Porsche

Geez, oh pete. It has been a long 16 days since I wrote. No, it wasn't neglect -- I was on Spring Break and free of technology for 10 of those days! Being able to disappear for awhile is great for your health. I recommend it. Perhaps, though, you're wondering how my break was and I'm afraid that the version I must tell will be seriously abbreviated. Never fear! I journaled throughout my trip and will try to sufficiently recount it all. 

I must say that leaving Arezzo in the first place was a daunting task. We missed our train to Rome; Danielle got fined in the train for not validating her ticket; and we last-minute had an issue with one of our hotels and I had to pay for 2 nights in a hotel that we didn't end up staying at. Talk about a total waste of money. It feels like a stab in the heart. Finally, we were in Rome and ready to start. 

On Friday, we picked up Danielle's friends Stephanie and Rachel from the airport. It was nice to see the route that I will end up taking when I head back to the airport because it's going to be a stressful situation, what with juggling my bags and everything. Our first three days were spent in Rome. We had found our apartment on a hostels website and after going through a labyrinth of streets, we found Stella's House, which ended up being a woman's apartment that had a few spare rooms. Stella spoke English-Italian that was borderline hilarious. For example, "Hai to close la porta, please." (You have to close the door, please) It ended up being like that episode of The Office when Dwight is talking to some Hispanics and asks, "Donde are you from?" Hopefully you can appreciate this reference. Anyway, she made us espresso and gave us breakfast each morning. She ended up brokenly telling us that she was headed to Naples on Monday to visit family. The fact that she's from Naples makes total sense -- that southern hospitality is not only typical of Oklahomans, I assure you. We saw all the normal sights: Trevi, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, Vatican City, the Spanish Steps and Pantheon. We obviously did a lot of walking, which made us all pretty exhausted. All those backstreets are full of people selling knock-off designer bags, street art (the current fad is to use spray paint for their prints), and beggers. One man showed us his cute parakeets, which we immediately cooed over and held. He waited till we were done with our pictures before saying, "Three euro, three euro." Danielle said, "You didn't tell us that. NO." And away we went. 

In St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, we had a lot of fun taking advantage of the lighting offered by the windows in the side aisles. It either looks eerie or angelic -- you decide:

Saturday night was St. Patrick's Day and since we'd wanted to be in Ireland that day, we were sort of sad that we weren't there. When we had picked the girls up at the airport on Friday, we had seen a lot of men in kilts and found out that Scotland was playing Italy in rugby on Saturday. It was a small consellation to see  innumerable amounts of Scotsmen throughout Rome. As luck would have it, we met a few of them while we were dining outside one night and ended up spending the evening with them. The BEST part of the night was when I got to (.... drumroll ....) WEAR A KILT. That's right. I got to try on and wear some of their family colors for a couple of hours and it was sooooo perfect. 

I must say that, while Rome is full of antiquity and everything, it's so incredibly dirty and crowded. It's comparable to New York City, I suppose. I was glad to be moving on, for sure.

Monday we left for Cinque Terre. Everyone warned us that, because of last year's flooding, it would be unenjoyable. I wouldn't say it was unenjoyable, but if you're going there to hike from town to town, that's impossible. And if you're going for entertainment, don't. We had the most relaxing couple of days. I even got some sun! The season for the beachfront towns doesn't start till after Easter so going before then just means that the cities are quiet and some of the stores and restaurants are closed. We were tired from Rome, though, and perfectly content to sit and enjoy the scenery. I've always loved the view of Manarola, with the waves crashing into the side of the hill. I was freaking out as I got to the place that displayed that view. Here's one from there:

We made sure to leave our mark... maybe someday I'll be back?

After a lot of seafood (even octopus!), we headed up north to Lake Como for our last three days! From the right location, you can even see the Swiss Alps from the lake so it's really gorgeous and relaxing. My first thought on arrival? Retirement Community. Everyone and anyone with money lives and travels there. Again, we were there before their season began so it was rather uneventful. We tried renting kayaks but they didn't trust us to not fall in and die of hypothermia. We shopped and ate. And ate. And ate. George Clooney lives in one of the surrounding towns so we kept asking, "Scusi, dove does George Clooney live?" and "George, is that you?" No, it wasn't . . . One night, we were eating in a restaurant by the ferry and a man and his friends struck up a conversation with us. He ended up buying us three rounds of lemoncellos (a gross, potent lemonade that we gritted our teeth through) and welcoming us to the wonderful (albeit quiet) town of Bellagio. The most interesting part of that evening was that I got to drive his PORSCHE. Yes, that's right. His porsche. Don't believe me? 

I only killed it twice and in my defense, I was turning while driving up the side of a mountain after a stop sign. I can cross "Drive a Porsche" off my list, though. I must say, it drives a littttle bit different than my jeep, Zorro.
The rest of the trip was lovely but I must say, I was glad to go "home" to Arezzo. Living out of a suitcase is no fun. Plus, I was missing all my friends. It's starting to feel normal here after all.

German Chocolate

You must have thought that I forgot about you! Well, I didn't, I assure you. It's just that this last week has been the most busy thus far. We had midterms last week, which is an entire week ahead of everyone at home. I'm not really sure why they chose to do it that way -- maybe because they know that students have family coming in and will miss Thursday class this week anyway? All I can say is this: I studied more for my Art midterm than I have for anything in a looooong time. You should know that this is not your average study abroad, everyone-gets-an-A class. Our professor is an Art historian obviously and has had some high-paying clientele as a Tour Guide for rich tourists, which is how he got his job. He met President Boren after giving him a tour in Florence. He did his Masters thesis over Michelangelo's financial records. That may mean nothing to you but he can tell you exactly when certain pieces were completed because of how they were entered in the ledger. Basically, I hate going to do any touring without him because he knows everything about everything. I can't appreciate what I'm looking at because I know Kirk could be telling me something about the architect or the foundation of the facade.

On our midterm, we had to know the title, artist, date and current location of every piece we had seen together as a class so far. That's overwhelming considering the fact that we have been to over 6 locations so far. That's a lot of art. Just sayin'. There were also two essay questions and a host of vocabulary for which we had to give the definition, its significance to our class and an example. I spent well over two hours completing the test and had another midterm after. I was drained and that night, had to get on a train to Rome for our Illicit Trafficking field trip.

Rome was nice but you have to understand, I was in meetings for the whole thing. We went out late Tuesday night and found the Colosseum. That was about as touristy as the whole trip was for me. Wednesday, we went to the Carabinieri to speak to them about the trafficking of illicit art. It's interesting to see how much staff and money the Italians pour into investigating and tracking down stolen art. That was unanimously the class' favorite part of our day. We also spoke with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Libera. I went home exhausted but didn't get to make up sleep until the weekend. Friday afternoon, we went to Florence to go shopping. That sounds so snobby to say that out loud. Anyway, we went to get some tops because I wasn't prepared for the spring/summer weather. I was under the impression that it would be cold until mid/late April. I brought about 4 shirts so I was looking for some moderately inexpensive shirts. Mission accomplished.

This weekend, I got a visit from an old friend. Julia was a foreign exchange student at Choctaw my junior year. She's from Germany and is on break from school so she stopped in Arezzo on her way to Florence. We got to catch up and she brought us German chocolate. It was great to spend some time with her! Safe travels, Julia!

We're starting to get antsy for Spring Break. I have a paper due tomorrow and another midterm on Tuesday. I'm having the hardest time focusing. I think this post wins the most boring ever award. I will leave you with a small token from our procrastination:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVaCbVYhXYs&feature=plcp&context=C49b53e3VDvjVQa1PpcFN80GjHQZgl_xwCJLMI3t-bR_jpJ0-ZVkc%3D

496 Steps

We've had a really, really great week. The school week wasn't one for the books -- I had that Italian Quiz (fingers crossed) and I'm losing sleep and procrastinating. All of those combined result in a tired and slightly grumpy Courtney. But this week was happy and full of friends! I left you Wednesday after a field trip to Florence. I've mentioned before that Thursdays are our Fridays because we get three-day weekends. So come Thursday afternoons, we're all ready to celebrate! Thursday was perfect. After class, Danielle and I set out to get some air. It was borderline toasty, actually. I even took off my cute blazer and went sleaveless! We ran into two of our friends and sat in the Piazza drinking cappuccinos and soaking in the sun. These are the days that I'll remember most, I think. When you're not traveling or running, just being.

Thursday night was what we call "Conversation Space." We invite Italian Youth from Arezzo to come meet with us and have a language exchange of sorts. It was the second of the semester and the first for me to attend. All of one Italian showed up. Poor lad was stuttering and fidgeting and all nerves as a room full of 12 girls interupt each other and yell over each other to try and explain OU Football. More specifically, "What's a Sooner Schooner?" "What's a Sooner?" "Why do you hate Texas?" "What's tailgating?" As you can imagine, the spirit of Oklahoma football is a hard dynamic to explain. The world stops on Saturdays from September to November. "Even when it's an away game?" Even when it's an away game. In exchange, we got to learn about Arezzo's historical annual joust. The city is separated into 4 neighborhoods and each neighborhood is very patriotic. The four sections compete in the joust in the Piazza Grande every June and September. The winner is awarded the Golden Lance. I know what you're thinking: "Thanks, but I'll stick with OU Football." You should know, though, that it's a huge celebration and very spirited. Plus, the competitors and town officials are in traditional costume. Which is charming, don't you think?

We slept in Friday and woke up in time for the tour of the local winery with the rest of the group. If you're interested in hearing about how wine is produced, I'm your gal (maybe). Don't get too hardcore -- some things are lost in translation. The whole adventure ended with a wine tasting with some different meats and cheese (Ps. I looooove pecorino; What will I do when I have to leave it behind??). The whole place was really charming. I found out that in Italy, there's actually a government entity responsible for policing their respective area's preservation efforts. That's a little vague so I'll clarify. One cannot make major changes to property, old houses, the land, anything, without the "board" or whoever approving it first. So this vineyard wanted to convert their wooden posts to some sort of steel (the posts that forms the structure for the grape vines -- sorry I don't know vineyardian lingo) for cost efficiency reasons but the board said no because, "the vineyard needed to maintain the aesthetics typical of the region." Similarly, while the current location for OU's campus here in Arezzo is temporary, they've purchased an old monastery here and expect to open it in 2015. While they will own the facility, there are certain pieces of art within it that they aren't allowed to alter or cover up. Weird/cool, right? Imagine what the landscape of America would look like if someone had said, "Hey, no, you can't build the Devon tower there. We're trying to maintain the whole 'great plains' look."

Finally, today Danielle and I went to Orvieto, which is a little town in Umbria that's just an hour away from here. Per usual, it was a lot of walking, seeing the town's Duomo, following Rick Steve's Guide religiously. We went to the St. Patrick Well, which is a well commissioned for defensive purposes. It's 175 feet deep and there are 496 steps. The city is also known for its "underground city." Also for defensive purposes (and surprisingly, for a lot of pigeon breeding), they built caves under the city. They're not all connected -- in fact, many of them are private and secluded under private property. But there are over 1,200 caves in all and we only saw 2! It was quite a brilliant thing, considering their durability. We shopped some, too, of course. Oh! And I also found cats. I'm a little pet-deprived. I miss my puppy.