Easter Celebrations

Well I told you about the Easter Mass at midnight, but that was just the beginning of the Easter celebrations in town!  On Easter morning, we went to Roggi's to get lunch because it was the only place open.  They were really busy preparing their Easter feast which some people sat down for.  We just got our pizza and went back to studio.  Kelsey and I worked hard all day on seminar drawings and studio progress, and before we knew it it was dinner time.

For dinner, one of the cooks gave up time with her family to make us a real Easter meal.  They brought out all the courses at once, and the menu included:

Ham! with a pineapple-bacon bits sauce on it
Peas, which are always delicious here
Roast beef, more cooked than usual
MASHED potatoes
Salad
Hard boiled eggs

And for dessert they had some sort of almond cake with cups of strawberries and bananas, which we poured over the cake.  I was so happy that we had ham and potatoes, my favorites!  Only think it was lacking was some warm butterhorn rolls smothered in more butter.

The rest of Easter we spent in studio, and that night before bed Kelsey and I, for the first time, did our Lenten workout.  Better late than never, right?  We did lunges down the hall, but could hardly stand up because we were laughing at ourselves so hard.  We also did wall push-ups and leg lifts, and Kelsey started using the punch-balloons my mom sent as an arm workout until I convinced her 1:30am was probably to late to be making that much noise.

On Easter Monday we had planned to wake up early and work in studio, and at 11:30 we rolled out of bed to get ready by lunch time.  Easter Monday is a national holiday in Italy, so we didn't have cooks to make a two course meal for once.  We got handed sack lunches, and I honestly questioned when we would be getting the second-course sack.  Lunch was a piece of bread and some meat, a piece of fruit, a candy bar and a juice box (which I have banned myself from drinking).  Most people went and got a pizza, but I toughed it out until I decided to finish my Ritz crackers and nutella. 

While we were working in studio this afternoon, I started hearing music outside our window.  I ran upstairs to see what the commotion was, and I got to the front door just in time to see the Jesus statue going back into the church.  I'm assuming they took it out when the bells started going off (and continued going off every 30 minutes) and paraded around town and back again.  The band went by, followed by the whole town, and they all marched into the church.  I went back to studio, but right after that Andres came in and said they were having Mass outside.  Then we started hearing either firecrackers or a massacre coming from the church.  Easter Monday is a party too! Firecrackers and even 3 canon shots went off for a good while, and then we went back to work on our projects.

America could learn a thing or two from Italy, like how to throw a party for Jesus.  Still working on studio, being a good little student and making up for the lack of work I did all semester!  I can't believe there's only 12 days left of school at Santa Chiara and then only another week and a half until I'm back in the states.  These next weeks are going to fly by, and then it's back to Kraft mac'n'cheese, Wal-Mart and consistent store hours. And, how could I forget, my Auntie Anne's pretzel I'm getting the second I set foot in the Chicago airport!

Cara Marie

Easter Weekend

Happy Easter Weekend!  Tonight is the Easter Vigil, where they have the last procession for the week.  At the end of the procession, they rush into the church with a statue of the risen Jesus and there are fireworks and loud noises and a dove is released! Should be a party!!

Besides being super excited for tonight's festivities, I've been working very hard on studio, surprisingly enough.  I've gone back to first year techniques of hand drawing, and successfully done the base work for 12 different sheets, including plans, elevations, sections and perspectives. Kelsey then transfers them to the final sheets and adds all the details and makes them pretty.  It's a great team effort.  After we get all our sheets finished, Kelsey will be watercoloring while I am writing all the text for descriptions of diagrams and designs. 

It's amazing how productive you can be when Italy is outside your studio window.  I am proud to say we've spent a total of about 12 days actually working on studio this semester, and it's my favorite project yet - the biggest and the most detailed one, too.

I'll post pictures of my progress so you can see it's not just vacation time over here.  I'm going to be missing ham and cheesy potatoes tomorrow, so everyone better have two helpings of each for me.  Also the green jello stuff.

Love everyone!  See you at my welcoming party in 26 days! :-)

Cara Marie

Tivoli

Today we ventured south to Tivoli, just outside Rome.  We arrived at Hadrian’s Villa 45 minutes early, which we were all thrilled about since we got up so early. Our tour guide showed us a model of what Hadrian’s Villa would have looked like, and I was amazed at how large it was!  We saw lots of ruins of loggias and baths and theaters, and also saw all the places Emperor Hadrian would have roamed around for “refreshing walks,” as our tour guide mentioned multiple times.  We saw his private swimming pool, and the famous reflection pool he built for his secret male lover, which we were all disappointed our tour guide did NOT bring up.  Thank goodness for Mick Charney.

After Hadrian’s Villa we had a picnic lunch by the buses in the parking lot.  A little ghetto, but it was nice that we had sandwiches, chips and cookies provided for us so we didn’t go hungry.  Next stop was Villa d’Este.  We drove into the town of Tivoli, which I would describe as half sketch and half happenin’.  The bus dropped us off on a main street, and we walked the rest of the way to the villa, by-passing some tourist stores filled with inappropriate undies and aprons that had the statue David strategically printed on them. 

We toured the house first, but our tour guide couldn’t keep us inside very long.  There is a vast amount of gardens behind the house, with tons of beautiful fountains around every corner.  We were so distracted by all the beautiful flowers, gardens, fountains and pools that we kept losing our group.  On the plus side I now have lots of potential new profile pictures.

You will be happy to know I have some more words that Italians can’t pronounce.

Olive: alive

Vehicle: vee-HIGH-cull

Buried: bury-ed (pronounce every syllable)

Statue: stay-chew

I apologize for not having a spill of the day in a while, but hopefully this will make up for it:

While we were waiting to see part of Hadrian’s Villa, I was looking at a brick wall that was once covered in marble.  After standing 25 feet tall for almost 2000 years, you can imagine the state the wall was in - pieces of brick crumbling away, some bricks sticking out while other areas were hollowing out.  I touched some of the bricks, and not realizing everyone was watching me, I tested how strong the wall was.  I thought the brick was still stuck in there pretty well, so I let go of it and my teacher goes, “if you pull that brick out, the whole wall is going to fall down.”  I laughed and jokingly turned around and acted out an exaggerated tug at the brick.  To my surprise it crumbled in my hand and a huge chunk of the brick fell to the ground.  Everyone made the situation worse by gasping at what had happened, and I turned around embarrassed because I had broken an ancient wall.  My teacher told me he thinks the wall will survive, and then made me feel better by saying that part of the brick hadn’t seen sun for a couple thousand years.  So, in the end I freed a brick at the cost of breaking Hadrian’s Villa.

Tonight is another procession, should be similar to last night’s but I’ll update you if anything excited happens like someone’s robe catches on fire.  There actually was a close call last night…

Cara Marie

Holy Week

Tonight began the first procession in town for Holy Week.  My town is one of three in Italy that still does the processions throughout town.  A man came to Santa Chiara before dinner tonight to try and explain what goes on.  He taught us about the history of the brotherhoods, how they wear different colored robes (that look like the KKK), and they used to turn all the lights out in town and only the light of the candles they hold led their way.  The processions each have a different statue of Jesus carried by the robed people, tonight being one representing the betrayal of Jesus by Judas.  They began at San Francesco, the church on the other side of town, and walked down the Corso (the Main Street of Italy) and then looped around the piazza by Santa Chiara and headed back to San Francesco. 

We had a front row view of the procession, and it was very interesting to watch.  It was led by men in white robes holding a cross, then men in black robes with another cross, and then men in blue with their own cross.  Those were the three brotherhoods – like the Italian frats.  At the back were men in white robes holding the statue of Jesus.  They processed through the lines of robed people and went into the church.  Behind the statue was a band playing some melancholy music to set the mood.  Then they all waited for the statue to come back out of the church and head back to San Francesco.

I can’t wait to see what the rest of the week brings – at midnight on Saturday/Sunday they rush into the church with a statue of the risen Jesus and there are fireworks and loud noises and they release a dove that represents Christ’s rising. 

Tomorrow we have a 6:45am bus to Tivoli to see Hadrian’s Villa and Villa d’Este. So NOT pumped for that early morning…but maybe another beautiful day full of gardens!

Cara Marie

Cinque Terre

This weekend we traveled to the Cinque Terre (Five Towns), northwest of Pisa.  It was a girl trip, and was so peaceful without boys trying to run everything!  Kelsey, Marissa and I left on Friday morning and met up with Rachel and Jordan in La Spezia.  We took a short train ride and arrived in Riomaggiore, our home for the weekend.  We walked through a tunnel that had mosaics all the way to the other side, made from random recycled tiles, stones and rocks.  On the other side we found quaint little shops and markets with a hill into the heart of the town.  It was pretty clear that we, the Castiglion residents, that is, have been through hill town boot camp.  Rachel (from Orvieto) was huffing and puffing all the way up that hill.  We found the reception for the apartment we rented, and the woman at the desk kept calling me “love” and cursed like a sailor, “bloody hell!”

After we signed our lives away she led us up stairs and down an alley to a door that she pulled on some twine to open.  At this point we had no idea what we’re getting ourselves into.  We followed her through the door and went down a few steps in which the rise was as tall as the run was wide.  After struggling down about 5 steps, we turned a corner to a straight run of stairs, four flights down, each a foot high.  As I began to take each step one at a time, I saw my life flash before me and I envisioned myself slipping on the marble step and tumbling down the entire staircase.  We only had to go down one flight to reach our destination, and I carefully let go of the handrail and slid into the apartment quickly.

The apartment we rented for the weekend was awesome.  There was a foyer, a huge bathroom, two bedrooms, a living room and a full kitchen.  There was even a balcony that overlooked the Riomaggiore marina and Mediterranean Sea.  After we dropped off our backpacks and got comfortable, we braved the stairs and slowly walked all the way down to the level of the marina. The other apartments on the staircase were being renovated to we were the only ones in the building and we basically had a private door to the seaside for the weekend!  We walked to the water and began climbing on some huge rocks, all the way to the edge of the rock pier.  I got my toes wet in the Mediterranean, and we relaxed and caught up with the other girls. 

After a while we headed back to land and searched out a market for supplies to make dinner.  We decided on chicken, pasta and veggies.  Back at the apartment, I was in charge of the pasta and white sauce.  We didn’t have all the ingredients so it turned out to be just a milky-yet-slightly-chunky parmesan cheese “sauce.”   We sat at the table and talked and drank wine for a long time, then we made the mistake of moving to the comfy seats in the living room.  Everyone started falling asleep, Marissa did go to sleep, and at 11pm I went with Jordan to pick up her sister, who has been studying in Spain and is now on her spring break.  We stayed up with Mackenzie for a while, and then went to sleep for a beach day in the morning!

I fell asleep to the sound of waves crashing on the rocks, and in the morning we had scrambled eggs with veggies.  We packed our beach bags and slowly made our way to the Via Dell’Amore, which is the first hike between Riomaggiore and Manarola.  It was about a 20-30 minute walk between the towns, and beautiful scenery the whole way.  The Via Dell’Amore is a flat path built on the side of the cliffs, and there are love locks all over this stroll.  Instead of fining people for putting locks on public property like they do in Florence, Cinque Terre has gotten smart and actually sells padlocks in the gift store.  There are lots of places to stop and admire the sea, or partake in some PDA, along the way.  There are also a lot of stairs built into the cliffs that lead to larger rocks in the water.  We climbed down and explored a bit on a couple of these, then kept making our way to Manarola. 

When we arrived in Manarola we shopped around town a bit and got a snack for lunch.  We sat on a boat entry to the water and soaked up some sun before we headed to the train station to go to Monterosso.  Right when we got off the train we walked across the street to the pebble beach.  We picked a spot and set up camp.  Unfortunately we picked a spot next to the most obnoxious American ever, a girl who was wearing way too little clothing and showing off way too much of her body.  She kept yelling (not talking) about herself and smoking and drinking and how she’s really cool.  Ohh geez – Americans!

After turning down some African beads and “massagee’s” we got some slushie drinks at a bar and strolled to see what else was in the town.  We found a happenin’ square with a church about to have Mass.  There were lots of little souvenir shops and boutiques.  After indulging in some cheap souvenirs, we went back to the train station to go to the next town over, Vernazza.  We got on the wrong train, however, and went all the way back to Riomaggiore.  We tried to go the other way back, but apparently our tickets weren’t valid anymore and we got kicked off the train in Manarola.  It all worked out in the end, though, because after we couldn’t find a restaurant to eat at in Manarola (ALL were full ALL night), we took the Via Dell’Amore at sunset and had the most romantic walk back, just us girls.  [Side note: trains in the Cinque Terre run anywhere from 10-45 minutes late, but at least they’re consistent with one thing.]

In Riomaggiore we searched for a special place to eat for Kelsey’s birthday dinner, and ironically ended up at the restaurant below our balcony.  After waiting an hour we were seated and I split lobster pasta with Marissa.  It was very difficult to eat, since we didn’t have the things to crack the shell.  I had to get my hands dirty and do a bit of surgery to get the meat out, but it was tasty!  The restaurant gave Kelsey a delicious chocolate cake that was more like fudge, and we helped her finish it.  After we were done, I took some pictures with the head of the crab, complete with eyeballs, and then we went back up our mountain of stairs to our apartment.

On Sunday we cleaned dishes and packed our stuff, and then checked out and stored our luggage for the day.  We finally successfully made it to Vernazza, where we had pizza by the water and shopped.  We found a store that said “original art and design” on the outside, so we went in to check it out.  They had acrylic paintings of all the different cities and different views in Cinque Terre.  We found some jewelry at the back that you could pick different charms and choose your chain and how you want it made.  We talked to the woman making the jewelry, and her husband happened to study architecture in Florence.  He’s the artist now (obviously didn’t do architecture) and she makes custom jewelry.  We hadn’t seen anything like this, so we all picked out charms and had necklaces and bracelets made.  I have one of the paintings of Cinque Terre on one of my charms, and the painting Venus Rising on the other, because it’s in my room in Santa Chiara and I wake up to it every day.

After rushing back to Riomaggiore to get our luggage, we waited for the train for a while and then began our trip home.  In school it’s crunch time, and Kelsey and I are working very hard and making lots of progress on our awesome project!  I’ll upload pictures eventually, to prove this isn’t just a vacation. 

Tonight before dinner we have someone coming to talk to us about the Holy Week ceremonies that will be happening in town this week.  I am so excited to learn about this and see everything they do.  The first ceremony is tonight at 9:15pm and lasts about an hour.  It should be very interesting!

On another side note, there is the most adorable little toddler with us in Santa Chiara.  Her name is Ruby and she is the daughter of the Texas A&M architecture professor.  She has learned to walk and is running all over the study center.  She will waddle down the halls and stop to look at everything along the way.  One of her first words is “statue” because all the halls are filled with artwork from previous students and she loves to stop and touch it.  She also loves playing with the turtles that live in our courtyard, and she is always looking for them and poking them.  Most adorable girl ever, AND she never cries.  I might pack her in my suitcase instead of my clothes.

Cara Marie

Academia and Planetarium

Today was the last day I visit Florence for the semester.  We went to the market before our tour of the Academia, and I bought some last minute souvenirs.  As usually, we showed up to our meeting spot a little late, and once again track coach Chip came out and told us to run to the Academia.  We’ve learned our lesson when it comes to running with Chip, so we strolled there just in time to be let in (VIP style since we had an appointment).  To make up for being a little late, I was the first one with a headset on ready for our tour.  The Academia was much smaller than I expected.  Usually our tour guides send us up three flights of stairs and then we have to hike all over the huge museums to be told just a couple facts about a few pieces of art.  The Academia had about four or five rooms, each of reasonable size.  The first room had one sculpture and paintings around the walls.  There was a room of music, with instruments from famous string quintets such as the Medici’s.  There was the first piano, and other variations like a piano-violin, and different techniques for the piano, such as strumming the strings versus a hammer and upright strings versus lying flat. 

We went to the next room where there were Michaelangelo pieces that were unfinished.  Our tour guide began talking about the first piece, and I was paying attention so intently that it took me a while before I turned to my left and saw the big guy – David.  He is HUGE!  Eighteen feet tall, I was told, and beautiful!  There was so much thought put into the sculpture, and meaning behind every detail.  And Michaelangelo was only 26 when he did this?! Ridiculous.

After staring at David for a while, we saw some plaster statues and other paintings and then our tour was over.  Shortest tour ever.  We waited in the lobby while our teachers discussed plans and got directions for where our next stop was, and eventually got kicked out by the lady hushing at us constantly.  We decided that the mean Florentines get sent to the Academia.  Mean Romans get sent to the Sistine Chapel. “Shhhh! NO PHOTO!”

We had kebabs for lunch and then the girls and I did some shopping at leather stores and trinket shops.  We met with Giovanni, our history teacher, and walked to the Planetarium.  We got let in the back door, because this is a private museum for the Science and Technology Engineering School in Florence.  Giovanni is one of the directors for the museums in Florence, so he has hook ups all over the place.  We entered the museum, which was very small but packed with everything from mastodon teeth to the first hydraulic machines.  We split into two groups and my group went to the theater first. 

I don’t know whose idea it was to put college students (that stay up too late and get up excessively early to travel, shop, tour and eat) in an IMAX-like theater with reclining seats, but I was very happy in that room.  Giovanni talked to us for a while about what we would be learning, and then another man came in and taught us a bit of history on astronomy and constellations.  After he had talked for a while, and some of us were already getting drowsy, he turned the lights off and projected stars above us.  Hello nap time!  I tried to pay attention but his Italian accent turned into white noise and the stars were so mesmerizing, like I was being put to sleep by a hypnotist.  I think he knew we were all struggling a bit, even though you couldn’t see your own hands in that room, because every once in a while he would raise his voice or stomp his feet and I woke up at some point, very refreshed.  I stayed awake the rest of the time and learned about some constellations, the North Star, lunar eclipses, and then he made the sun rise and we all had to wake up.  For the record, I was not the one that snored two separate times during his presentation.  Next we moved on to the collection of lots of engineering stuff.

We gathered in a small hallway that was lined with display cabinets on either side, packed to the brim with lots of machines I didn’t recognize one bit.  (The only things in the entire museum I recognized were the mercury thermometers and some car batteries).  I was shocked at the amount of pieces on display in this tiny museum – easily over 3,000 items!  There were mechanical machines, electricity measuring tools, electromagnetic machines, hydraulic machines, a room of acoustic instruments, and an anatomy room – basically anything in the history of engineering you can think of was in this museum.  I told Giovanni my dad was an electrical engineer, and he said that I should definitely bring him here and he will get us into the museum.  Guess you have to come to Italy, dad!! Giovanni will hook us up!  (He also told our class that we are family now and we can go to the Galileo Museum whenever we want.  Apparently in the past he has let people into the museum the day his child was being born.  Just straight up left the hospital!)

We quickly walked through the display cabinets to a room where we learned some history on the battery and the first communication devices.  Then it was time for some experiments!  We created a battery out of zinc and copper washers, stacked with salt-water soaked clothes in between, and we made a light illuminate! Yay, I’m a scientist!  We also messed with a compass and magnetism, and then did some Morse code.  We had to rush through our lesson because we were an hour behind and had already missed our train to make it back for dinner.  (Luckily they held dinner until we got back). 

The dean of our college is in town now, so tomorrow we have to impress him all day.  We even get to skip our Seminar class in order to have more studio time.  So excited for 7 hours of studio tomorrow.  Then on Friday we leave for the beaches of Cinque Terre to celebrate Kelsey’s 22^nd birthday!! Hooray!

Cara Marie

Catching Up.

I haven’t written in a while, mostly due to how much time I’ve been spending outside.  We’ve had ridiculously nice weather, making the productivity in studio non-existent.  We did, however, have a critique last Thursday, so Kelsey and I spent a few days being super productive so we could still get our outside time.  We have designed a gateway for the vineyard, a path and a new outdoor wine tasting.  We have research and materials and floor plans and elevations and all sorts of good studio progress.  Our teacher even told us we were ahead of a lot of people. Hoorah!

There are just a couple things I need to write about, like how I hiked to a castle across the valley, toured Pienza and Montepulciano, had an amazing lunch, had a lake day, and went to the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens in Florence.  The hike to the castle deserves its own post, so I’ll start with Montepulciano and Pienza.

These two towns were scheduled on the same day, and we traveled in between the two.  In the morning we stopped at a really big church, where we didn’t have a tour guide.  Our teachers knew nothing about it, so for the next stop we found a last minute tour guide.  At the big church we took lots of pictures and wandered around clueless.  It was pretty cool because it was in an open field rather than crammed into a city or town. 

The next stop was Pienza.  This was where we found a last-second tour guide that did nothing more than show us around town.  She used the words “beautiful” and “amazing” a lot, and really just talked about where different things were in town and told us a few facts – none that involve real architectural information.  I’m convinced she wiki’d her own town and just memorized what it said.  She did, however, take us to the side of the church where there is a big crack from it being built on an unstable piece of land and bullet holes from the war. 

After our tour of the town, we went into what we think was a palace, but with the lack of knowledge from our professors we’ll never be too sure.  We saw lots of artwork and different rooms from some family that was like the Medici’s of the Siena area.  If you see a crest with 5 half-moons, it’s that family that I can’t remember the name of, and they stand for how many crusades they’ve been a part of.  We also saw a garden, the first renaissance garden I’ve seen.  It had all the hedgerows in geometrical patterns and overlooked the valley.

After building up our appetites walking around town, we went as a group to a restaurant where lunch was served, and the waiters just kept the food coming.  They served appetizers, lasagna, pasta, sausage, roast beef, ham, and tiramisu.  Best lasagna I’ve ever had.  If we could have merged the food from Pienza and everything else from the best day of my life, it would have created the most ultimate day in the history of days. 

In Montepulciano, we saw where the second Twiglight movie was filmed, and learned that almost everything was set up.  There wasn’t even a fountain for Bella to run through – it was all built the day they filmed and taken down a couple days later!  We also saw the wine cellar for the city.  They call it the second cathedral of the town – in other words they worship God first, and then wine.  The wine cellar had humongous barrels and was really creepy, perfect for the filming of Twilight.  We toured it, learned some history, and then were sent to the gift shop.  That concluded our day and we headed back to Castiglion Fiorentino.

Next was the lake day.  On Friday my roomies and I had decided that we wanted to go to the lake between Castiglion and Orvieto, that other people had gone to the previous weekend.  At lunch we told some people about it, and they liked the idea, so the group kept growing and growing.  Some of the boys looked at the train times and found that there were trains at 1:30, 2:00 or 2:30.  We knew we were going to take our time eating lunch, packing and walking to the train station, so we were taking the 2:30 train.  The boys, needing to get the most time in every aspect of travel in Italy, skipped fruit and ran to the train station.  We’re clearly smarter because I got two oranges and an apple, and had a nice stroll down to the train station, rather than a sprint. 

When we arrived at the stop where the lake was, we had to walk through the town a bit to get to the beach.  There was a lot of cute B&Bs, parks, shops and a marina.  We walked along the shore until we found a beach with a bar, volleyball court, gelateria, pool, and our friends.  We relaxed all afternoon, stepped in the water but didn’t stay long, some people swam in the freezing water, saw a guy wind surfing, saw the wind surfer wipe out, and got gelato to top the day off.  Some people played ultimate Frisbee, and Jake cut his foot really bad.  He hobbled all around until I got him the first aid kit my mom made me.  It finally got put to use for something more than sore feet.  While going through all the stuff in the kit I realized I could probably perform surgery if it’s needed. 

Saturday brought a last minute decision to go to Florence and see the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens.  Hooray for Italian Culture Week, because entry was free to both the gardens and the palace!  A goal for the day was to find the sculpture of a naked fat man on a turtle.  The man was the favorite jester of the Medici family.  We hiked through the gardens and saw lots of plants and fountains and pretty scenery of Florence.  We found lots of secret corners and hidden gardens where the Medici’s could have had secret rendezvous.  We visited an exhibit they currently have of a Pompeian garden, funny seeing that after seeing the real thing.  After seeing the gardens, we went to the Pitti Palace and toured the Palatine Museum and an exhibit of costumes.  The costumes exhibit had clothes from the 1800s as well as modern interpretations of each of the old ones.  They also had fun retro clothing and accessories on display.  We skipped the modern art exhibit and met with some people to head back to the train station.

That’s all for now because it’s dinner time, next up is the hike to the castle and a blurb on the vehicles of Italy.

Cara Marie

Soccer Match

We went to Orvieto Saturday morning with the hopes of putting up a fight at the Castiglion F.no – Orvieto soccer match.  It was sunny and warm with just a slight breeze, another beautiful day in Italy.  The boys (and Diana) warmed up for the game while the rest of the cheering section got a bite to eat and bought some oranges for the boys (and Diana) for half time.  The people not playing just chatted on the side lines and soaked up the sun – I can now wear shorts without blinding everyone in sight!  Our teachers came with us – Chip kept the time and took video of the game, while Jim and Maggie felt like the parental support.  As for the result of the game, well, we at least made it on the score board.  After the game the athletic ones formed a little tournament and played around for another hour or so, and we just hung out outside as much as we could.

After a siesta during the afternoon we freshened up and went to Pizzeria Charlie’s for dinner.  They had a table set up for us outside, with 43 seats in the shape of a giant L.  The waiter went around the entire table, and when he got to the end he joked, “Now my job is done!”  My pizza was delicious and afterwards we went to the girl’s house and made some Sangria.  The whole bunch of us that were in town gathered there for a while, before going to Beer House, where we were greeted with the entire Green Day album. 

The next morning the girls made us French toast and fruit salad – yum!  Then we walked to the soccer field and laid in the sun some more.  We caught the 2:00 train home, and have been catching up on editing pictures and blogging since then.  All this nice weather is really taking a toll on my productivity, but on the flip side I’m getting a lot more Vitamin D. 

Cara Marie

Best Day

Friday was the best day of my life.  I think that pretty much sums it up.  I checked the weather for our region the night before, and it was supposed to be a high of 66 and sunny all day.  My roommates and I decided to bust out the sun dresses.  I chose a bright yellow dress, my favorite one.  I also wore my new bright coral flats from Venice that have flowers on them.  I made the executive decision to leave all jackets at Santa Chiara.  You may think these are irrelevant details, but these choices lead to all my dreams coming true in the form of the best day of my life. 

The plan for Friday included meeting with an architect at a resort she renovated, having lunch cooked by a wonderful chef, and going to a vineyard for a wine tasting.  We took a morning stroll to wear we were meeting our bus, and as we were going downhill all the school kids were walking uphill.  We got some strange looks from pretty much every Italian that walked or drove past us, because they were all bundled up in the 45 degree morning, and we were dressed for a summer pool party.  It was a brisk morning, I’ll admit, but nothing I can’t handle. 

We hopped on the bus, I fell asleep, and when I woke up we were in the most beautiful area I have ever seen.  I thought I had become numb to the breathtaking scenery that surrounds me everywhere I have been in Italy, but this was something else.  We had arrived at Borgo Finocchieto, a place that had once been a village, but has been renovated into an amazing resort.  It is just south of Sienna, about an hour and a half north of Castiglion Fiorentino.  We watched a video on the restoration, and it has an amazing history.  They interviewed a man that lived there from his birth in 1923 until it started collapsing in 1983.  He now lives just down the street and is 88 years old.  In the video we watched, he talked about how there used to be stables on the main level, and about where he lived – in one of the buildings with 60 other people.  The buildings that had once crammed poor Italian farmers into tight spaces are now high class apartments that rent for up to 21,000 euro/week.  And they’re worth it.  Pictures will have to describe what I saw, because everything was so beautiful I can’t put it into words.

When we first met the architect, we were standing outside the main building.  We were listening to her talk about the history and some background on the project, and all of a sudden a fighter jet flew right over our heads!  The manager of the resort, Marco, told us we were close to the Air Force Base, assuming American.  A few minutes later another one flew over head – this one fully armed with missiles on either side.  Sweet!  They must have known we were coming and did a fly over just for us!

We toured the site before going into buildings, and as we stood in the warm sunshine we all agreed we made a wise choice with the dresses.  We saw beautiful views from every part of the site – it sits up on a hill that has a historic castle on it too, so you can imagine how it’s prime real estate.  There were a couple artists with easels out painting the sites.  We walked around the vast green grassy fields, saw the tennis and basketball courts, saw the sleek oval shaped pool that overlooks the valley, and went inside the work-out room (which I would dare to call a complex).  The work-out room was fully stocked with everything you’d need to work off all the delicious Italian food.  The weights are right by the window that overlooks the pool and valley below – I’d work out every day if I had that set up!  We went back into the locker rooms, where they have everything from a hot tub and sauna to a cold plunge and steam room.  Not to mention it is all curvy walls and modern and pretty.

After the tour of the site, we went inside the buildings.  We saw some of the rooms that you can rent out, all looking pretty five-star to me.  There are living rooms and kitchens and studies and big-screen tv’s for the guests.  They kept the original architecture as much as possible, including one of the buildings that was built with rammed-earth walls.  They did some tricks, such as a solid wood beam (that spans much farther than it should) has a steel wide flange inserted into it, hidden into the original design.

Enough of that, next we watched the video I talked about that had the history and some of the restoration process.  After the video we asked the architect some questions, and then it was time for lunch!  They had prepared one long table in the courtyard for us to eat at.  It was on a porch overlooking a fountain, reflection pool and garden area, and all the scenery past that.  We had an antipasta of veggies and cheeses and meats, all in weird combinations with odd sauces and all delicious.  Next we had ragu penne pasta with WILD BOAR meat. Yum.  For dessert they brought out a beautifully presented strawberry shortcake-like thing.  It was like a pound cake, with ice cream in the middle of the cake, strawberries all over the top, whipped cream and a sweet little chocolate spike on top.  I think they used Hershey’s shell syrup to make the little accents.

With all the wine you can drink, you can imagine there were a few spills of the day.  Our professor, Chip, knocked over a wine glass and it shattered – way to go, teach’!  My spill of the day was actually intentional.  I was so thirsty I poured myself a huge glass of water from one of the bottles.  Unfortunately it turned out to be the sparkling water.  I tried to chug it, but all the bubbles were too hard to get down.  I decided to pour it out under the table.  I sneakily made sure everyone around me had picked up their bags, and I lifted our clean white table cloth and slowly poured my glass out, creating a puddle underneath the perfectly set table.  Later that afternoon I did find some red sauce on my white cardigan, no idea how it got there. 

After we stuffed ourselves with the wonderful food, we walked out to the edge of the property and basked in the sun.  Well some people basked.  I chose to frolic around in the surreal atmosphere I was in – we hopped over the string that fenced in the clean cut grass and adventured into the tall grass on the hill.  This was the height of my day.  Of my life.  I was in my favorite dress with my favorite new shoes running through lush green grass in perfect weather at an amazing resort after eating an amazing meal, in Italy.  I even belted out some “Sound of Music” while I was spinning on the hill.  There are plenty of pictures to give you a better idea, and plenty of new profile pics for me!  Unfortunately, we had to snap back to reality and realize that time ticks on, and we had another appointment to make – a wine tasting just down the street.  We all slowly made our way to the bus and said goodbye to paradise. 

We had been told that at the next place we would have to walk about a mile, because the bus can only go so far.  Walking a mile was no big deal, seeing as we walk more than that to get to La Pievuccia, our site for studio.  When we came to a dirt road with a woman flagging us down, we saw the mile we were going to have to walk – all uphill.  We began walking up the hill, and the steeper the incline got the happier I was with my wardrobe choice.  If I had been wearing much more I might have had a heat stroke.  It was still beautiful and wonderful and so awesome, just a little more strenuous than expected.  Didn’t put a damper on the perfect day though, considering the landscape we were walking through.  When we got to the top of the hill the woman, Analise, goes, “Oh, you wish it was this house! Keep going!” So we walked another half mile or so, and finally arrived at her house. 

This was another historical building.  It used to be a monastery, and then a convent, and now is her home and vineyard.  She told us about her history, how her and her husband moved there, looked out at the land and asked, “A fourth child, or wine?”  They chose to plant some grapes and see how it goes.  They struck gold and now produce 4000-5000 bottles each year.  We saw the cellar, and then went in the church that is attached to her house.  The church has enough room for about 30 people, and that would be pushing it.  It’s very small, and still has all the original architecture and even some original furniture.  She told us that she sometimes has a priest come and do Mass, on special occasions such as before and after harvest. 

The wine tasting was very casual, probably because she had 30 college students with her.  We tried one red wine, and it was very good – I think as a whole we bought the rest of her stock for the year.  We all just hung around and talked, and refilled our glasses as much as we wanted.  I was just thrilled that there were saltine crackers and natural water.

After the wine tasting we hiked back down the hill, got on the bus, and I fell asleep until we were pulling into Castiglion Fiorentino.  We took a quick nap before dinner, ate pasta with olives, potato quiche, and even got a blood orange for dessert.  I showered, watched a movie (The American – warning, very confusing and depressing), and now I’m about to hit the sack.

What a perfect day.  Best day ever.  Wish I could relive it.  Saturday we plan to go to Orvieto for a battle between the two schools on the soccer field.  We plan on losing – already accepting it.  In the evening we’ll be wearing our masks and parading around Orvieto for a jolly good time with all the K-State kiddos in Italy. Hoorah!

Cara Marie