School, Bike Riding and Church - Perfect Combo

School
Odd that it felt so good to be tossed right out of bed this morning by my alarm clock. I've always enjoyed the first day of school and now that I'm all grown up, I was still totally excited about it. Today was entrance exam day. All of the new students number somewhere around 70 total and we'll be split out into different classes based on our skill in Italian.

The full immersion experience began with the instructions being given in all Italian. For the very important questions, they spoke a few words in English. All of the faculty were very friendly and even more so when they saw my name. Thanks, Mom & Dad, it really helps me here to have the look and name of an Italian. As previously discussed, I clearly don't fit where it comes to dress and language, but I'm working on those aspects.

They had an option for the entrance exam to be oral and not written for those with very little Italian background. I took that option (though it sounded scarier). For people in my situation, I just talked to a woman for a few minutes (she wanted to know all about where my roots are in Italy) and she placed me in the almost-beginner level. That's appropriate & what I expected. I was a little disappointed as I couldn't wait to see what kind of material was on the written exam.

It's really cool to see what all they offer students: a really inexpensive museum pass for everything cultural in Perugia, good discount card for food, services, etc, gym (not sure if it's free or just super inexpensive), tons of movie nights, cultural opportunities and weekend trips. From what I could tell, I detected very few Americans are here. There's a very large asian population and I figure most of the others are from the EU (and they all are not going to be beginners, probably). Many more women than men, too. That's going to be weird for me since I'm so used to (and more comfortable with) being in male-dominated jobs and activities. But, I will have to wait until Tuesday to see who's who and what's what as that's the next day of class. Monday might be a holy day in Italy, not sure.

Bike Riding
I've been feeling pretty bad about not riding much. Of course, other things took priority and I needed to let the riding go for the time being. Now being settled in, I have the time and energy to get back out there and so I did this afternoon. The wind yesterday and today was strong but I simply didn't care.

Mind you, I've been riding on the same air that I got on the first day in Mallorca! The shop is always closed when I have a chance to go there (during siesta). But today was going to be the day to actually get in to the shop. In the meantime, I took a ride over to Assisi and went to St. Francis' church at the top of the hill. I said a prayer for everyone who needs one. Scary clouds were looming, but I've learned that these clouds often are pretending to be storm clouds. Good gamble, I could count the number of rain drops that fell on me today. Also cool to revisit the day from the Ciclismo trip when we visited Assissi--when Don bought me lunch and told me to save my money so that I could make this trip back to Italy and where Glenn and I hung out and waited for a very long time for Marcello, Roe and Jim who never turned up (it was such a gross touristy place--remember that sandwich, Glenn?)

Next stop: bike shop and it's a NICE shop! The woman who helped me was super nice and she hooked me up with a pump, lube, CO2 cartridges. All for 24 euro total (excellent price for all of that). Even better--I got times for group rides...this entire transaction was done in Italian (and a lot of hand-waving).

It was nothing but fun carrying that pump back home (1,000 feet of vertical over 4 miles), it would have been nice to have not made that wrong turn that involved even steeper pitches in the pavement, grades over 20% in six locations...all in-saddle. Gonna feel some legs yelling at me tomorrow.

My camera wasn't invited along for the ride, I wish I could share pics with you!

Church
If there's one place that I feel at home no matter where I am, it's in church. Today being Holy Thursday, there was a mass in the evening that I was very happy to attend. It was held in the cathedral and it was packed with people. No, I can't understand most of the words, but I know what they're saying. It's time with God and it's time to be a family--no matter the language anyone speaks. It fills me in so many ways.

Here are some pics that I snuck...sort of seems to suck out some of the meaning of a mass when the camera comes out, but I really wanted to share with you!

Candidates for confirmation are having their feet washed in the above picture.

There's something really special about these pillows, I just don't know what it is. The entire congregation crowded around the area in the back of the church where these are immediately after mass was over.

Here are the people swarming the "room" where the pillows were placed.

Sorry it's blurry, but better than nothing:

Inside of the cathedral.

Here's its exterior--I didn't guess it to be a cathedral prior to being pointed to it! See the stairs--very popular hangout spot for college kids.

Something that was interesting: when they gave communion, everyone all at once poured into the center aisle without people going in order (first row goes, when there's room in the aisle, the 2nd row goes, etc--the way it happens in the states). It was absolute chaos.

There was a lot more to notice/share, but I'll save that for another time when it's a boring Sunday and the only thing to report on is mass.

Also squeezed in time to shop today. Got this new shirt--turns out there are a lot of pretty cool clothes that aren't very expensive. Only issue: Italian sizes run small (Italian girls do, too). This is a medium and quite small on me. They didn't have a large and I don't care to ever wear a large in anything but socks. Gotta get serious about that Gelato Diet!

You Heard it Here First...

I saw Amanda Knox on the street in Perugia...she was skipping and whistling "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah"...!

APRIL FOOL'S!!!

(Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Home Sweet Home

Here's a tour of my new home, at least this month. Honestly, I love that it is so low maintenance and small. I'm getting the feeling that this is simply the way apartments work in Italy for students: the place comes furnished, with art on the walls and sheets on the bed. Dishes and pots and pans are in the kitchen. Why would any Italian student want to buy his/her own stuff? Most students move home after college so I'm guessing these purchases only happen after a couple gets married.

View out the window.

The shutters are great. The place is very dark until I open them up. Who needs curtains?

Kitchen:

"Cabinet" on the left-most side is the refrigerator (top) and freezer (split into three small sections, bottom).

Washer is in the kitchen. Yikes! I forgot--my laundry is done and I totally spaced it tonight. Not sure where it'll be getting dried...hmmm...



Tonight I got to meet a very cool family (family friends in a roundabout way) who were in town. We feasted at a great local restaurant that was down a cool alley. Oh, the best part of Italy is just this! And before dinner we had some to-die-for Montefalco vino. mmmmm. I need to pay that winery a visit (it's super close to Bevagna).

Here's that alley:

And here we are at a fab lookout spot:

Tomorrow, finally, is the day I've been looking forward to for 6 months now...Italian school begins! (Alright, so entrance exams are first, but I have a feeling I'll learn a lot just being tested about everything I don't know.) Buona fortuna to me!

(Or you could say "In bocca al lupo!" and I respond back to you: "Crepi il lupo." This means: in the mouth of the wolf and the response means: may the wolf die. This is right along the lines of break a leg.) No wolves, no breaking legs tomorrow, but definitely going to be an interesting experience being tested on a language that I haven't studied formally yet. Results will be blogged when I get them.

Ciao ciao!

I Have an Italian Address, Does that Make me Italian?

An update on what's going on with me: obviously, yesterday was a very tiring 24 km wandering all over Venice (yeah, I wore my GPS watch because I'm a wannabe geek). I took a night train to Perugia where I arrived at 7:15 this morning. The train was very uncomfortable: 6 sleepy people in a very small compartment. When I walked in, a guy was sitting in my seat (next to the window) and a child was crying his head off. Luckily, the guy moved (begrudgingly) and the child was perfect for the rest of the night after his mom returned (his poor, helpless dad). I slept off and on, but it was cold and not very restful.

I was able to take a nap (back at the farm), grab my stuff (I had left a lot there) and set off yet again. And so continues the journey of our comic character in the slightly altered version of the "Under the Tuscan Sun" story. Part two of this story was played out with me and all of my bags (much fuller and even more awkward than when I originally got to the farm) as I drug everything back down the gravel road to the bus stop. The sky was dark, I was sure I was going to get rained on and to top things off, I got to wait an extra 15 minutes for the bus since I misread the schedule (hrumph, there's two schedules posted for each bus and apparently today the other one applied where it never has before). Maybe kids are on spring break & it's a school vs non-school thing? These are some of the amusing frustrations to moving to a very different place.

I was only a couple of minutes late to check in at my new apartment (new for me, it's anything but new...it's centuries old and I like that part the best! I can't break it if the last 900 people before me didn't break it). Tonight I met my roommate who is from Holland and seems pretty cool. Best part about her: she doesn't like chocolate or wine...so I get all of the chocolate and wine others have given to her.

A quick trip to the market yielded a very early dinner since I was super hungry; it felt so great to be able to buy food knowing it won't have to be moved anywhere. Getting established, settling down. This is truly fantastic. Dinner was complete and satisfying: big, beautiful spinach and beet salad, pasta with olive oil and garlic, red vino, bread with very fresh honey from Sunday's market in Vicenza).

After dinner, I unpacked, put up pictures of family and friends along with the goodbye cards you all gave me, organized everything, stowed the bike bag and other luggage under the bed and here I am! Pictures of the place later, I'm exhausted. This whole process really, truly makes me feel like a college freshman again.

And one other thing to mention: it has been in the back of my mind for a few days, but the realization that I brought travel-appropriate clothes only and almost NOTHING fashionable has me totally freaked out. My Italian leather boots are collecting dust in Denver, grrrrrrrr. It's back to school time and I'm going to be that kid wearing the hand-me-downs from multiple other siblings. I might feel 19, but I can't dress like it if I want to be Italian. This could be a fun problem to solve! 

Blogging will slow down dramatically once school starts as there will be much more going on socially and I will want to study so my priorities will shift a lot. This blogging project has been so much fun and I really appreciate all of the personal emails I've received from you in response to the posts. They all mean so much to me to receive. Grazie mille. Ciao ciao!

A Letter to Venezia (aka Venice)

Dear Venezia,

Before I went to visit you the first time (which was yesterday), I thought you would be faking it. I presumed there would be a canal with gondoliers and boats just so people can take pictures of this one place and then you could make a fortune on stupid tourists visiting you. You were sure to try to sell me a thousand different t-shirts that capitalize on the cute little boats we see in the pictures.

I'm writing to say I am sorry. I prejudged you (though I was still very excited to see, in person, what you were all about). As I ambled through your many neighborhoods where everyday people live everyday lives, I realized you are really being you. You are a wondrous place to enjoy without the roar of cars, taxis, buses or even the whine of motor scooters.

Yours are the sounds of water lapping on the sides of docked boats,

the "buongiorno's" of locals greeting each other at the little markets,

voices echoing off the stone walls (who all have their own stories to tell)

 and the pitter-patter of the feet of visitors navigating your narrow cobblestone streets in yours,
 the most clever and beautiful labyrinth.

Yes, you have tourists, but for hundreds of years you have had tourists. Tourists are part of your fabric and they are here to breathe in your air that smells of the sea, attend your operas, fall in love again at sunset on a gondola ride and buy your lovely glass sculptures such that they may invite you into their homes.

You have inspired artists and countless others throughout the ages through your deep, lasting beauty. And I thank you for proving your genuine ability to be you and stay you such that I could get to know you.

My feet would like to express their opinion as they are in a very bad state today; but they are being bound and gagged so you will not have to be bothered with such trivial matters.

Sincerely,
Your New Friend

Tour of Venezia - GPS and Photo Tour

Click Here to see where I went yesterday in Venice.

2010-03-29 (Venezia/Venice) - Photo Tour

To Market to Market to Buy a Fat Pig...or...a sandwich with pig in it

Sunday is market day here and to market we went with a couple of adorable little girls and a few big girls (friends of my cousin).

First, though, we started with the typical Italian breakfast of brioche (sweet pasty) and cafe (shot of espresso) in a lively pastry shop.

Roadies were swarming the streets and it was perfectly warm out (mid-60s probably). Funny, I see the only pic I got of cyclists was one that shows the back of a woman. She was one of the only ones out there. 

The market was packed with people buying and selling wearable and edible goods. There are good deals to be had, for example: 5 euro for 3 small containers of bright red, fresh strawberries. The big (exciting) purchase for me was a garlic press, something I've really been missing/needing.

This is a ham sandwich that was really good. Yes, I ate a ham sandwich and enjoyed it (I think I've been craving protein as it's been harder to eat with all of the traveling). My vegetarianism is a thing of the past, at least for these six months of Italian living.

This jacket would be marked XL or XXL if it were sold in the states. 5 Xs in Italy, though.

Dinner tonight was at a local restaurant that, believe it or not, has a menu with more items on it than the Cheesecake Factory. This dish is the kind that I've tried ordering in the US for years and every time I've been disappointed. Finally, it was done right: thick homemade noodles, good red sauce (including veggies) and smoked mozzarella cheese melted all throughout it. Thank goodness I got out late this afternoon for an hour run (first one in weeks, was getting antsy with such great weather and no bike).

It was fun for me to be at dinner where there were kids since it's so unusual for me to ever be around young ones. (I give the moms so much credit, they do such a great job with the kids. Really don't think I'm capable of doing what they do.)

Signing off, will probably not be online again for a full day or so. More adventures, starting first thing tomorrow morning. Happy (if it's appropriate to say that) Palm Sunday! (Btw, Italians get not palms but things that look like a full branch/small tree.)

Studentessa of Architecture

History is inescapable in the very cool town of Vicenza (near to Venice). Having no idea as to what Vicenza would be like, I found myself swept away by the seemingly endless cool churches, outside facades on the buildings, museums and other very significant buildings (and it's a fairly compact place). Is this how Christopher Columbus felt when he discovered America, the way I feel when I find a place like this? Except I'm tourist number 50 million to be here...I don't care, this is my discovery in my little (though slowly expanding) world.

It was an absolutely lovely day today with the birds chirping, tons of people out, eating on the patios in the streets, some (but not too many) tourists. Fine day for some exploring.

I learned a lot about Andrea Palladio--very influential architect who has a lot to do with the way Vicenza looks. The Teatro Olympico was the absolutely coolest thing to see (he designed it)--the initial show at this theater was Oedipus the King & what sounds like the most amazing theatrical performance ever (or at least the most anticipated as there were 2,000 people at the show and it's designed to hold a small fraction of that number).

Also made it to their Museo Naturalistico Archeologico (museum of Roman statues and garb, arrow heads from waaaay back, rocks and cool stuff dug up throughout the ages, and the flora and fauna of Italy, including nasty insects and creatures I don't care to meet. All of the signs were in Italian and this is one time it really would have been nice to have a solid translation.

Visited the Gallerie di Palazzo Leoni Montanari. It featured Byzantine icons from the time Christianity existed in Russia & now that's something I appreciate from learning about the Byzantine church back in Denver. It was all crazy with those ceilings carved in baroque fashion, hard to get tired of seeing this kind of thing. Wandered through a few churches (they, too, have a duomo that is massive and quite enjoyable to see inside and out). Here's a picture of it: 

All of this education today for the price of 6 euros--it dawned on me that I'm a student again and can get student discounts at such places. And a tiramisu gelato for 1 euro (also student discount). Even cooler that they don't question me when I tell them I'm a student. Sweet in so many ways.

And ended the day with my cousin and I at the top of a mountain that overlooks all of the town. Tons of roadies up there. Wished I had my bike, but it's best I didn't travel with it (for stress level reasons). She made a super yummy dinner and we dined in, this is the best kind of visit.

Guess what time it is, folks? Springing forward here in Italy tonight so *poof* there goes yet another hour. So time difference is this: when it's 6 pm in Denver, it's 2 am here. On that note, buona notte!

Immersed in Italian Culture: Soccer and Pizza

Last night I fell asleep with the computer in my lap after getting home from dinner at half-past midnight. A rooster is cockadoodle-dooing outside (this isn't a farm, either, but Italy seems to be full of roosters).

It's not a long train ride to a place near Venice considering I feel worlds away from my new home now. Perugia was early-summer toasty yesterday. When I stepped off the train here, it was rainy, chilly and foggy--a totally different climate. I'm in this part of the country to visit my cousin (who I saw very briefly last summer in Roma and the time before that was 9 years ago, also very briefly). It makes me happy to finally get some time to have a quality visit with her and her daughter (she's American, from the non-Italian side of my family). It's simply a small world!

My cousin plays soccer (indoor, at least for the winter) with mostly Italians and a few Americans. She's benched with an injury at the moment, but we still went to watch (wish I could see her play!). There is some serious ball-handling skill out there, it was great fun.

One of her Italian guy friends was very excited to drive her Dodge--a BIG car compared with Italian Fiats. Watch Cristiano Drive (sorry, this link might not work).

He was thrilled with the power. It made his night.

After the game we went out to pizza at a local joint. The pizza was very yummy and I had beer (most of them drink beer after soccer).

The mix of languages (the Italians don't know much English and vice versa) seemed to work out just fine. Soccer and pizza are things all people can enjoy together whether or not they speak the same language.

Question: What do you get when you cross Cristiano...

With this girl...

?

ANSWER:

 Turns out, THIS is what made his night, it eclipsed his thrill of driving the Dodge.

Time to get out of bed and get this day going, the sun is pouring through the fog/clouds (not sure which right now), but it looks to be a lovely day (and it feels like a weekend to me since the pressure of getting things of practical nature done haven't followed me here). Yea!

How to Find a Bike Shop

Today was a gotta get-er-done kind of day. Thank goodness for having the bike here, it's allowed me to get so much more done in a shorter period of time (and take a multitude of wrong turns) with the additional benefit of feeling great at the end of the day.

I mentioned before about the difficulty in reading street signs and maps. It really is tricky here since there are quite a few roads named the same as a road running next to and parallel to it. I could really use a better street map, too, since on this one, all of the little streets aren't labeled and those are critical for getting oriented in a very complicated town with a million little streets.

There were two leads on apartments this morning in my email so I needed to get to town to check those out. I rolled into town at 12:50. Town closes down (almost completely) at 1 pm (and some doors get locked early). I managed to get my phone to reject its SIM card (it cost 8 euros to undo the damage I did, grrrrr)...and I didn't have use of the phone all day since the Vodafone store closed at 1pm.

Moments after I entered the main piazza, I saw three guys on their road bikes, complete with Euro-cool kits (jerseys and shorts) and bandannas instead of helmets, no gloves, thin and tan. Definitely racers. If anyone knows where a bike shop is (like the kind I'm looking for), these guys will know. So I rode after them and asked if they know where the nearest shop is...I asked in Italian, it's feeling a bit more comfortable to try (though most Italians understand my English better than Italian). One guy knows barely enough English that communication is possible. He said that they'll ride past the shop in a nearby town, but it's closed, of course. I jump on their wheels and follow them down, around and out of the city center. This feels similar to yesterday when I was on the motor-scooter zipping through the winding roads.

Throughout this ride, I'm trying to figure out how I can communicate anything to them. "Hey, you guys have girl friends who ride bikes?" or "When are the fun group rides?" or simply "I might not look like it (um, with the helmet and totally uncool vest), but I'm one of you, pleeeeease let me ride with you again." No, I got nothin' to say (this is a first if you ride with me).

The nearby town is a few kilometers away, not too far. Happens that there are two shops. I notice a child's tricycle in the first one and the guy says there are two shops. So which one is the best? The other one. We ride to that one. It's got a descriptive English name: "Racing Bikes." I express my thanks at their showing me the shop...the guy says they just did one thousand kilometers (of course, he meant 100 kilometers which is around 66 miles) and they ride off. No leads for bike riding buddies, rides or anything, but the location of the shop is priceless. This is a good first step. Lately, all I can do is be happy with making progress, no matter how small. It'll be another few days before I actually get to go inside of the shop and I'm anxiously awaiting that day (amazing enough, my tubes have just enough pressure still in them).

The ride back to the city center is up, up, up. Takes a lot longer to get back (now the second time today that I've made this vertical trip) and I spend a bunch of time finding the apartments. The first one is inexpensive and further out from the center of town, but I can't get the landlord on the phone to arrange a meeting. I like the location a lot (allows for better bike riding). Off to the second place, it involves riding up some almost too-steep-to-ride roads (these roads cause the Fiats some trouble ascending).

Before the meeting, I grabbed gelato (instead of lunch). Sadly, this one was disappointing--icy, not creamy. Flavors: limone (lemon--very tart, I liked the flavor) and what I think is mirtillo, blueberry.

This apartment is very centrally located, a bit more than I want to pay, but a huge perk: the girl who lives there is a good friend of a girl I've gotten to know while I've been staying here. The girl is dutch and knows something like four languages. I haven't gotten to meet her, but the landlord is a sweet woman and I feel comfortable with this. I've committed to a month here. That will buy me time to see if I can find something else less expensive, it will give me a chance to see how important the location is AND I'll find out how much a fan of second-hand smoke I am. She smokes as does almost everyone here.

Town was hopping this evening, it was so full of life and energy (though too many middle and high schoolers, methinks). They're getting ready for Easter-related festivities. I can think of nowhere I'd rather be for Easter than Italy.

Time to go pack up and get ready for yet another adventure this weekend. Will leave a lot here so as to travel light and attempt a stress-free journey.