Allora, what a week.
Ciao everybody, I’ve been trying to find a moment to sit
down, write, upload pictures, and get my blog going. I find myself now in a café overlooking the
river, sipping cappuccino, asking in apologetic English what the wifi password
is, trying to get myself together on here.
Today (Monday, Sept. 5th) was the first day of classes, and my first day of my
Italian language class. From tonight on,
I’ll have no excuse for why I don’t even have basic Italian conversation
skills.** Generally, before I have the
chance to look up a word I don’t know, I am already being spoken to in English
by the Italian I am speaking to. While
this is helpful, I do feel guilty about it.
I wish that I had prepared myself better in knowing the basics… beyond
“ciao” and “gracie”… knowing how to order myself a cappuccino or a panini
without apologizing for a lack of linguistic knowledge would have been a better
foot to start off my semester on.
(**The “Fast Talk
Italian” that follows me around in my bag – barely opened - reminds me that I
really didn’t have an excuse before the first day of classes, either.)
As for the way my semester did begin, here’s a recap of my week.
We landed in Florence on Sunday afternoon, the 29th. From the airport, we were taken straight to a
hotel on the outskirts of Florence, where we attended several orientation
meetings and spent the night. By the
next evening, Monday the 30th, Ann-Margaret (my migliore amica and roommate) and I were moving into our apartment
and exploring the city for dinner. With
the following day, the 31st, came more orientation at Florence
University of the Arts, where we’ll be attending classes this semester. Dinner with friends in a neighboring
apartment and gelato at a previous favorite… Gelateria dei Neri… ended our
night.
We woke up early the next morning, Thursday, September 1st
to get on a bus with the entirety of our abroad program and head off to
Perugia, Italy. Perugia was
beautiful. A smaller city than Florence,
it was so walkable, felt quaint and safe, and was still home to gorgeous
architecture and amazing views. After a
tour of the city we stopped into the Perugina Chocolote Factory for some
demonstrations, a tour, and LOTS of tasting.
The factory is most famous for the “Baci” candy, which means “Kisses” in
Italian (it looks similar to a Hershey kiss, actually, with its silver wrapping
and triangular shape- but in my opinion it’s way better than a Hershey kiss…yum).
After staying the night in Perugia, we made our way to
Assisi, Italy on Friday, September 2nd. Assisi is a historic town and has some of the
most beautiful and ornate churches I’ve ever seen. Assisi is the home of St. Francis, who
founded the Franciscan order of friars. The Franciscans have a similar history
and mission to the Dominican order (by whom Providence College was founded), so
I found the connection to be interesting and familiar. We toured three beautiful basilicas, first, the
Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli.
Next, the Basilica
di Santa Chiara, or Saint Clare, who was the first female Franciscan
follower.
Lastly, we toured the Basilica Papale di si San Francesco
d'Assisi, which is a two story church situated above the Franciscan
monastery in Assisi.
Each church contained beautiful
architecture and detail. No pictures
were allowed inside of the churches, but grand archways, ornate wooden carvings,
detailed mosaic floors, and massive frescos were so abundant that it was hard
to see and appreciate everything. It was hard to fathom the amount of time and
attention to detail it must have taken to construct these buildings especially
centuries ago when the technology we have today didn’t exist.
We arrived home on Friday night,
exhausted from the excursion.
On the morning of Sunday,
September 4th, I woke up around 4:30am and found my way to the train
station with three friends. By quarter
to six I was drinking an americano coffee from the Florence train station
McDonalds (sorry, Italy!) and waiting to board the train to Cinque Terre.
Cinque Terre, (sounds
like “chinkwa tarray,” yet we have trouble making it sound just right in our
American accents…) is a region on the western coast of Italy, about a two and a
half hour train ride northwest of Florence.
In English, Cinque Terre means “five lands,” because it comprises five
small coastal towns: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia,Manarola, and Riomaggiore. We started the day off with a hike from
Vernazza to Monterosso, and all I can say is I didn’t know what exactly I was
in for. The hike was pretty strenuous
with lots of uphill steps, narrow passings, and uneven stone walkways. The way we went seemed to be the less strenuous
way to go, we ended up doing more downhill steps than uphill, but the views
along the way made every step worth it. (Reaching more than double my Fitbit step goal
on my first day wearing my new Fitbit
also made every step…over 20,000 in the whole day… worth it. Hurray!!) We landed at the beach in Monterosso and
celebrated our feat in the gorgeous Ligurian sea.
Cinque was so beautiful that I’m heading back on Friday with
a different group of friends. No classes on Fridays this semester makes every
weekend a three-day weekend…and we can’t wait to use every minute to travel and
explore.
Thank you for reading, I’ll be back soon with more of my
adventures.
To see even more pictures, stop by my "photo gallery" here on the blog!
Baci!
