Mar 24-26 – Cinque Terre!
Ok, so here goes the blog about the best weekend I have had so far in Italy! I was traveling with Margee, Carly, and Aashley for Cinque Terre and we left Thursday afternoon right after lunch.
Funny/Scary story about on the way there…We had three train exchanges and when we finally got to our destination in Levanto station I go to reach for my backpack under my seat and suddenly realize that I left it in the McDonalds in the last train station 20 minutes back. I had my camera in there and I my heart dropped. I can’t remember the last time I have been that mad at myself. So the couple that was at the station to pick us up helped me quickly buy a ticket to catch the train back to the last station and I waved bye as they took the three girls to where we were staying for the night and I waited for the next train to come. That wait for the train and the twenty-minute train ride was torture. I was just praying, wishing, freaking out, beating myself up, etc the whole way there. At one point I told God that I would be content whatever the outcome would be, but I was so hopeful that it would be there.
It was there praise God! My Zaino (backpack) had been found and given to the lady behind the counter who had kept it for me an hour later in a very busy train station. I told my story to a random Italian dude I sat with on the train back to Levanto where we were staying and he was so shocked to hear that it hadn’t been stolen. Thank you Jesus! The guy I talked to was actually a language tutor in several European languages including English so he spoke very good English and was also able to help me practice my Italian. ☺
Carly had lent me her cell phone when I went away separately so I was able to contact the people we were staying with an tell them when to meet me at the airport to pick me up and Claudio was there waiting for me and was happy to see that I had my Ziano on!
That night we stayed in Levanto on a farm with Claudio and Grazia a very nice couple who rents out a few rooms to travelers. It was a great experience. The rooms were clean, and don’t even get me started on the free breakfast. We had a leisurely two hour breakfast and gorged ourselves on the most amazing, fresh, homemade everything. Homemade jams, honeys, pastries, granola, fruits, cheeses, yogurts. Yeah, be jealous. Ha. I had kiwi jam, orange honey, wild berry pastries, cappuccinos, juice, and I definitely took part in the sin of gluttony. :)
We were then off on the train to Monterosso, the biggest of the five towns/villages that make up Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre for those of you who don’t know is composed of these 5 villages that lie in the mountains right along the coast of Italy and it was probably the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life. We had planned on doing the coastal hike which was supposed to be a 5 hour hike that went right along the mountain edge along the coast and would take us through Vernazza, Corniglia, Manorola, and eventually end in Riomaggiore. Sadly, there had been some recent landslides and all of the coastal hikes were closed except for the stretch from Riomaggiore to Manorola. Although the hikes that went up into the mountains and then back down to the coast of each town was open and so we decided to do the long hike from Monterosso to Vernazza.
I am so glad there was a landslide though because the five-hour hike was gorgeous. It was a pretty strenuous hike, but the landscape was breathtaking. We were often able to look out and see the ocean and the small villages down at the water’s edge all the while looking out over the beautiful green mountains. We made a couple minor errors along the way and ended up taking the long way, but we made memories and made it to Vernazza. What an incredible hike. The town of Vernazza was so quaint. The houses were all built right into the mountainside on the outskirts with rocks probably taken from the area with green moss growing all over them. It almost reminded me of like a hobbit scene. Then after a little while in Vernazza and trying some famous focaccia bread that was delicious we hopped on a train for Riomaggiore. We found out that the bus to Biassa (where our hostel was that night) only ran at 1230pm and so we had to take a bus, which left in 15 minutes to take us to a nearby town about a mile and a half walk from Biassa.
The bus ride to this little town as we were leaving Riomaggiore was awe-inspiring. The sun was setting and the sky was purple, orange, deep blue, and red. One of my favorite sunset skies ever even though we didn’t see the actual sun set because it was on the other side of the mountains I think. Anyway, so the sky was beautiful and we could look down and see the town of Riomaggiore nestled on the coastline with the breathtaking mountains spread all around and even see a few of the other villages of Cinque Terre dotted farther down along the coastline. Wow.
After some more walking we got to Biassa as it was starting to get dark and checked into our hostel. For dinner we found the only restaurant in the tiny town of Biassa. Ha. It was delicious though. Did you know that Cinque Terre is the birthplace of pesto? Yeah, so I had the local pasta called Trofie (funny looking thing but delicious…a little chewy than I’m used to, but very good) al Pesto. Amazing.
The next morning we had the two Euro breakfast provided for us at the hostel in Biassa, which was definitely lacking compared to our amazing breakfast the morning before at the farm. When we got to Riomaggiore later that morning we went down to the marina, which is where all the boats are pulled in, and it was gorgeous.
We took the coastal walk that was open from Riomaggiore to Manorola. It was once again breathtaking. We walked right along the cliff’s edge and the waves crashing into the cliffs below us with the view of the ocean and sometimes the coast with the other villages of Cinque Terre in view was amazing.
After spending some time in Manorola at the marina we took the train to Corniglia and got to walk through town and also walk down to the cove and see the waves crashing into this little cove. So pretty. We ate lunch out on the patio at this little restaurant overlooking the town, mountains covered in vineyards and wildflowers, and the ocean. I enjoyed some more pesto from the place where it originated. So fresh, herby, and flavorful….waaay better than any other pesto I have ever eaten before.
We hurried down the mountain to the train station in Corniglia and barely caught the next train to Monterosso where we began our little adventure. Grabbed some gelato and headed out to the beach to soak up the sun, enjoy the view, and recuperate. It was glorious. We took the train back that evening and got into Orvieto Scallo (lower part in the valley) around 1130 and took the last bus up the mountain and made it back just in time for our midnight curfew. Overall, it was the best weekend I have had so far in Italy. Wonderful!
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Cinque Terre!! Most Beautiful Place on Earth - PHOTOS - GOOGLE IMAGE IT
Ok, so I don't have time to write a blog so I'm gonna try to upload a couple pics from my amazing weekend in Cinque Terre!! Here are the three girls I went with from the left Aashley, Margee, and Carly. We are in Monterosso getting ready to begin our trek.
This Pic is an unedited photo...shot from the bus we took from Riomaggiore to Biassa. This was one of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen. The sunset was gorgeous and the mountains with the tiny village of Riomaggiore below on the right.
Riomaggiore marina -
This Pic is an unedited photo...shot from the bus we took from Riomaggiore to Biassa. This was one of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen. The sunset was gorgeous and the mountains with the tiny village of Riomaggiore below on the right.
Riomaggiore marina -
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Stuck in a Bathroom in Italy!! Ha
Mar 22nd
Quick funny story…So I am in the Blu Bar planning a trip to Cinque Terre with a few people and I decide to go the bathroom. A simple task that ends up taking like from 45 mins to an hour. So after I finish my business I go to unlock the door to the bathroom and the key just keeps turning and I don’t hear any clicks. I keep messing with the key and lock and realize when I take out the key that the key part has broken off (its one of those old school big brass keys)… I know, right? Ha. So, after about ten minutes of jiggling the key and door handle trying to get someone to notice that I’m stuck I hear the guy who runs the café say something about a chiave (key). After about 5 minutes of discourse in Italian/English/Spanish through the bathroom door and me sticking the key in and turning it back and forth due to his request I get across that I think the key has broken off.
So I hear him tell me to wait and then he comes back about 5 minutes later with some contraption and some other customer or guy to help him try and unlock the door. Finally I hear the voices of the people I came with and evidently he had gone to go get them. He explains to them that they need to go to this store and buy a key. I hear later from them that they had no clue what to ask for or what kind of key to get. Ha. So after about 5 or 10 minutes they come back with a key and it doesn’t work so I wait longer while they go back to the store to try and get a different kind. They bring back 4 different keys and thankfully one of them works and I get free! :)
So yeah, it was definitely one of the funniest things that has happened to me in Italy! Ha. Italian/English/Spanish communication was just hilarious trying to understand the situation.
Quick funny story…So I am in the Blu Bar planning a trip to Cinque Terre with a few people and I decide to go the bathroom. A simple task that ends up taking like from 45 mins to an hour. So after I finish my business I go to unlock the door to the bathroom and the key just keeps turning and I don’t hear any clicks. I keep messing with the key and lock and realize when I take out the key that the key part has broken off (its one of those old school big brass keys)… I know, right? Ha. So, after about ten minutes of jiggling the key and door handle trying to get someone to notice that I’m stuck I hear the guy who runs the café say something about a chiave (key). After about 5 minutes of discourse in Italian/English/Spanish through the bathroom door and me sticking the key in and turning it back and forth due to his request I get across that I think the key has broken off.
So I hear him tell me to wait and then he comes back about 5 minutes later with some contraption and some other customer or guy to help him try and unlock the door. Finally I hear the voices of the people I came with and evidently he had gone to go get them. He explains to them that they need to go to this store and buy a key. I hear later from them that they had no clue what to ask for or what kind of key to get. Ha. So after about 5 or 10 minutes they come back with a key and it doesn’t work so I wait longer while they go back to the store to try and get a different kind. They bring back 4 different keys and thankfully one of them works and I get free! :)
So yeah, it was definitely one of the funniest things that has happened to me in Italy! Ha. Italian/English/Spanish communication was just hilarious trying to understand the situation.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Photos!
Go back a few posts and read I live in a cloud...well this is a pic from that morning...literally orvieto was in a cloud...this is after it had dissipated down quite a bit because you can actually see out to the monastery wall from my window...but if you look on the right side of the pic there is a blob of clouds that is actually higher than the monastery...so some of the clouds were below the tips of the mountains around and then there were some cloud clumps taller than where we are...so beautiful and this pic through my screen window doesn't do it justice.
Typical street scene in Siena -
River in Florence -
River in Pisa at night - our hostel was right in a piazza overlooking the river...slow shutter shot
Tower of Pisa at night -
Slow shutter Cars going by in Pisa...am standing by the bridge right on the river shooting towards the piazza that our hostel was in. My room was the window 4 to right from corner of yellow building with the balcony looking out over the piazza.
Interesting looking guy in Siena -
Girl on a bike in Siena -
Some houses in Lucca we saw on our bike ride around the city -
Some graffiti down a side street in Siena -
A biker in Pisa on the Corso (main road) -
Another pic of the river in Florence - picture does not do the colors justice....
Fresh fruit stand in Siena -
Piazza Del Campo - main area in Siena...everyone just laying around everywhere...basically like a giant beach -
Typical street scene in Siena -
River in Florence -
River in Pisa at night - our hostel was right in a piazza overlooking the river...slow shutter shot
Tower of Pisa at night -
Slow shutter Cars going by in Pisa...am standing by the bridge right on the river shooting towards the piazza that our hostel was in. My room was the window 4 to right from corner of yellow building with the balcony looking out over the piazza.
Interesting looking guy in Siena -
Girl on a bike in Siena -
Some houses in Lucca we saw on our bike ride around the city -
Some graffiti down a side street in Siena -
A biker in Pisa on the Corso (main road) -
Another pic of the river in Florence - picture does not do the colors justice....
Fresh fruit stand in Siena -
Piazza Del Campo - main area in Siena...everyone just laying around everywhere...basically like a giant beach -
A Panini on the Piazza!
Mar 16-20th
This week we have been working on a giant end of semester project for Cultural History of the Renaissance which has eaten up all my free time that I had to blog so here are the highlights of the past couple days. Well first off this project is a paper written as a thirty-minute presentation to a tourist group about a specific fresco cycle. It has been a lot of reading research and a lot of writing, but I am almost finished with it. I think it is one of the first times I have not procrastinated on a paper and pretty much have it done four days before it is due. Ha. Anyway, so nothing too special during the week that pops out to me worth sharing.
This Friday morning though a group of eight of us took a day trip to Siena for fun. It was a sweet day. We got just fully experience the city. We enjoyed sitting on the Piazza del Campo, which is a huge Piazza in the center of town where tons of people are just laying and sitting in making it look like a giant beach. Ate a fresh mozzarella, tomato, and spinach Panini on the piazza. I took a bunch of pictures of people and the cityscape and the girls did some shopping. I had a mandorla gelato which is almond flavored…so good. I mixed it with chocolate. Wow. We found some cute little family owned restaurant off the beaten path for dinner that was pretty cheap and delicious. It was a good break from all the frescoes we have been looking at in class (not that I haven’t gained a significant appreciation for them…but we have just seen a lot of them. Ha) and a chance to get to know the group I went with a lot better. I really enjoy everyone in my program and it has been great getting to know them. We got back later Friday night and hiked up the mountain from the train station again up to San Paolo.
Then Saturday was the festival of San Giuseppe(Saint Joseph) and so there was a lot of stuff going on around town that everyone was out for. It was a lot of fun. In the morning I went to the market and got a giant bag of Clementine oranges for 1 euro and then walked back and forth down the via del Duomo trying to figure out where a parade was supposed to take place. I never did figure it out. Supposedly a statue and parade or procession was supposed to take place bring the statue of Saint Joseph from the church of San Giuseppe in the center of town down the via del Duomo to the Duomo. I saw a ton of people milling about ready for the festivities, but never did spot the procession so that was a fail. Ha.
I went back later that night though around 6 and was there for the procession of the statue from the Duomo back to the church of San Giuseppe where it belonged. It was pretty crazy. Tons of people everywhere. They had a band all fitted out with fancy red and blue uniforms and a group of guys all wearing some sort of brown thing evidently from a confraternity (kind of like masons, or rotary, or some men’s club thing that does charity and stuff). There were a lot of white robed clergy and the head priest of the Duomo who all walked out in procession carrying this statue of Joseph. It was a big deal and then the whole crowd followed them down to the Piazza outside the church of San Giuseppe and the band played on a stage set up there. You could buy tubs of these rice donut things that were delicious for only 1 euro. It was a great way to further experience Orvieto and get a feel for the pulse of the people living here. Once again I feel more and more like I am an Orvietani. I took pride in my city.
This Sunday morning Prof. Skillen’s wife, who had just come a couple days earlier and is an ordained minister, held a service here in the monastery and invited a few people from the community as well who have been long time friends of the program. I played guitar and another girl played violin for the worship. It was good.
After that service I went to the San Giovenale service as well and sang in the choir again. I really enjoy doing that. It makes me really feel like I am a part of the congregation and the people are very welcoming. It is a really good practice for pronunciation of Italian because I’m reading Italian words that I have never seen before and then I’m following along with a melody I have never heard before so it is really quite the challenge, but I enjoy it. As I learn more Italian I get to recognize more and more of what is being said in the songs as well.
I also forgot to mention that we are starting to do Bible studies on Tuesday nights in the monastery, which has been good. We alternate we leads the discussion and then I have been leading worship on guitar with another girl playing violin. :) We just kind of started, but it looks like it will be good.
This week we have been working on a giant end of semester project for Cultural History of the Renaissance which has eaten up all my free time that I had to blog so here are the highlights of the past couple days. Well first off this project is a paper written as a thirty-minute presentation to a tourist group about a specific fresco cycle. It has been a lot of reading research and a lot of writing, but I am almost finished with it. I think it is one of the first times I have not procrastinated on a paper and pretty much have it done four days before it is due. Ha. Anyway, so nothing too special during the week that pops out to me worth sharing.
This Friday morning though a group of eight of us took a day trip to Siena for fun. It was a sweet day. We got just fully experience the city. We enjoyed sitting on the Piazza del Campo, which is a huge Piazza in the center of town where tons of people are just laying and sitting in making it look like a giant beach. Ate a fresh mozzarella, tomato, and spinach Panini on the piazza. I took a bunch of pictures of people and the cityscape and the girls did some shopping. I had a mandorla gelato which is almond flavored…so good. I mixed it with chocolate. Wow. We found some cute little family owned restaurant off the beaten path for dinner that was pretty cheap and delicious. It was a good break from all the frescoes we have been looking at in class (not that I haven’t gained a significant appreciation for them…but we have just seen a lot of them. Ha) and a chance to get to know the group I went with a lot better. I really enjoy everyone in my program and it has been great getting to know them. We got back later Friday night and hiked up the mountain from the train station again up to San Paolo.
Then Saturday was the festival of San Giuseppe(Saint Joseph) and so there was a lot of stuff going on around town that everyone was out for. It was a lot of fun. In the morning I went to the market and got a giant bag of Clementine oranges for 1 euro and then walked back and forth down the via del Duomo trying to figure out where a parade was supposed to take place. I never did figure it out. Supposedly a statue and parade or procession was supposed to take place bring the statue of Saint Joseph from the church of San Giuseppe in the center of town down the via del Duomo to the Duomo. I saw a ton of people milling about ready for the festivities, but never did spot the procession so that was a fail. Ha.
I went back later that night though around 6 and was there for the procession of the statue from the Duomo back to the church of San Giuseppe where it belonged. It was pretty crazy. Tons of people everywhere. They had a band all fitted out with fancy red and blue uniforms and a group of guys all wearing some sort of brown thing evidently from a confraternity (kind of like masons, or rotary, or some men’s club thing that does charity and stuff). There were a lot of white robed clergy and the head priest of the Duomo who all walked out in procession carrying this statue of Joseph. It was a big deal and then the whole crowd followed them down to the Piazza outside the church of San Giuseppe and the band played on a stage set up there. You could buy tubs of these rice donut things that were delicious for only 1 euro. It was a great way to further experience Orvieto and get a feel for the pulse of the people living here. Once again I feel more and more like I am an Orvietani. I took pride in my city.
This Sunday morning Prof. Skillen’s wife, who had just come a couple days earlier and is an ordained minister, held a service here in the monastery and invited a few people from the community as well who have been long time friends of the program. I played guitar and another girl played violin for the worship. It was good.
After that service I went to the San Giovenale service as well and sang in the choir again. I really enjoy doing that. It makes me really feel like I am a part of the congregation and the people are very welcoming. It is a really good practice for pronunciation of Italian because I’m reading Italian words that I have never seen before and then I’m following along with a melody I have never heard before so it is really quite the challenge, but I enjoy it. As I learn more Italian I get to recognize more and more of what is being said in the songs as well.
I also forgot to mention that we are starting to do Bible studies on Tuesday nights in the monastery, which has been good. We alternate we leads the discussion and then I have been leading worship on guitar with another girl playing violin. :) We just kind of started, but it looks like it will be good.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
I live in a cloud!
Mar 15th
This morning when I woke up and looked out my window it looked like we were in a cloud. You couldn’t even see the courtyard walls the cloud/mist was so thick let alone anything beyond the walls. It is just solid white beyond the walls. So cool. Nick was like dude have you looked outside, it looks like we have been raptured or something. Ha. Alright so I wrote this past part like literally right after I saw it and just now looked out again and the sun has come out and melted some of the cloud down just enough so that you can see the tip tops of mountains that are across the valley. Also on the right side there is like a cloud lump that goes up higher than the monastery right in the middle of the valley. I took a couple pictures, but it was through my screen so they are not that great, but hopefully you will be able to at least get the gist. I know I didn’t capture the beauty of it though. It is gorgeous!
This morning when I woke up and looked out my window it looked like we were in a cloud. You couldn’t even see the courtyard walls the cloud/mist was so thick let alone anything beyond the walls. It is just solid white beyond the walls. So cool. Nick was like dude have you looked outside, it looks like we have been raptured or something. Ha. Alright so I wrote this past part like literally right after I saw it and just now looked out again and the sun has come out and melted some of the cloud down just enough so that you can see the tip tops of mountains that are across the valley. Also on the right side there is like a cloud lump that goes up higher than the monastery right in the middle of the valley. I took a couple pictures, but it was through my screen so they are not that great, but hopefully you will be able to at least get the gist. I know I didn’t capture the beauty of it though. It is gorgeous!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Alfeo and Cooking Tortellini
Mar 13th
This Sunday I sang in the church choir again at San Giovenale. Nick was sick so I was the only Bass/Tenor. They had me sit up with the men in the choir up front to the side whereas normally we just all sit in the front few rows so that was an experience. I sat next to a dude named Alfeo who is this super friendly bear of a man with a powerful Italian voice. He loved that I was picking up on Italian and just was so happy that I was up there singing with them. After the service was over he gave me this humongous bear hug/headlock and was like Benissimo Andrea! (my Italian name) which mean like very great or excellent. He was soo happy. It was cool. I love that I am starting to pick up on Italian quicker because I am able to pick up more and more of what is going on in the service. They talked about the temptation of Adam and Eve and tied it into the temptation of Jesus (the second Adam). For lunch a few of us stopped in a local pasta shop and got some fresh tortellini carne (tortellini filled with meat) and took it back to the monastery to cook. It was soo good. We had a chunk of Parmesan cheese to grate over it and some olive oil and some fresh tomatoes that one girl cooked up. Molto Buona! (Very Good!)
This Sunday I sang in the church choir again at San Giovenale. Nick was sick so I was the only Bass/Tenor. They had me sit up with the men in the choir up front to the side whereas normally we just all sit in the front few rows so that was an experience. I sat next to a dude named Alfeo who is this super friendly bear of a man with a powerful Italian voice. He loved that I was picking up on Italian and just was so happy that I was up there singing with them. After the service was over he gave me this humongous bear hug/headlock and was like Benissimo Andrea! (my Italian name) which mean like very great or excellent. He was soo happy. It was cool. I love that I am starting to pick up on Italian quicker because I am able to pick up more and more of what is going on in the service. They talked about the temptation of Adam and Eve and tied it into the temptation of Jesus (the second Adam). For lunch a few of us stopped in a local pasta shop and got some fresh tortellini carne (tortellini filled with meat) and took it back to the monastery to cook. It was soo good. We had a chunk of Parmesan cheese to grate over it and some olive oil and some fresh tomatoes that one girl cooked up. Molto Buona! (Very Good!)
Florence, Pisa, and Lucca!!
Mar 11th and 12th
This Friday we all went to Florence and got to see Masaccio, Masolino, and Filippino Lippi’s Life of St. Peter in the Brancacci Chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine; Benozzo Gozzoli’s Journey of the Magi in the private family chapel in the Medici Palace; Santa Trinita chapel the Adoration of Christ. They were all extremely beautiful and once again Prof. Skillen made them come alive and really gave meaning to them by putting us in the period mind. The river that runs through Florence was gorgeous. There were tons of motorcycles and mopeds everywhere along the river. The houses lining the river and along the bridges made it look almost like Venice, but very quaint and beautiful. We got some gelato in a little gelati right on the river which was fun. I had a Bacio and Cookies gelato. Bacio is like a ferror rocher(chocolate hazelnut) and cookies was like yellowish with like this chocolate covered cakey things that tasted delicious. A couple people stayed in Florence that night and came back the next day and the rest of the people took a train back to Orvieto that evening, but 7 of us took a train to Pisa that night. Figuring out which train to catch and the whole schedule was good Italian practice. I was kind of worried that it might a tourist trap, but it was a beautiful città (city). We got there right as the sun was setting after an hourish train ride. On the way to check into our hostel we walked down the corso (main road of a town). The corso was full of people out walking because evidently it was their passegiata (nightly walk down the main street of town which typically happens around 6 or 630 in a town…people put on nicer clothes and just stroll through town…happens every day on a small scale and then on Sundays it is like literally the whole town out walking…pretty awesome that they take the time to stroll through town and mingle with everyone…we should do that in America) anywho, so we were rubbing shoulders with everyone on the passegiata on the corso. The shops along the corso were very trendy and modern. Zara, H & M, and many more expensive shops were everywhere. Everyone was dressed super trendy as well. I felt like I was in uptown New York European style. Our hostel was very nice. We were on the second and third floor of a building right on this piazza which looked out over the river. This piazza was supposedly the place to be in Pisa. There was live music and a bunch of people just mingling around the statue in the center of the piazza and several people spilling out of bars off of the piazza. Our hostel was very upscale though and felt very secure. After we dropped off some of our stuff in lockers in the hostel we went to go walk to the Tower of Pisa and stop along the way for some cena (dinner). We were kind of hoping for some pizzeria, but we stumbled across this restaurant that had pretty white lights outside and a pretty patio area so we stopped there. It was still a little chilly so they thought we were crazy americani for wanting to eat outside. Ha. They were like fredo fredo?? (cold cold?) but we were all bundled up anyway and it really wasn’t too bad and we wanted to outside so we insisted. Ha. I got some amazing pesto pasta which was full of fresh delicious herbs. So good. Then we started heading towards the Tower and I wasn’t leading the group so didn’t really know where we were in relation to the tower, but we just wandered up to it pretty much and it was like dang we are really here and that is the leaning Tower of Pisa! It really is an awesome sight to see. It is so funny looking because it is hardcore leaning and just like from seeing it in movies and books and stuff your whole life to actually see it in person was pretty sweet. Ok, you know those old little plastic picture viewers where you put in a paper disk thing with little pictures in it and then click the button and when you hold it up to the light you can see the pictures? I had one of those with the Tower of Pisa in it when I was a kid so that was like the first thing I thought of when I saw it…it was like wow I’m actually at that thing. Ha. At night it was all lit up and you could see the back of the Duomo (cathedral) behind it which was beautiful. I was doing 30 second or more exposures of the tower at night which turned out pretty sweet. Then we walked along the river edge on the way back to the hostel. It was so pretty at night with street lamps lining the river and along the bridges. You could see the reflections of the lamps and building lights in the river. Wow. I took some more long exposure shots that night of the river and reflections as well as down the roads with cars and motorcycle headlights going by which was a lot of fun. Right below our hostel in the piazza was supposedly the best gelato place in Pisa according to Rick Steve’s book on Italy which Kelsey (a girl in our group) brought along with us. I got a banana and chocolate fondante gelato. A maze ing! We took the gelato up into our hostel and ate it out on the balcony looking out over the piazza where we could see a bridge and river as well as hear the live music coming from the piazza. It was perfect. It was fun traveling with a smaller group and getting to know everyone better. The next morning we got up and went down to check out a market that was supposed to happen near our piazza. There were just setting up there tents and stands when we got there so we stalled by going to a café nearby for a cappuccino and then walked down the via (road) to a pastry shop. I got a slice of plum cake…really dense and delicious. The market was sweet. We got a giant loaf of fresh bread and a half of a block of cheese to eat later for lunch. I also tasted some special saffron honey (miele e Zafferano). This honey is meant to be eaten with cheese…yeah weird right, but probably some of the best honey I have ever tasted and with cheese like literally dipping a chunk of cheese inside the jar of honey was delicious!! Then we walked towards the tower to check it out in the morning and stumbled upon another open air market on the way. I got a scarf…those guys that might be reading this…don’t judge…it’s a European thing…I have to fit the part…ha. Anyway, the tower was awesome and we did the traditional fun pictures with the tower. Leaning on it, kicking it, etc. We also went into the prayer chapel of the Duomo which was free to go into if you were just going to pray. We got to see this sweet pulpit though that we had learned about in class that was carved and like 20 feet tall or something like that…giant and beautifully carved. Amazing. We had our lunch on the Field of Miracles ( name of the grassy lawn where the tower, Duomo, baptistery, and some cemetery were scattered about). A few of the girls met some other girl from University of Southern California in the bathroom who ended up eating lunch with us and traveling with us to Lucca. Her name was Kyndal and she was studying a year in Spain and was just traveling in Italy for a couple days. Lucca is this quaint mountaintop town which has a giant wall that goes around the whole city which was wide enough for a road to run along top of it. One of the girls in our group heard that it was a must see place to see in Italy and so we took a bus from Pisa there and rented bikes for 2.50 Euro and rode along the wall around town. So much fun! It was a gorgeous little town and I had fun riding with one hand and snapping pics with the other the whole time so you will hopefully get to see some of those fun pictures. We hopped on the bus back to Pisa and then as we walked down the corso again the girls checked out the shops while I wandered around and took pictures. After a couple more hours in Pisa that evening we took the train back to Florence and then caught another train back to Orvieto. The train station in Orvieto is in Orvieto Scalla (lower part like in the valley)…usually we would take the funiculare up to twon, but we got in after it had closed so we had a night hike up the mountain to San Paolo. It wasn’t too bad, but everyone was tired from traveling and just ready to be home. Yeah, San Paolo feels like home now :). We just told ourselves on the way up the mountain that we had cornflakes, showers, and a warm bed to crawl into when we got there. I actually had some Choco Krave (nutella filled cereal) and some OJ. Ha. It was a great weekend of travel and I got to know everyone I travelled with a lot better. So fun!
This Friday we all went to Florence and got to see Masaccio, Masolino, and Filippino Lippi’s Life of St. Peter in the Brancacci Chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine; Benozzo Gozzoli’s Journey of the Magi in the private family chapel in the Medici Palace; Santa Trinita chapel the Adoration of Christ. They were all extremely beautiful and once again Prof. Skillen made them come alive and really gave meaning to them by putting us in the period mind. The river that runs through Florence was gorgeous. There were tons of motorcycles and mopeds everywhere along the river. The houses lining the river and along the bridges made it look almost like Venice, but very quaint and beautiful. We got some gelato in a little gelati right on the river which was fun. I had a Bacio and Cookies gelato. Bacio is like a ferror rocher(chocolate hazelnut) and cookies was like yellowish with like this chocolate covered cakey things that tasted delicious. A couple people stayed in Florence that night and came back the next day and the rest of the people took a train back to Orvieto that evening, but 7 of us took a train to Pisa that night. Figuring out which train to catch and the whole schedule was good Italian practice. I was kind of worried that it might a tourist trap, but it was a beautiful città (city). We got there right as the sun was setting after an hourish train ride. On the way to check into our hostel we walked down the corso (main road of a town). The corso was full of people out walking because evidently it was their passegiata (nightly walk down the main street of town which typically happens around 6 or 630 in a town…people put on nicer clothes and just stroll through town…happens every day on a small scale and then on Sundays it is like literally the whole town out walking…pretty awesome that they take the time to stroll through town and mingle with everyone…we should do that in America) anywho, so we were rubbing shoulders with everyone on the passegiata on the corso. The shops along the corso were very trendy and modern. Zara, H & M, and many more expensive shops were everywhere. Everyone was dressed super trendy as well. I felt like I was in uptown New York European style. Our hostel was very nice. We were on the second and third floor of a building right on this piazza which looked out over the river. This piazza was supposedly the place to be in Pisa. There was live music and a bunch of people just mingling around the statue in the center of the piazza and several people spilling out of bars off of the piazza. Our hostel was very upscale though and felt very secure. After we dropped off some of our stuff in lockers in the hostel we went to go walk to the Tower of Pisa and stop along the way for some cena (dinner). We were kind of hoping for some pizzeria, but we stumbled across this restaurant that had pretty white lights outside and a pretty patio area so we stopped there. It was still a little chilly so they thought we were crazy americani for wanting to eat outside. Ha. They were like fredo fredo?? (cold cold?) but we were all bundled up anyway and it really wasn’t too bad and we wanted to outside so we insisted. Ha. I got some amazing pesto pasta which was full of fresh delicious herbs. So good. Then we started heading towards the Tower and I wasn’t leading the group so didn’t really know where we were in relation to the tower, but we just wandered up to it pretty much and it was like dang we are really here and that is the leaning Tower of Pisa! It really is an awesome sight to see. It is so funny looking because it is hardcore leaning and just like from seeing it in movies and books and stuff your whole life to actually see it in person was pretty sweet. Ok, you know those old little plastic picture viewers where you put in a paper disk thing with little pictures in it and then click the button and when you hold it up to the light you can see the pictures? I had one of those with the Tower of Pisa in it when I was a kid so that was like the first thing I thought of when I saw it…it was like wow I’m actually at that thing. Ha. At night it was all lit up and you could see the back of the Duomo (cathedral) behind it which was beautiful. I was doing 30 second or more exposures of the tower at night which turned out pretty sweet. Then we walked along the river edge on the way back to the hostel. It was so pretty at night with street lamps lining the river and along the bridges. You could see the reflections of the lamps and building lights in the river. Wow. I took some more long exposure shots that night of the river and reflections as well as down the roads with cars and motorcycle headlights going by which was a lot of fun. Right below our hostel in the piazza was supposedly the best gelato place in Pisa according to Rick Steve’s book on Italy which Kelsey (a girl in our group) brought along with us. I got a banana and chocolate fondante gelato. A maze ing! We took the gelato up into our hostel and ate it out on the balcony looking out over the piazza where we could see a bridge and river as well as hear the live music coming from the piazza. It was perfect. It was fun traveling with a smaller group and getting to know everyone better. The next morning we got up and went down to check out a market that was supposed to happen near our piazza. There were just setting up there tents and stands when we got there so we stalled by going to a café nearby for a cappuccino and then walked down the via (road) to a pastry shop. I got a slice of plum cake…really dense and delicious. The market was sweet. We got a giant loaf of fresh bread and a half of a block of cheese to eat later for lunch. I also tasted some special saffron honey (miele e Zafferano). This honey is meant to be eaten with cheese…yeah weird right, but probably some of the best honey I have ever tasted and with cheese like literally dipping a chunk of cheese inside the jar of honey was delicious!! Then we walked towards the tower to check it out in the morning and stumbled upon another open air market on the way. I got a scarf…those guys that might be reading this…don’t judge…it’s a European thing…I have to fit the part…ha. Anyway, the tower was awesome and we did the traditional fun pictures with the tower. Leaning on it, kicking it, etc. We also went into the prayer chapel of the Duomo which was free to go into if you were just going to pray. We got to see this sweet pulpit though that we had learned about in class that was carved and like 20 feet tall or something like that…giant and beautifully carved. Amazing. We had our lunch on the Field of Miracles ( name of the grassy lawn where the tower, Duomo, baptistery, and some cemetery were scattered about). A few of the girls met some other girl from University of Southern California in the bathroom who ended up eating lunch with us and traveling with us to Lucca. Her name was Kyndal and she was studying a year in Spain and was just traveling in Italy for a couple days. Lucca is this quaint mountaintop town which has a giant wall that goes around the whole city which was wide enough for a road to run along top of it. One of the girls in our group heard that it was a must see place to see in Italy and so we took a bus from Pisa there and rented bikes for 2.50 Euro and rode along the wall around town. So much fun! It was a gorgeous little town and I had fun riding with one hand and snapping pics with the other the whole time so you will hopefully get to see some of those fun pictures. We hopped on the bus back to Pisa and then as we walked down the corso again the girls checked out the shops while I wandered around and took pictures. After a couple more hours in Pisa that evening we took the train back to Florence and then caught another train back to Orvieto. The train station in Orvieto is in Orvieto Scalla (lower part like in the valley)…usually we would take the funiculare up to twon, but we got in after it had closed so we had a night hike up the mountain to San Paolo. It wasn’t too bad, but everyone was tired from traveling and just ready to be home. Yeah, San Paolo feels like home now :). We just told ourselves on the way up the mountain that we had cornflakes, showers, and a warm bed to crawl into when we got there. I actually had some Choco Krave (nutella filled cereal) and some OJ. Ha. It was a great weekend of travel and I got to know everyone I travelled with a lot better. So fun!
Sunday, March 13, 2011
What is True Beauty?
Mar 10th
Ok, so today was amazing. I feel like God was revealing to me what true beauty looked like throughout the day. The landscape was gorgeous and the few pictures that I took of it do not even come close to giving it justice. Rolling green hills, mountain peaks, white cliffs, orange cliffs, olive groves, vineyards, and much more made the landscape gorgeous today. I would not be surprised if I cried sometime while I’m here when looking at the breathtaking landscape. I felt like I was in a dreamland or a fantasy world. The sunset tonight was beautiful over the hills and valleys seeing mauves, peaches, navy’s, neon greens, and many more colors in God’s palette. We started out the morning in Arezzo and got the see the fresco cycle the Legend of the Holy Cross. Professor Skillen does a great job of explaining the meaning and mindset of the people of the day. He shows us what the people of the day would be thinking about as they viewed these frescoes. In space seeing how the panels relate to one another and how they are meant to ultimately point to the cross. Wow. Next we went to Siena, which was one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been in. The landscape, houses roofs, and street scenes were right out book. There was a giant piazza we were in which was so picturesque. People were sprawled everywhere like on a beach eating gelato and just enjoying the sights and one another’s company. We went into the civic government building/museum right off of the piazza and got to see the fresco cycle called the Allegory of Good and Bad Government. It was neat to see how art was more functional back then. It was designed for the place where it was to be viewed. The 9 men sitting in that council room would see the paintings depicting towns that were ruled well and towns that were not ruled well. It would be convicting to them as they sat around making decisions pertaining to the community there in Siena. Anyway, it was cool and then we walked to the Duomo in Siena, which was made by the same architect as the Duomo in Orvieto and was actually done first and so there were a lot of similarities. While we were standing in front of the Duomo Prof. Doll walked up with a bag from the pastry shop. We got to try these cookies that are only made in Siena and they were scrumptious. They were covered in powdered sugar and had almonds, marzipan, butter, and other deliciousness inside. Then we drove from Siena to Monte Oliveto, which was less than an hour away in, southern Tuscany and the drive there was some of that gorgeousness that I mentioned in the beginning of this blog. The contours of the hills, valleys, and vineyards looked almost like God took a blanket and gave it a shake and was laying it down. I couldn’t believe the beauty that I was seeing. I know this sounds lame and doesn’t really do anything for you guys, but I was in utter awe…I felt like a little kid in a candy shop just saying wow over and over again not knowing which side of the car to look out. I would look one way and think for sure the other side could not possibly be prettier and then when I looked over to the other side I would be even more amazed. Monte Oliveto was a beautiful monastery located on top of this mountain looking out over the rolling hills and housed the fresco cycle of the life of Saint Benedict in the cloister walkway. I think it was my favorite fresco cycle that we have seen. It was a little later than several we have seen so the style of painting had shifted a little more to the naturalistic or more lifelike representations of people. I felt like I could just envision a life for some of the people in the scene. It portrayed true humanity. I love Italy and cannot get enough of it.
Ok, so today was amazing. I feel like God was revealing to me what true beauty looked like throughout the day. The landscape was gorgeous and the few pictures that I took of it do not even come close to giving it justice. Rolling green hills, mountain peaks, white cliffs, orange cliffs, olive groves, vineyards, and much more made the landscape gorgeous today. I would not be surprised if I cried sometime while I’m here when looking at the breathtaking landscape. I felt like I was in a dreamland or a fantasy world. The sunset tonight was beautiful over the hills and valleys seeing mauves, peaches, navy’s, neon greens, and many more colors in God’s palette. We started out the morning in Arezzo and got the see the fresco cycle the Legend of the Holy Cross. Professor Skillen does a great job of explaining the meaning and mindset of the people of the day. He shows us what the people of the day would be thinking about as they viewed these frescoes. In space seeing how the panels relate to one another and how they are meant to ultimately point to the cross. Wow. Next we went to Siena, which was one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been in. The landscape, houses roofs, and street scenes were right out book. There was a giant piazza we were in which was so picturesque. People were sprawled everywhere like on a beach eating gelato and just enjoying the sights and one another’s company. We went into the civic government building/museum right off of the piazza and got to see the fresco cycle called the Allegory of Good and Bad Government. It was neat to see how art was more functional back then. It was designed for the place where it was to be viewed. The 9 men sitting in that council room would see the paintings depicting towns that were ruled well and towns that were not ruled well. It would be convicting to them as they sat around making decisions pertaining to the community there in Siena. Anyway, it was cool and then we walked to the Duomo in Siena, which was made by the same architect as the Duomo in Orvieto and was actually done first and so there were a lot of similarities. While we were standing in front of the Duomo Prof. Doll walked up with a bag from the pastry shop. We got to try these cookies that are only made in Siena and they were scrumptious. They were covered in powdered sugar and had almonds, marzipan, butter, and other deliciousness inside. Then we drove from Siena to Monte Oliveto, which was less than an hour away in, southern Tuscany and the drive there was some of that gorgeousness that I mentioned in the beginning of this blog. The contours of the hills, valleys, and vineyards looked almost like God took a blanket and gave it a shake and was laying it down. I couldn’t believe the beauty that I was seeing. I know this sounds lame and doesn’t really do anything for you guys, but I was in utter awe…I felt like a little kid in a candy shop just saying wow over and over again not knowing which side of the car to look out. I would look one way and think for sure the other side could not possibly be prettier and then when I looked over to the other side I would be even more amazed. Monte Oliveto was a beautiful monastery located on top of this mountain looking out over the rolling hills and housed the fresco cycle of the life of Saint Benedict in the cloister walkway. I think it was my favorite fresco cycle that we have seen. It was a little later than several we have seen so the style of painting had shifted a little more to the naturalistic or more lifelike representations of people. I felt like I could just envision a life for some of the people in the scene. It portrayed true humanity. I love Italy and cannot get enough of it.
Karaoke
Mar 9th
This post is the abbreviated version/highlights of the past few days. Last night we had karaoke at the Locanda del Lupo (restaurant where we eat all of our meals) and it was a blast. We all danced and sang and the locals joined in with us…very fun. On Monday night we ate dinner in Prof. Doll’s apartment down on the first floor and got to hang out more with Sharona(his wife) and his 3 children who were very fun. They made soup and salad and then Locanda del Lupo made us the amazing tiramisu again. I had three helpings. Wow. I also went down to Orvieto Scalo yesterday evening (the part of Orvieto that is in the valley) and went to a bigger cheaper grocery store type thing. We walked down, but then rode the funiculare (cable car type thing) up the mountain.
This post is the abbreviated version/highlights of the past few days. Last night we had karaoke at the Locanda del Lupo (restaurant where we eat all of our meals) and it was a blast. We all danced and sang and the locals joined in with us…very fun. On Monday night we ate dinner in Prof. Doll’s apartment down on the first floor and got to hang out more with Sharona(his wife) and his 3 children who were very fun. They made soup and salad and then Locanda del Lupo made us the amazing tiramisu again. I had three helpings. Wow. I also went down to Orvieto Scalo yesterday evening (the part of Orvieto that is in the valley) and went to a bigger cheaper grocery store type thing. We walked down, but then rode the funiculare (cable car type thing) up the mountain.
Bishop Padre Giovanni - Optional long read..ha
This post is very long and informative if you are curious about what the vigil and bishop thing was all about. I wouldn’t look down on you though if you just skipped this post because it is not about anything else other than that topic.
Here is some info about the Bishop and the vigil that I mentioned I took part in.
In the Catholic Church the Pope appoints the Bishop who appoints the priests in his particular Diesis (region). Clergy are ordained priests and deacons who lead churches. They sometimes can feel prideful and feel that their office is a place of power. In the male dominated clergy of Catholic tradition it is sometimes a status symbol. There have been tensions in Orvieto between the lay people and clergy over these recent issues with the Bishop. Umbria (this region of Italy) has often been a hotbed of anti-clerical sentiments. In Dante’s Disquisition on problems with clergy he talks about internal factions that have been a part of Italian culture for centuries. So that paints the Catholic Church in a negative light and it is not meant to, but simply to give you background. The American church has just as much dissent and unrest. Bishop Padre Giovanni Scaveno(not sure on spelling of his last name) became the bishop in Orvieto 7 years ago and was appointed by the ex Pope. He used to be a monk and was from the north of Italy and so he was not likely to be entangled in internal tensions. He immediately became a “pastor” and was said to be a great “shepherd” of his flock here in Orvieto. During the vigil a former prisoner stood up and told how the bishop had visited him every week in prison and frequently met with the prisoners. I told you I went to a charismatic church last week and went to their preghiera(praise and worship session on Wednesday night) and kind of described that they are not really like what you think of charismatic in the states. It is pretty much like the majority of our American churches. Alright, so the previous bishop was suspicious of charismatics and did not even permit San Bernadino’s body to meet in this diesis because they were upsetting the way the traditional Catholicism is played out (making their faith their own). They actually had to drive away somewhere else to meet. The previous bishop wanted everything to be done through the clergy and was very to the book. Padre Giovanni appointed a priest for the San Bernadino group and allowed them to meet and use a church for their services. He was very welcoming to us protestant students and would even visit to this program. He was not liberal, but loved the people and the people loved him. The offense and jealousy came from the other clergy around here. He was doing things like visiting the prisons, which was “beneath” the other clergy in the area. Last summer it became evident that some underhanded clergy of the diesis complained about him and they had an investigation, but of course he came up clean. A lot of people who were devoted to the Bishop breathed a sigh of relief, but then this tragic story took place. A young fellow who was in the process of becoming a priest (currently was a deacon) named Don Luca was also the bishop’s secretary. Don Luca was involved with the youth of the diesis and people loved him. He was turned down to become a priest though and committed suicide by jumping off a cliff here in Orvieto. It came as a huge shock to the community. He was not psychologically whole evidently because he committed suicide and so that was probably what the higher ups had sensed and so that is why they denied him priesthood. The Bishop was crushed. He gave a big service in the Duomo. It made national news. No one blamed the bishop for this, but it ended up being enough of a reason for the jealous clergymen in the area to appeal to the Vatican for the bishop to be removed. It was just a smokescreen of sorts though. Padre Giovanni was very humble and respectful and told the Pope that he would stay out of the situation and simply leave the decision up to the Pope. They have been waiting two months for a decision to be reached and a letter was received about a week ago and it looked bad, but the outcome was not revealed to the public until this past Saturday. He was dismissed. No reason given for anything scandalous. He did nothing wrong. It looks like the Pop also did not blame him in any morally culpable way, but there were references that there was a “cancer” or divisions among the clergy. The Pope said that he was on such bad terms with some of his clergy (ie. Them jealous that the people actually liked him so much) that it was supposedly impossible for him to perform some of his duties. This was not all of the clergy, because several priests in the area loved the Bishop. The clergy were in disagreement with each other. The clergy that was responsible for having him dismissed won a “victory” in having him dismissed, but angry that they were called a “cancer” by the pope. A temporary administrator is now in place until the Pope appoints a new bishop. The bishop remains an Augustinian monk, but will probably go to a nearby monastery. He was a high-ranking Augustinian monk in the order and so they will be glad to have him back. He was asked to leave his position of leadership within the Augustinian order and since coming to Orvieto 7 years ago he has been devoted to his flock and has loved his people. He was very gracious at the vigil and never said a single vindictive word. He even mentioned Manueli and Simone’s(friends of the program with whom some of the students ate dinner at their house a few nights ago) daughter who is pretty much blind. He was involved with his people and truly cared for them. This is a very sad time for the community of Orvieto. If another bishop is appointed who is anti-charismatic then he might not allow the charismatic church to meet here. Alessandro (my Italian teacher) and several other people we know in the community attend this church so it would not be a good thing. If you are still reading, then I am impressed because it was a ton of information, but I found it very interesting and so just thought I would share.
Here is some info about the Bishop and the vigil that I mentioned I took part in.
In the Catholic Church the Pope appoints the Bishop who appoints the priests in his particular Diesis (region). Clergy are ordained priests and deacons who lead churches. They sometimes can feel prideful and feel that their office is a place of power. In the male dominated clergy of Catholic tradition it is sometimes a status symbol. There have been tensions in Orvieto between the lay people and clergy over these recent issues with the Bishop. Umbria (this region of Italy) has often been a hotbed of anti-clerical sentiments. In Dante’s Disquisition on problems with clergy he talks about internal factions that have been a part of Italian culture for centuries. So that paints the Catholic Church in a negative light and it is not meant to, but simply to give you background. The American church has just as much dissent and unrest. Bishop Padre Giovanni Scaveno(not sure on spelling of his last name) became the bishop in Orvieto 7 years ago and was appointed by the ex Pope. He used to be a monk and was from the north of Italy and so he was not likely to be entangled in internal tensions. He immediately became a “pastor” and was said to be a great “shepherd” of his flock here in Orvieto. During the vigil a former prisoner stood up and told how the bishop had visited him every week in prison and frequently met with the prisoners. I told you I went to a charismatic church last week and went to their preghiera(praise and worship session on Wednesday night) and kind of described that they are not really like what you think of charismatic in the states. It is pretty much like the majority of our American churches. Alright, so the previous bishop was suspicious of charismatics and did not even permit San Bernadino’s body to meet in this diesis because they were upsetting the way the traditional Catholicism is played out (making their faith their own). They actually had to drive away somewhere else to meet. The previous bishop wanted everything to be done through the clergy and was very to the book. Padre Giovanni appointed a priest for the San Bernadino group and allowed them to meet and use a church for their services. He was very welcoming to us protestant students and would even visit to this program. He was not liberal, but loved the people and the people loved him. The offense and jealousy came from the other clergy around here. He was doing things like visiting the prisons, which was “beneath” the other clergy in the area. Last summer it became evident that some underhanded clergy of the diesis complained about him and they had an investigation, but of course he came up clean. A lot of people who were devoted to the Bishop breathed a sigh of relief, but then this tragic story took place. A young fellow who was in the process of becoming a priest (currently was a deacon) named Don Luca was also the bishop’s secretary. Don Luca was involved with the youth of the diesis and people loved him. He was turned down to become a priest though and committed suicide by jumping off a cliff here in Orvieto. It came as a huge shock to the community. He was not psychologically whole evidently because he committed suicide and so that was probably what the higher ups had sensed and so that is why they denied him priesthood. The Bishop was crushed. He gave a big service in the Duomo. It made national news. No one blamed the bishop for this, but it ended up being enough of a reason for the jealous clergymen in the area to appeal to the Vatican for the bishop to be removed. It was just a smokescreen of sorts though. Padre Giovanni was very humble and respectful and told the Pope that he would stay out of the situation and simply leave the decision up to the Pope. They have been waiting two months for a decision to be reached and a letter was received about a week ago and it looked bad, but the outcome was not revealed to the public until this past Saturday. He was dismissed. No reason given for anything scandalous. He did nothing wrong. It looks like the Pop also did not blame him in any morally culpable way, but there were references that there was a “cancer” or divisions among the clergy. The Pope said that he was on such bad terms with some of his clergy (ie. Them jealous that the people actually liked him so much) that it was supposedly impossible for him to perform some of his duties. This was not all of the clergy, because several priests in the area loved the Bishop. The clergy were in disagreement with each other. The clergy that was responsible for having him dismissed won a “victory” in having him dismissed, but angry that they were called a “cancer” by the pope. A temporary administrator is now in place until the Pope appoints a new bishop. The bishop remains an Augustinian monk, but will probably go to a nearby monastery. He was a high-ranking Augustinian monk in the order and so they will be glad to have him back. He was asked to leave his position of leadership within the Augustinian order and since coming to Orvieto 7 years ago he has been devoted to his flock and has loved his people. He was very gracious at the vigil and never said a single vindictive word. He even mentioned Manueli and Simone’s(friends of the program with whom some of the students ate dinner at their house a few nights ago) daughter who is pretty much blind. He was involved with his people and truly cared for them. This is a very sad time for the community of Orvieto. If another bishop is appointed who is anti-charismatic then he might not allow the charismatic church to meet here. Alessandro (my Italian teacher) and several other people we know in the community attend this church so it would not be a good thing. If you are still reading, then I am impressed because it was a ton of information, but I found it very interesting and so just thought I would share.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
A Few Pictures...maybe...if the internet is not too slow. ha.
Here is the view from my room -
Here is a quick road scene...didn't have time to find a good one, but here give you a feel for the town a bit -
Here is Orvieto from the other side of the valley...you can see the Duomo (cathedral) and clock tower in the center of town....also the olive grove is what you see up close
Here is the Duomo from across the valley - up near the convent of cappuccini that i mentioned...yeah I get to walk by this like every day...its beautiful. -
Here is the Clocktower from across the valley and a little more of what the town looks like -
Here is some of the scenery from near the convent with my prof talking to us... -
Road to convent just some of the landscape -
Picture of the Saint Francis' Basilica in Assisi -
Courtyard in Basilica -
That's all for now...sorry it has taken so long for any pics...
Here is a quick road scene...didn't have time to find a good one, but here give you a feel for the town a bit -
Here is Orvieto from the other side of the valley...you can see the Duomo (cathedral) and clock tower in the center of town....also the olive grove is what you see up close
Here is the Duomo from across the valley - up near the convent of cappuccini that i mentioned...yeah I get to walk by this like every day...its beautiful. -
Here is the Clocktower from across the valley and a little more of what the town looks like -
Here is some of the scenery from near the convent with my prof talking to us... -
Road to convent just some of the landscape -
Picture of the Saint Francis' Basilica in Assisi -
Courtyard in Basilica -
That's all for now...sorry it has taken so long for any pics...
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Preaching to the Choir!
Mar 6th
Today is Sunday and this morning several of us went early to San Giovenale to be in the choir. Eduardo is the worship leader there and so we got a song book all in Italian from him. It was difficult, but really cool. I think I will do that every Sunday to improve my Italian and just be a part of the community in some way. Right now my plan is to go to Sunday morning service at San Giovenale, Wednesday night Preghiera(praise and prayer) at San Bernadino, and hopefully do some kind of Bible study with some people in the program during the week. Singing with the choir was cool as we were whispering to each other piecing together the meaning of everything we were singing and trying to follow along with the melody. The worship leader’s English is fairly decent so he might be a good person to practice Italian with. After the service a few of us went to the Trattoria (restaurant) del Corso (main road down the middle of town) for pizza. I got the Primavera, which had mozzarella, tomatoes, artichoke, and ham on it. Delish. This afternoon I hung up my clothes to dry because the dryer is not working properly. I just got back from the chapel and have been playing the guitar (have one in San Paolo for us to use) and singing worship songs that I had on my computer. It was really peaceful and since it is a very high ceiling in an empty room the echo made it really pretty to play and sing in there. In about 5 minutes I think I’ll be heading to a free piano concert in the teatro (theater) about 10 minutes from here on the Corso.
Today is Sunday and this morning several of us went early to San Giovenale to be in the choir. Eduardo is the worship leader there and so we got a song book all in Italian from him. It was difficult, but really cool. I think I will do that every Sunday to improve my Italian and just be a part of the community in some way. Right now my plan is to go to Sunday morning service at San Giovenale, Wednesday night Preghiera(praise and prayer) at San Bernadino, and hopefully do some kind of Bible study with some people in the program during the week. Singing with the choir was cool as we were whispering to each other piecing together the meaning of everything we were singing and trying to follow along with the melody. The worship leader’s English is fairly decent so he might be a good person to practice Italian with. After the service a few of us went to the Trattoria (restaurant) del Corso (main road down the middle of town) for pizza. I got the Primavera, which had mozzarella, tomatoes, artichoke, and ham on it. Delish. This afternoon I hung up my clothes to dry because the dryer is not working properly. I just got back from the chapel and have been playing the guitar (have one in San Paolo for us to use) and singing worship songs that I had on my computer. It was really peaceful and since it is a very high ceiling in an empty room the echo made it really pretty to play and sing in there. In about 5 minutes I think I’ll be heading to a free piano concert in the teatro (theater) about 10 minutes from here on the Corso.
Assisi
Mar 5th
So today we got up a little early and drove an hour and a half ish to Assisi. Nbd right? Ha. The drive was beautiful as we passed these lush valleys with the morning mist all around and beautiful lakes with cliff top towns dotting the mountainsides….wow. So, the actual drive up the mountain to Assisi and like as we were coming up to it was breathtaking. There were clouds hovering atop of the mountains with white snow capped peaks sticking up through the clouds and then right in front of us the most beautiful town going up the side of the mountain. We learned awhile back that the cities and towns are built with stones from the mountain that they are built on so it is really cool to see how the buildings blend well with their environment. First we went into the monastery that Saint Francis rebuilt right on the outskirts of Assisi. It was a very humble monastery, but the frescoes were very pretty and it was just humbling to know that Saint Francis of Assisi spent so much time in this place. The courtyard was very beautiful as well and the view down into the valley was gorgeous from the monastery that was situated amongst the olive groves. After we had walked around the nuns staying there allowed us to use this little side chapel to sing some songs. We learned a couple songs in Italian and Alessandro played guitar and a girl on our trip played her violin that she brought. It was a really cool little worshipful time in a tiny chapel that had beautiful acoustics right in the monastery that Saint Francis had rebuilt. Wow. K, if you don’t know much about Saint Francis you should just Wikipedia him. Pretty cool guy. Sadly it was raining today so we didn’t get to fully enjoy the beauty of Assisi, but the town was so beautiful. We walked into a huge piazza in the center of town and ate our sack lunches in a stairwell out of the rain. A few of us decided to stop in the café for un cappuccino e un cannolo (1 cappuccino and 1 cannoli…long pastry that is filled with something…I got one that had chocolate coating on the outside with nuts stuck to it and then a chocolate hazelnut crème in the center…yeah it was amazing with my cappuccino. It was almost like a ferror rocher on steroids). Next we went to Saint Francis’ Basilica. Wow. The outside was beautiful and the inside was even more magnificent. Every square inch was painted…not even kidding. Giotto painted the wall frescoes in the main basilica (basically means rectangle main area of a cathedral or whatever). Giotto is like the guy who Michelangelo and a bunch of great painters copied. He was like one of the first guys to really shock the art world. Prior to Giotto everything was flat and dimensionless….people floated in the picture and did not look very natural. Giotto kind of broke free from this medieval style of art and kind of started the Renaissance period with dimensions and naturalism. It was cool after seeing some of these super famous frescoes in art books and such actually seeing them in person. We had over three hours there so I was able to really just sit in front of them for a long time and think about them. I wish I knew more about art, history, and architecture so that I could appreciate them even more, but it was still really cool. The upper basilica was probably my favorite, but then the lower basilica (pretty much another whole cathedral underground) was just as gorgeous. The ceilings were vaulted underneath and every square inch was painted. There were numerous famous artists that painted the frescoes in the lower basilica. Amazing. I want to go back to Assisi some time when it is not raining to really give it photographic justice. The landscape and beautiful architectural lines everywhere in the city made it very exciting for a photographer. I had my camera’s ISO cranked up to 1600 from the vigil the night before though and since I usually keep it between 100-400 I didn’t even think to check it today and so 90% of my pictures until the very end of the day are super grainy :/ Live and learn I guess.
So today we got up a little early and drove an hour and a half ish to Assisi. Nbd right? Ha. The drive was beautiful as we passed these lush valleys with the morning mist all around and beautiful lakes with cliff top towns dotting the mountainsides….wow. So, the actual drive up the mountain to Assisi and like as we were coming up to it was breathtaking. There were clouds hovering atop of the mountains with white snow capped peaks sticking up through the clouds and then right in front of us the most beautiful town going up the side of the mountain. We learned awhile back that the cities and towns are built with stones from the mountain that they are built on so it is really cool to see how the buildings blend well with their environment. First we went into the monastery that Saint Francis rebuilt right on the outskirts of Assisi. It was a very humble monastery, but the frescoes were very pretty and it was just humbling to know that Saint Francis of Assisi spent so much time in this place. The courtyard was very beautiful as well and the view down into the valley was gorgeous from the monastery that was situated amongst the olive groves. After we had walked around the nuns staying there allowed us to use this little side chapel to sing some songs. We learned a couple songs in Italian and Alessandro played guitar and a girl on our trip played her violin that she brought. It was a really cool little worshipful time in a tiny chapel that had beautiful acoustics right in the monastery that Saint Francis had rebuilt. Wow. K, if you don’t know much about Saint Francis you should just Wikipedia him. Pretty cool guy. Sadly it was raining today so we didn’t get to fully enjoy the beauty of Assisi, but the town was so beautiful. We walked into a huge piazza in the center of town and ate our sack lunches in a stairwell out of the rain. A few of us decided to stop in the café for un cappuccino e un cannolo (1 cappuccino and 1 cannoli…long pastry that is filled with something…I got one that had chocolate coating on the outside with nuts stuck to it and then a chocolate hazelnut crème in the center…yeah it was amazing with my cappuccino. It was almost like a ferror rocher on steroids). Next we went to Saint Francis’ Basilica. Wow. The outside was beautiful and the inside was even more magnificent. Every square inch was painted…not even kidding. Giotto painted the wall frescoes in the main basilica (basically means rectangle main area of a cathedral or whatever). Giotto is like the guy who Michelangelo and a bunch of great painters copied. He was like one of the first guys to really shock the art world. Prior to Giotto everything was flat and dimensionless….people floated in the picture and did not look very natural. Giotto kind of broke free from this medieval style of art and kind of started the Renaissance period with dimensions and naturalism. It was cool after seeing some of these super famous frescoes in art books and such actually seeing them in person. We had over three hours there so I was able to really just sit in front of them for a long time and think about them. I wish I knew more about art, history, and architecture so that I could appreciate them even more, but it was still really cool. The upper basilica was probably my favorite, but then the lower basilica (pretty much another whole cathedral underground) was just as gorgeous. The ceilings were vaulted underneath and every square inch was painted. There were numerous famous artists that painted the frescoes in the lower basilica. Amazing. I want to go back to Assisi some time when it is not raining to really give it photographic justice. The landscape and beautiful architectural lines everywhere in the city made it very exciting for a photographer. I had my camera’s ISO cranked up to 1600 from the vigil the night before though and since I usually keep it between 100-400 I didn’t even think to check it today and so 90% of my pictures until the very end of the day are super grainy :/ Live and learn I guess.
Convento Dei Cappuccini and Giovanni
Mar 4th
We got up really early and took a hike down the Rupe (cliff) and then up the other side of the valley and climbed up to the Convento dei Cappuccini. I think they were from the Franciscan order originally, but then their little branch or whatever was the Cappuccin sect. A funny side note, they wore brown cloaks with white hoods and so that is where we get the word for Cappuccino. :) Today was the first day I actually started taking pictures. I have just wanted to soak everything up in person without having a lens in front of my face all the time, but I decided that it was time to bust out the camera. I took pictures through town on the way out of town, during the hike, and up at the convent, and on the way back. I think I took about 500 and have 200 good ones that I saved. I’m afraid of what I will do with all of these pictures because I know people won’t want to look through literally thousands of pictures by the end of the semester so I don’t know what I will end up doing, but hopefully I can start getting some on my blog and eventually get some on facebook. So, anyway…the convent was beautiful. The olive groves on the way up were gorgeous. The view from the other side of the valley looking back up at the cliff side town of Orvieto was beautiful. You could see the Duomo(cathedral) and the big clock tower in the center of the city.
Oh, I almost forgot. Right as we were entering the valley on the way down from Orvieto we were going along this little path that went alongside this quaint little countryside house and I waved to this old lady in her garden and said Ciao as we were going by. She got all excited and stopped gardening and came over to talk to me. A couple girls and Prof Doll stayed around to talk with her. It was a small little conversation that I had with her at first in the little Italian that I knew and was able to understand. I explained that I knew only poco(small) amounts of Italian. Then Prof. Doll was able to talk to her quite a bit and somewhat translated bits and pieces for us. She liked my curly hair and kept commenting about it and touching it and just going on about it. Her name was really obscure and so she was trying to explain to us that some Italian soap opera actress had the same name as her. She was also complaining about how the wall that ran alongside her house that goes all the way down the mountain had loose rocks that would fall and were dangerous. She wondered if we knew of anyone who would have sway in town to get it fixed. She wondered if I was engaged and seemed surprised that I wasn’t. ha. It was just a fun little 10-minute interaction or so with this crazy old Italian lady. As we were getting ready to leave she went over to the wall and pulled some Mimosa flowers for us and gave each of us a sprig. Supposedly in a few days there is a holiday called Women’s Day and it is tradition to give the women you love, not just romantic, but like moms and others Mimosa (beautiful yellow flower). Prof. Doll said that it probably her week or month to talk to us.
So yeah, once we got up to the convent we had the sack lunches that Locanda del Lupo had made for us and got to explore around the convent and take pictures. It was so peaceful up there and beautiful. I can’t wait until spring when everything will be full of color…it will be a wonderful retreat that I am sure I will frequent.
After we got back into town I grabbed my backpack and went off on my own to find the Blue Bar to transfer pictures with their wifi and to listen to Italian conversations. It was nice and relaxing and was a cool little café.
I had been in there for about 3 hours when I decided to leave and on the way out I remembered that there was a vigil in the town that I wanted to go to, but I didn’t remember when it started. I was kind of mad at myself though for not remembering and was worried that I had missed it. About a block down the road though I heard faintly some speaking over a loudspeaker and decided to head in that direction and check it out not even thinking that it might be related to the vigil. I walk out into this piazza (open plaza area) and there are hundreds of people all standing around with these candles with a colored wax/tissue paper shaped like a flower to go around the burning candle like a luminary type thing. It was really cool. There were several polizzioto(police) in the piazza and the person talking was using the loudspeakers from the ambulance down in the middle of the crowd. I looked around for some people from my group, but didn’t see anyone so I just decided to weave my way in through the crowd and try to see what was going on. I thought I recognized the voice and caught a glance of someone I knew, but I wasn’t sure so I kept getting closer and closer until I saw that it was Alessandro (Italian teacher…also worship leader at San Bernadino the chapel service I had been to a couple nights before) speaking to the whole crowd! Then they started singing worship songs and I saw Luca (guy whose house I ate dinner at the night before) playing the drum and his wife Elise was standing nearby. It was so cool…like I know those people! It was a big deal too, there were several news cameras around and like several hundred people and right smack dab in the middle of it all were people that I knew.
I guess I should explain this whole vigil thing…the current bishop of Orvieto is going to be asked to resign this Sunday I think. There was some fiasco about his old assistant who committed suicide recently by jumping off a bridge around here when he found out that he couldn’t be another bishop or other church leader. I don’t know all the details, but some people in town blamed the current Bishop (Padre Giovanni) for this other guys’ suicide, when it was not his fault at all. Anyway, so these people that thought it was Padre Giovanni’s fault evidently had a lot of sway in the Vatican and were responsible for the inevitable letter, which will be received soon dismissing Padre Giovanni from service here. It is all very political and I don’t quite understand all of it, but that is what I have gathered so far. The significance of it though is that Padre Giovanni has been the bishop here for numerous years and is very well loved by the majority of the town. Supposedly he has been very involved in the comune (community) and has done all sorts of good for the people here. Prof. Doll said he has done a great job of shepherding his flock here in Orvieto. It was very sad though for most of the townspeople because they really liked and admired Padre Giovanni and were sad to see him go in such a dishonorable way. This vigil/sing/speak/walk through the town with candles was to sort of honor Padre Giovanni and just show him that he had the comune support behind him.
So, yeah back to the piazza…As the singing was about to end I noticed a few people from my group coming into the piazza and met up with them as we grabbed candles ourselves and joined into the throng of people starting to move down the corso (main street that runs through the town next to the clock tower). It was really cool to be involved in because we actually felt like we were Orvietani and were a part of the community that had gathered together to show our support for Padre Giovanni. We sang as we all walked down the corso and stopped to sing and hear Alessandro and others speak at various piazzas on the way to the Duomo. During our walk I saw the priest for San Bernadino out and about in the crowd dressed in street clothes. You wouldn’t have been able to tell him apart from everyone else. He was hugging people, laughing, and even made eye contact with me and smiled with a head nod. I don’t have much experience with Catholicism as I explained earlier so it was cool to see the humanness of a priest and just see him interacting in the community. So we all ended up in front of the Duomo and eventually moved to the side as more and more people joined the throng. They had a giant banner stretched across the steps of the Duomo that said Padre Giovanni Tiamamo e siamo conte, which I think means something along the lines of our love goes with you Padre Giovanni. The whole thing was exciting to be a part of, but was a very somber and solemn event and people’s emotions were running high with women crying and a lot of passionate hugging.
Btw, cena (dinner) was delicious tonight! The pasta had a little eggplant and zucchini mixed in with a ton of melted golden brown cheese that was sooooo delicious. It might have been my favorite pasta so far. Then for desert we had this delicious coffee flavored cake with chocolate chips. Yum. : )
We got up really early and took a hike down the Rupe (cliff) and then up the other side of the valley and climbed up to the Convento dei Cappuccini. I think they were from the Franciscan order originally, but then their little branch or whatever was the Cappuccin sect. A funny side note, they wore brown cloaks with white hoods and so that is where we get the word for Cappuccino. :) Today was the first day I actually started taking pictures. I have just wanted to soak everything up in person without having a lens in front of my face all the time, but I decided that it was time to bust out the camera. I took pictures through town on the way out of town, during the hike, and up at the convent, and on the way back. I think I took about 500 and have 200 good ones that I saved. I’m afraid of what I will do with all of these pictures because I know people won’t want to look through literally thousands of pictures by the end of the semester so I don’t know what I will end up doing, but hopefully I can start getting some on my blog and eventually get some on facebook. So, anyway…the convent was beautiful. The olive groves on the way up were gorgeous. The view from the other side of the valley looking back up at the cliff side town of Orvieto was beautiful. You could see the Duomo(cathedral) and the big clock tower in the center of the city.
Oh, I almost forgot. Right as we were entering the valley on the way down from Orvieto we were going along this little path that went alongside this quaint little countryside house and I waved to this old lady in her garden and said Ciao as we were going by. She got all excited and stopped gardening and came over to talk to me. A couple girls and Prof Doll stayed around to talk with her. It was a small little conversation that I had with her at first in the little Italian that I knew and was able to understand. I explained that I knew only poco(small) amounts of Italian. Then Prof. Doll was able to talk to her quite a bit and somewhat translated bits and pieces for us. She liked my curly hair and kept commenting about it and touching it and just going on about it. Her name was really obscure and so she was trying to explain to us that some Italian soap opera actress had the same name as her. She was also complaining about how the wall that ran alongside her house that goes all the way down the mountain had loose rocks that would fall and were dangerous. She wondered if we knew of anyone who would have sway in town to get it fixed. She wondered if I was engaged and seemed surprised that I wasn’t. ha. It was just a fun little 10-minute interaction or so with this crazy old Italian lady. As we were getting ready to leave she went over to the wall and pulled some Mimosa flowers for us and gave each of us a sprig. Supposedly in a few days there is a holiday called Women’s Day and it is tradition to give the women you love, not just romantic, but like moms and others Mimosa (beautiful yellow flower). Prof. Doll said that it probably her week or month to talk to us.
So yeah, once we got up to the convent we had the sack lunches that Locanda del Lupo had made for us and got to explore around the convent and take pictures. It was so peaceful up there and beautiful. I can’t wait until spring when everything will be full of color…it will be a wonderful retreat that I am sure I will frequent.
After we got back into town I grabbed my backpack and went off on my own to find the Blue Bar to transfer pictures with their wifi and to listen to Italian conversations. It was nice and relaxing and was a cool little café.
I had been in there for about 3 hours when I decided to leave and on the way out I remembered that there was a vigil in the town that I wanted to go to, but I didn’t remember when it started. I was kind of mad at myself though for not remembering and was worried that I had missed it. About a block down the road though I heard faintly some speaking over a loudspeaker and decided to head in that direction and check it out not even thinking that it might be related to the vigil. I walk out into this piazza (open plaza area) and there are hundreds of people all standing around with these candles with a colored wax/tissue paper shaped like a flower to go around the burning candle like a luminary type thing. It was really cool. There were several polizzioto(police) in the piazza and the person talking was using the loudspeakers from the ambulance down in the middle of the crowd. I looked around for some people from my group, but didn’t see anyone so I just decided to weave my way in through the crowd and try to see what was going on. I thought I recognized the voice and caught a glance of someone I knew, but I wasn’t sure so I kept getting closer and closer until I saw that it was Alessandro (Italian teacher…also worship leader at San Bernadino the chapel service I had been to a couple nights before) speaking to the whole crowd! Then they started singing worship songs and I saw Luca (guy whose house I ate dinner at the night before) playing the drum and his wife Elise was standing nearby. It was so cool…like I know those people! It was a big deal too, there were several news cameras around and like several hundred people and right smack dab in the middle of it all were people that I knew.
I guess I should explain this whole vigil thing…the current bishop of Orvieto is going to be asked to resign this Sunday I think. There was some fiasco about his old assistant who committed suicide recently by jumping off a bridge around here when he found out that he couldn’t be another bishop or other church leader. I don’t know all the details, but some people in town blamed the current Bishop (Padre Giovanni) for this other guys’ suicide, when it was not his fault at all. Anyway, so these people that thought it was Padre Giovanni’s fault evidently had a lot of sway in the Vatican and were responsible for the inevitable letter, which will be received soon dismissing Padre Giovanni from service here. It is all very political and I don’t quite understand all of it, but that is what I have gathered so far. The significance of it though is that Padre Giovanni has been the bishop here for numerous years and is very well loved by the majority of the town. Supposedly he has been very involved in the comune (community) and has done all sorts of good for the people here. Prof. Doll said he has done a great job of shepherding his flock here in Orvieto. It was very sad though for most of the townspeople because they really liked and admired Padre Giovanni and were sad to see him go in such a dishonorable way. This vigil/sing/speak/walk through the town with candles was to sort of honor Padre Giovanni and just show him that he had the comune support behind him.
So, yeah back to the piazza…As the singing was about to end I noticed a few people from my group coming into the piazza and met up with them as we grabbed candles ourselves and joined into the throng of people starting to move down the corso (main street that runs through the town next to the clock tower). It was really cool to be involved in because we actually felt like we were Orvietani and were a part of the community that had gathered together to show our support for Padre Giovanni. We sang as we all walked down the corso and stopped to sing and hear Alessandro and others speak at various piazzas on the way to the Duomo. During our walk I saw the priest for San Bernadino out and about in the crowd dressed in street clothes. You wouldn’t have been able to tell him apart from everyone else. He was hugging people, laughing, and even made eye contact with me and smiled with a head nod. I don’t have much experience with Catholicism as I explained earlier so it was cool to see the humanness of a priest and just see him interacting in the community. So we all ended up in front of the Duomo and eventually moved to the side as more and more people joined the throng. They had a giant banner stretched across the steps of the Duomo that said Padre Giovanni Tiamamo e siamo conte, which I think means something along the lines of our love goes with you Padre Giovanni. The whole thing was exciting to be a part of, but was a very somber and solemn event and people’s emotions were running high with women crying and a lot of passionate hugging.
Btw, cena (dinner) was delicious tonight! The pasta had a little eggplant and zucchini mixed in with a ton of melted golden brown cheese that was sooooo delicious. It might have been my favorite pasta so far. Then for desert we had this delicious coffee flavored cake with chocolate chips. Yum. : )
Cena (Dinner) with local Italian Family
Mar 3rd
I remember it being a sweet day full of lots of stuff, but I only have time to focus on one really cool aspect of the day. We got the opportunity in the evening to go have cena (dinner) with a local Italian family in groups of 4 or 5. My group went to Luca and Elise’s house. Elise is Alessandro’s (Italian teacher) sister so that was our “in.” They had three children, the smallest was Maria, next was Francesco (cute little guy), and then Chiara was the oldest. They were a very precious family and it was cool to see the love that they had for their children. We got to play with a balloon with the kids and stuff before and during dinner. Elise and Luca knew a little bit of English and Spanish so we were able to communicate with our Italian/Spanish/Spanglish/English. It was soo awesome. It was excellent Italian practice and emersion. Being put in that position helped those Italian words that I barely knew pop right back into my head, which was fun. I really hope I can find someone in town to be able to talk to frequently who knows a little English so that I can learn Italian quicker.
Our meal was excellent. We had delicious Lasagna and chicken and peas. The dessert was a like a chocolate cake that was denser and richer than brownies, but not quite to fudge state. So good. Anyway, it was a really cool experience to get to just chill with an Italian family and get to practice Italian as well as see how a typical Italian family interacts. That barely gives the day justice, but I don’t have a bunch of time.
I remember it being a sweet day full of lots of stuff, but I only have time to focus on one really cool aspect of the day. We got the opportunity in the evening to go have cena (dinner) with a local Italian family in groups of 4 or 5. My group went to Luca and Elise’s house. Elise is Alessandro’s (Italian teacher) sister so that was our “in.” They had three children, the smallest was Maria, next was Francesco (cute little guy), and then Chiara was the oldest. They were a very precious family and it was cool to see the love that they had for their children. We got to play with a balloon with the kids and stuff before and during dinner. Elise and Luca knew a little bit of English and Spanish so we were able to communicate with our Italian/Spanish/Spanglish/English. It was soo awesome. It was excellent Italian practice and emersion. Being put in that position helped those Italian words that I barely knew pop right back into my head, which was fun. I really hope I can find someone in town to be able to talk to frequently who knows a little English so that I can learn Italian quicker.
Our meal was excellent. We had delicious Lasagna and chicken and peas. The dessert was a like a chocolate cake that was denser and richer than brownies, but not quite to fudge state. So good. Anyway, it was a really cool experience to get to just chill with an Italian family and get to practice Italian as well as see how a typical Italian family interacts. That barely gives the day justice, but I don’t have a bunch of time.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Foood...Glorious Food!! :)
Mar 2nd
Ok, so I am utterly in love with Italy! I feel like singing at the top of my lungs just like Oliver…foooood…glorious fooood! Ha :) Not just the food, but the sights, the people, everything has been amazing and it is just the beginning. Today was a lot to take in but overall amazing so I’m just gonna give you the details. This morning I learned a little bit about the Italian bureaucracy by filling out our permits to sojourn, which allows us to travel around Italy and be “residents” while we are here. The forms were all in Italian so that was some good Italian practice. Class was really good today and we normally have a 12 minute break during the middle of class and that is the time that Dr. Skillen says it takes to walk down the street to the Bar San Paolo and down a cappuccino and come back, but today we only had a 10 minute break, but a few of us decided to book it down to the bar for a really quick cappuccino. (you just stand at the bar and down it really quickly so that you don’t have to pay extra to sit…it’s the norm just to drink it very quickly) Yeah, I will be extremely addicted to coffee by the end of this semester. Lol. After class and the chapter meeting was over we went for Pranzo(lunch) which was delicious today. Ok, so we started out with a smaller ziti with mushrooms in a creamy sauce that was full of herbs and a maze ing…I think I might have had three bowls of it. Ok, not gonna lie I don’t think. I know. Ha. Then we had these amazing meatballs that were in some white sauce and some really fresh and flavorful green beans. Probably my favorite lunch so far… After lunch I went downstairs to the chapel in the monastery that is empty and echoes quite a bit…just a sweet place of solitude. Anyway, that was some good God time. Then at 3 we all went to the Biblioteca(library). They have free wifi and it was very trendy and modern inside, I will definitely be going there quite a bit. Not for the wifi, but just because it was warm and quiet and just a neat atmosphere because it is like an old Franciscan monastery that has been renovated and is decorated with art deco stuff and just seems like a cool place to hang out. They have a sweet balcony that overlooks the valley that I will definitely be frequenting when it warms up as well. Ok, sorry, we went to the library because there is a really sweet cinema in there that has the special sound proofing and it is supposedly like one of the best viewing places for movies…audio engineers designed it to be perfect or something. It is really fancy and high-tech…never seen anything quite like it in the states. Anyway, Prof. Doll knows the head of the library(we have had student art exhibits in the library in the past…etc.) and so we are able to go in there and see films whenever we want for free. :) Today we saw The Bicycle Thief. I would highly recommend it. It is not a feel good, light, happy film although it has it’s very humorous parts. I will not give it away, but it is an older Italian film that makes you think. Very thought provoking. We came back from the movie and then we had a few optional things of which I did all of the above so here goes. First we went to Vespers at Buon Gesu. This was a unique but very awesome experience. Interjection – I have a decent head knowledge of how Catholicism differs from Protestantism, but I feel like I have a lot to learn and am eager to understand more the hearts of the Catholics and just the way they think and reason through their faith. Alright, so Buon Gesu is this convent / public chapel across town. Beautiful inside. We sit down in the wooden pews right as the nuns are starting to come out of the side door. First off they have their own section in front that is completely (almost caged in) fenced off from the public seating in the back. They do Vespers every night supposedly. So like 15-20 nuns come out looking like they were straight from Sister Act and do the whole father, son, holy ghost thing kneeling in front before they take their seats. The service was a mix of repeat after me with all the nuns following the head nun and also singing. Some of the singing was Gregorian chant style and some was like absolutely beautiful to the point that it almost brought me to tears a few times a cappella harmonizing stuff that was amazing. Then there were several pauses for silence when I think you were supposed to pray which is what I did which was very cool. Like in this cathedral/chapel/whatever you call it when everyone is quiet there is this reverence and air to the whole place which is unbelievable. So, at first I was just looking around like in tourist mode and then I was like, God, during the course of the next four months I want to really see these people through your eyes. I want to understand what makes them tick and also just what is my role here with them. Is it merely to learn about them, or should I do something? Anyway, you walked out of there just like in reverence for God and just…wow. Then Catholic culture we walked directly from the Vespers service to the Preghiera(prayer or praise) at San Bernardino chapel(beautiful interior as well). San Bernardino is a more Pentecostal Catholic denomination sort of. They had acoustic guitar, bass, a few microphones for singers and a few tambourines and shakers. The worship was amazing there. It was not your typical Pentecostal type very eccentric worship, but was a mix between some fairly contemporary acoustic driven worship and also like sweet a cappella harmonization. I hummed along with the music and even just tried to sing along with some of it because I couldn’t help but to join in to this beautiful music. The sense of community and passion in their worship was so cool to see. During the worship a lady walks in the doors and down the aisle and is kissing and hugging excitedly many of the people she passes along the way…pinching a little boy’s cheek in his moms arms…truly experiencing the joy of community and seeing the love amongst the congregation. At some points in worship there were like not just one harmony, but like maybe 5 or 6 different notes, words, rhythms all blended together to create a beautiful sound. I wish I could put the beauty into words, but it was some of the most gorgeous and passionate worship music I have ever been a part of. There were majors and minors sometimes blended together at the same time and notes that would normally create dissonance were all blended together nicely enough that it was gorgeous. To think that heaven will be even great than that really excites me. So then the sermon was really cool too. It was all in Italian, but tonight was the first time where I was feeling like I was at least getting the gist of like every 1 in 3 sentences ish…so I was able to see where he was going with his sermon and it was really cool. He didn’t read his sermon and he was very passionate…used the informal forms of verbs in speaking with his congregation and really seemed to engage us. When I saw us I saw that because at the beginning of the sermon he addressed it to the Gentile, the Old, the young, the estudiante(students/us), and tutti(all). K, so this was the first Catholic priest that has actually engaged his congregation with a passionate and meaningful sermon that I have ever seen…it was cool. It gave me a different outlook on Catholicism. I want to learn a lot about it. K, sorry that was a lot, but it was a really awesome experience and I can’t wait to frequent that church. Now comes dinner. We had legit Italian pizza after pizza after pizza. Wow. K, plain cheese(not really…actually like legit Italian cheese that is delicious with delicious homemade tomato sauce..etc..herbs…homemade everything…etc. WOW), potato(yeah you heard that right) and prosciutto(smoked super think bacon type thing) and some white sauce…sounds different but amazing…olive and like a very strong cheese…I had a bunch of pizza…as soon as we finished one they brought out another and it was a different type. So good. Then after we were done with our pizza they brought out tiramisu. (in Italian it literally means pick me up because of the espresso that is in it) I have had tiramisu several times in the states and have thought it was pretty good a couple times I have had it, but often it is dry and doesn’t seem very flavorful…Oh wow did I have a bad impression of tiramisu….this stuff was like died and gone to heaven. So chocolaty and have some much coffee flavor as well…not too rich, but just right…left me wishing I could hide my plate and act like I didn’t get any so I could get another piece….wow. This is a long blog and I think that people might stop reading it after this one, but I promise to try and keep them a reasonable length, but today was so awesome I wanted to get everything down on the page. It is like midnight here now though on Wednesday and I still have not gotten to writing yesterdays blog and I know there is some stuff from yesterday that I will forget by next time I write, but I need to go to bed because I am getting up at 7 to go the Thursday local market before class starts. Fresh fruits and all kinds of cheap goods :) K Ciao for now!
Ok, so I am utterly in love with Italy! I feel like singing at the top of my lungs just like Oliver…foooood…glorious fooood! Ha :) Not just the food, but the sights, the people, everything has been amazing and it is just the beginning. Today was a lot to take in but overall amazing so I’m just gonna give you the details. This morning I learned a little bit about the Italian bureaucracy by filling out our permits to sojourn, which allows us to travel around Italy and be “residents” while we are here. The forms were all in Italian so that was some good Italian practice. Class was really good today and we normally have a 12 minute break during the middle of class and that is the time that Dr. Skillen says it takes to walk down the street to the Bar San Paolo and down a cappuccino and come back, but today we only had a 10 minute break, but a few of us decided to book it down to the bar for a really quick cappuccino. (you just stand at the bar and down it really quickly so that you don’t have to pay extra to sit…it’s the norm just to drink it very quickly) Yeah, I will be extremely addicted to coffee by the end of this semester. Lol. After class and the chapter meeting was over we went for Pranzo(lunch) which was delicious today. Ok, so we started out with a smaller ziti with mushrooms in a creamy sauce that was full of herbs and a maze ing…I think I might have had three bowls of it. Ok, not gonna lie I don’t think. I know. Ha. Then we had these amazing meatballs that were in some white sauce and some really fresh and flavorful green beans. Probably my favorite lunch so far… After lunch I went downstairs to the chapel in the monastery that is empty and echoes quite a bit…just a sweet place of solitude. Anyway, that was some good God time. Then at 3 we all went to the Biblioteca(library). They have free wifi and it was very trendy and modern inside, I will definitely be going there quite a bit. Not for the wifi, but just because it was warm and quiet and just a neat atmosphere because it is like an old Franciscan monastery that has been renovated and is decorated with art deco stuff and just seems like a cool place to hang out. They have a sweet balcony that overlooks the valley that I will definitely be frequenting when it warms up as well. Ok, sorry, we went to the library because there is a really sweet cinema in there that has the special sound proofing and it is supposedly like one of the best viewing places for movies…audio engineers designed it to be perfect or something. It is really fancy and high-tech…never seen anything quite like it in the states. Anyway, Prof. Doll knows the head of the library(we have had student art exhibits in the library in the past…etc.) and so we are able to go in there and see films whenever we want for free. :) Today we saw The Bicycle Thief. I would highly recommend it. It is not a feel good, light, happy film although it has it’s very humorous parts. I will not give it away, but it is an older Italian film that makes you think. Very thought provoking. We came back from the movie and then we had a few optional things of which I did all of the above so here goes. First we went to Vespers at Buon Gesu. This was a unique but very awesome experience. Interjection – I have a decent head knowledge of how Catholicism differs from Protestantism, but I feel like I have a lot to learn and am eager to understand more the hearts of the Catholics and just the way they think and reason through their faith. Alright, so Buon Gesu is this convent / public chapel across town. Beautiful inside. We sit down in the wooden pews right as the nuns are starting to come out of the side door. First off they have their own section in front that is completely (almost caged in) fenced off from the public seating in the back. They do Vespers every night supposedly. So like 15-20 nuns come out looking like they were straight from Sister Act and do the whole father, son, holy ghost thing kneeling in front before they take their seats. The service was a mix of repeat after me with all the nuns following the head nun and also singing. Some of the singing was Gregorian chant style and some was like absolutely beautiful to the point that it almost brought me to tears a few times a cappella harmonizing stuff that was amazing. Then there were several pauses for silence when I think you were supposed to pray which is what I did which was very cool. Like in this cathedral/chapel/whatever you call it when everyone is quiet there is this reverence and air to the whole place which is unbelievable. So, at first I was just looking around like in tourist mode and then I was like, God, during the course of the next four months I want to really see these people through your eyes. I want to understand what makes them tick and also just what is my role here with them. Is it merely to learn about them, or should I do something? Anyway, you walked out of there just like in reverence for God and just…wow. Then Catholic culture we walked directly from the Vespers service to the Preghiera(prayer or praise) at San Bernardino chapel(beautiful interior as well). San Bernardino is a more Pentecostal Catholic denomination sort of. They had acoustic guitar, bass, a few microphones for singers and a few tambourines and shakers. The worship was amazing there. It was not your typical Pentecostal type very eccentric worship, but was a mix between some fairly contemporary acoustic driven worship and also like sweet a cappella harmonization. I hummed along with the music and even just tried to sing along with some of it because I couldn’t help but to join in to this beautiful music. The sense of community and passion in their worship was so cool to see. During the worship a lady walks in the doors and down the aisle and is kissing and hugging excitedly many of the people she passes along the way…pinching a little boy’s cheek in his moms arms…truly experiencing the joy of community and seeing the love amongst the congregation. At some points in worship there were like not just one harmony, but like maybe 5 or 6 different notes, words, rhythms all blended together to create a beautiful sound. I wish I could put the beauty into words, but it was some of the most gorgeous and passionate worship music I have ever been a part of. There were majors and minors sometimes blended together at the same time and notes that would normally create dissonance were all blended together nicely enough that it was gorgeous. To think that heaven will be even great than that really excites me. So then the sermon was really cool too. It was all in Italian, but tonight was the first time where I was feeling like I was at least getting the gist of like every 1 in 3 sentences ish…so I was able to see where he was going with his sermon and it was really cool. He didn’t read his sermon and he was very passionate…used the informal forms of verbs in speaking with his congregation and really seemed to engage us. When I saw us I saw that because at the beginning of the sermon he addressed it to the Gentile, the Old, the young, the estudiante(students/us), and tutti(all). K, so this was the first Catholic priest that has actually engaged his congregation with a passionate and meaningful sermon that I have ever seen…it was cool. It gave me a different outlook on Catholicism. I want to learn a lot about it. K, sorry that was a lot, but it was a really awesome experience and I can’t wait to frequent that church. Now comes dinner. We had legit Italian pizza after pizza after pizza. Wow. K, plain cheese(not really…actually like legit Italian cheese that is delicious with delicious homemade tomato sauce..etc..herbs…homemade everything…etc. WOW), potato(yeah you heard that right) and prosciutto(smoked super think bacon type thing) and some white sauce…sounds different but amazing…olive and like a very strong cheese…I had a bunch of pizza…as soon as we finished one they brought out another and it was a different type. So good. Then after we were done with our pizza they brought out tiramisu. (in Italian it literally means pick me up because of the espresso that is in it) I have had tiramisu several times in the states and have thought it was pretty good a couple times I have had it, but often it is dry and doesn’t seem very flavorful…Oh wow did I have a bad impression of tiramisu….this stuff was like died and gone to heaven. So chocolaty and have some much coffee flavor as well…not too rich, but just right…left me wishing I could hide my plate and act like I didn’t get any so I could get another piece….wow. This is a long blog and I think that people might stop reading it after this one, but I promise to try and keep them a reasonable length, but today was so awesome I wanted to get everything down on the page. It is like midnight here now though on Wednesday and I still have not gotten to writing yesterdays blog and I know there is some stuff from yesterday that I will forget by next time I write, but I need to go to bed because I am getting up at 7 to go the Thursday local market before class starts. Fresh fruits and all kinds of cheap goods :) K Ciao for now!
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