacy. On the way, we stopped at the Trevi Fountain, where we each threw in a coin as per tradition. Looks like I'll be coming back to Rome one day! (Hopefully the suitcase will too next time!) :)
After finding the pharmacy, we headed to the nearby Piazza di Spagna, home of the famous Spanish Steps. We took a slight wrong turn and ended up at the TOP of the steps... so the suitcase made its way down every one of the 138 steps (laughter and shock and one man's, "No she isn't... Oh, yes she is!" did occur at this strange sight).
We also passed the Piazza della Colonna, with a column of such intricately graved detail that I was just awed. As I told Anna, every corner you turn here, there is a beautiful building. The architecture is simply stunning, especially in the piazzas.
An additional 4ish hours later, we stood waiting, exhausted and sore, for the #492 bus to take us back to the hotel (naturally, this took forever, and we got slightly lost when we got off the bus...). We got back around 9, and fortunately the girls hadn't eaten yet either so we made (just kidding, two of the girls made) dinner - pasta, sauce, bread, fresh mozzarella and tomato with a balsamic vinaigrette. Yum!
After eating our lovely meal on the terrace, we all came in and did homework and now everyone else is sleeping and I am awake writing here (shocking, I know). I am overjoyed to be reunited with my luggage, and now it's time to get some sleep before class!
Days Recap:
Hours spent lost: ~3
Hours spent struggling to roll my suitcase around on Rome's cobblestone streets / the Spanish Steps: ~3
Suitcases found: 1!!!! :) :) :)
Hours spent struggling to roll my suitcase around on Rome's cobblestone streets / the Spanish Steps: ~3
Suitcases found: 1!!!! :) :) :)
Flavors of gelato tasted: Coconut (bleh) and tiramisu
A domani,
Michelina
PS - do they not stamp passports anymore at customs??? I didn't get one! :(
A domani,
Michelina
PS - do they not stamp passports anymore at customs??? I didn't get one! :(
12 giugno 2011
Sana e Salva - Safe and Sound :)
Day 1 in Roma is coming to a close! I cannot believe I am actually here... then again, I also cannot believe that my luggage is NOT actually here...
Yes, in more ways than one, the Eternal City didn't give me the greatest of welcomes today. Anna and I met at JFK about 40 minutes before takeoff and last call for our flight ended up during the ~3 minute period of time in which I was buying a bottle of water. Fortunately I rushed back and we made it in time... but unfortunately, the flight crew didn't do as well. One of the pilots was sick so another one and his assistant had to hurry over to join us. By the time everything was settled, we'd been in the plane for almost 2 full hours :( Those two hours plus the actual 9 spent in the air taught me that sleeping in planes just must be an acquired skill, one that I do not possess at all. I contorted my body and the Delta pillow and blanket I was given into a shocking variety of potential sleep positions, but to no avail.
Thus I arrived in Rome: tired, hungry (plane food was... not so edible. Plus I saw a flight attendant in the back eating what looked like a very nice, edible meal. So unfair :P )and nervous. Anna and I headed to baggage claim; hers came fairly quickly when we reached the right one. Half an hour later, mine still hadn't. Some Asian woman's suitcase had fallen onto the other side of the conveyor belt, so she turned off the spinner and hopped on to grab it... then the spinner wouldn't go back on. At all. And no bags were coming out. So I hoped it was just a delay; after all, there were several other people from my flight also waiting for bags.
No such luck. Turns out Delta left about 1/4 of my flight's luggage at JFK. Hopefully it will arrive tomorrow. It'll work itself out, I'm sure - as long as they KNOW where it is, I'm fine. :) (Mom and Dad, relax.)
So 3ish hours after we arrived at Rome's Fiumicino airport, Anna and I headed to the hotel. (This itself took an extensive time due to some very sketchy interactions with "cab drivers.") Speaking of driving, Italians... can't do it. Seriously, *I* am a better driver! There seem to be few or no traffic laws; cars are tiny (FIAT Cinquecento is now available in America!) and Vespas are everywhere, speeding through narrow streets and being very, shall we say, indecisive on streets with multiple lanes. Always have to be on your toes around here.
Finally, we reached Residenza Candia, home for the next week. I am in a suite with 4 other girls from the program, and the residence is very quaint - we have 2 bedrooms, a bath, kitchenette, and an adorable little terrace.
As for the view, it's amazing, but that can be said from almost anywhere you're standing in this city. Roma is gorgeous. (Pictures to follow!).
After getting settled we walked around a bit to acquaint ourselves with the surrounding streets, then ate dinner together with our TF Paola and the Academic Initiatives Abroad Coordinator, Claudia, at a Roman pizzeria (which was so yummy that I think it could convince even my dad to give up on the Elio's!). After the meal, we stopped for gelato (Harvard paying for gelato = WIN) and then back to the hotel, where we all hurriedly finished the homework due in the morning and called it a night!
Day's Recap:
Hours in plane: ~11
Suitcases lost: 1
Flavors of gelato tasted (this is for you, Aunt Barbara!): Cioccolato (had to keep it simple at first) and stracciatella (the favorite so far).
Buona Notte,
Michelina
PS- Keep your fingers crossed that my luggage finds its way to Roma!
10 giugno 2011
Domani?!
That's right, you heard me. Domani - tomorrow - at just about this time, I will be on a red eye flight headed to Italy! I'll be sitting next to one of my best friends from school, Anna Frappaolo, one of my roommates from freshman year (who will also be my roommate this summer and for the next three years - what a lucky girl!) on the plane, and I'm pretty sure that neither one of us has fully wrapped her head around the fact that we will actually be spending the next 8 weeks in Italy as we travel, eat, learn, eat, and speak very little English (and... eat!).
To get everyone up to speed, Anna and I, as well as a group of 10 other students, are going to be spending the next 2 months in Italy - 1 week in Rome, 3 in Perugia, and 4 in Vasto, as part of the Harvard Summer School Study Abroad Program! YAY! It's an unparalleled opportunity to explore Italy that I am beyond grateful for and so blessed to have been given!
At the same time, an 8 week voyage overseas is a pretty intimidating concept for me, a girl who has never been outside the United States and hadn't spent that much time away from home before she started college last fall. But I've been in love with Italy for as long as I can remember, and that love just kept growing as I have studied the language for the past 6 years. That's my other primary concern - I'm supposed to be fluent in Italian (at least, that's what my teachers and professors have told me :/ ...), but that fluency will certainly be put to the test over the next 2 months as I struggle to hold my own in conversations with native Italians.
So I'll be posting here (I'm going to try to do so daily, but we'll see how that goes!) to share my photos and keep you all posted on my travels, my adventures, and the unavoidable funny and/or slightly awkward situations I will undoubtedly find myself in when I accidentally misuse a word or idiom!
[Please note: the posts I will write on this blog will thus largely serve as a substitute for the frequent individual emails updating everyone to whom I have promised to send frequent individual update emails! ;) I will, however, still email you all as often as I can, as well as Skype, time difference permitting! And, of course, I cannot forget to mention the ultimate purpose this blog will serve... Mom and Dad, may the stalking commence!]
;) Baci e abbracci,
Michelina
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