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.