Aggiornamento in fretta

Wow.  Seems like all of a sudden I'm super busy all the time.  Which is great, but the blog is starting to suffer a bit.  In honor of soon-to-be-mentioned events, I'm going to do things Nicole Page style (http://nicolestudyablog.blogspot.com/- if anyone's interested in life abroad in Madrid) and list everything I need to catch up on.

 So, in the past few days I:

1) Bought a cute pair of Italian shoes on the oh-so-trendy Via Dell'Indipendenza.  They are grey and blue and purple, therefore matching most of my wardrobe, and after today's test run I can state with confidence that the heels are definitely doable.

2) Took a day trip to Florence and saw Nicole Page, one of my best friends from home and, as mentioned above, my blog rival/role model.  She's been touring the country with a bunch of her friends from Duke, a.k.a the most blonde people I've seen in one place in Italy.  I was there for just enough time to:

• Eat two delicious Italian meals (it's refreshing to eat with people who aren't yet sick of pasta and pizza)
• See Michelangelo's David.  Unlike the Mona Lisa, which I saw with Nicole back in high school and was kind of disappointed by, this was actually greater than I'd expected.  It was huge--much bigger than pictures suggest--and even without the hype, I could tell I was looking at something truly remarkable. 
• Hike up to the Piazzele Michelangelo for the best view of the city--at sunset, of course. You might be thinking that, by this point, I'd be sick of seeing amazing overhead views of Italian cities, but it really never gets old.  
• Convince everyone to skip Florence's branch of Grom and go to a different gelateria on their list instead.  And then wish that we'd gone to Grom.  Still trying to decide how I feel about that being the best gelato I've tasted. 

3) Went to 5th grade and taught English.  Enjoyed being the one who could speak the language fluently for once and realized how grateful I am that I'll never have to learn English. The kids asked me lots of cute questions, such as:

• "Do you like chicken and potatoes?"
• "What are your brothers' names?" (They were really excited that Zack has the same name as a Disney channel character)
• "I like Justin Bieber" 
• "Do you watch X-Files?"
• "How are you?" (this kid seemed to have less vocabulary to work with than the others)

After spending awhile basking in the attention, I helped them with some exercises.  The teacher spoke passable English, and they were working from a book, so I felt like, even as a native speaker, it wasn't my place to question what they were learning.  Still, maybe the various English teachers/enthusiasts who read this can help me out: is "The girl has got brown eyes" correct?  It's definitely a problem when the kids get confused and say "She got brown eyes," but is it otherwise worth mentioning to the teacher?  The other thing I'm worried about is that next week I'm supposed to start teaching from their workbook, which is all about England.  I'm going to have to start studying up on British geography, folklore, and alternative spellings or I have a feeling I'll lose some of my credibility.

4) Finally got my care package from home, which had been stuck in customs for the past few weeks.  Amazingly, mom's meringues tasted better than ever--probably because I've been waiting so impatiently for them to arrive.  A new top, peanut butter, and Aunt Susie Cake-flavored lip balm, among other treats, were also very appreciated.

5) Started my fourth class- a language workshop to help us write and speak academically.  We're reading The Solitude of Prime Numbers, which I read in English this summer and highly recommend, and I'm excited to read it in it's original language and to discuss it in-depth.

Now I must get back to reading for class, but I promise I'll finish my Napoli post soon!

Un Educazione

It's like the difference between seeing a photo of your loved one and actually standing in front of him.

That's how my art history professor, Vera Fortunati, describes the importance of seeing great works of art in person.  Fortunately for us, we live in a city full of such things, and this afternoon we're skipping the classroom entirely and meeting instead at the gallery.  We'll also be taking an overnight trip to Rome later in the semester to see even more.

In archaeology, my one class at UniBo, stranieri outnumber actual Italians, but that works in my favor--Professoressa Porta speaks more slowly than she otherwise would.  We're learning about medieval churches, and our first trip is to Santo Stefano, the chiesa right down the street from our classroom. 

In Italian Cultural History, we're learning about youth culture from the 1950s to today through film, music, and magazine ads.  From the example set by my other professors, I'm half expecting the teacher to bring some "real Italian kids" to class so that we can learn about them first-hand.

Wednesday nights, I head over to Rita's apartment, where she teaches us how to make real Italian food from scratch in true Italian fashion--this means knowing how to properly set a table, using idiomatic expressions, and, of course, rolling your hips alluringingly while flattening out the pasta dough. 

In other words, I'm getting a true Italian education!

Napoli- Prima Parte

This weekend in Napoli felt like my first real travel experience--only two of us instead of a big group, hostels instead of hotels, no itinerary, and a city that was so much more than a tourist destination.  I have so much to say and not much time before class, so I'll focus on the city for now and write more about our excursions to surrounding areas later.

At 1am Thursday night/Friday morning, Speranza and I hopped on a train at Bologna Centrale and arrived 8 hours later to a sunny morning in Napoli.  We transferred over to the metro and got off one stop later in the city's historical center, where we quickly found our hostel, Giovanni's Home, located on the third floor of a residential building.  Before we even had time to wash the train filth off of our sweaty selves, Giovanni sat us down with a map of the city and colorful guide books to help us make the most of our three days.  After giving us a quick run-down on Napoli's history, he highlighted a route through town that would take us past all of the places we'd been hoping to visit, adding in his own suggestions and advising us not to waste our time with others that we had thought might be interesting.  He also put a lot of effort into convincing us that Napoli wasn't as dangerous as a lot of people make it out to be--in his opinion, the presence of the Camorra, Napoli's version of the Mafia, means that organized crime replaces random acts of violence, which would be more likely to affect tourists.  In other words, as long as we stayed away from the areas highlighted in purple on our maps, where we could unintentionally end up in the middle of turf wars, we were actually safer than we would be in other, more petty-crime affected cities such as Rome.  He had a bunch of statistics to back this up, but just to be safe, he showed us a few surveillance videos of pick-pockets so we'd learn how to avoid being victims, and he recommended that we walk around with our money on our person instead of in a purse.

The one place where the Camorra's influence was immediately visible was in the amount of trash everywhere--a lot of their power comes from their control over garbage collection.

After a quick lunch of leftovers from the previous night's cooking class back in Bologna, we headed out to start exploring the city.  The first place we saw was the Cappella Sansevero, home to what Giovanni called the second-most beautiful sculpture in the world, next to Michelangelo's David.  Called the Veiled Christ, it's a portrayal of Jesus after the crucification, covered by a thin piece of cloth.  The entire thing was carved from marble, and his musculature is defined and vivid under the extremely realistic folds of the "material" over him.  Two other sculptures, another which was also veiled and one entwined in a marble net, were fascinating as well.

Napoli was without a doubt the busiest place I've ever been--the whole area consists of Greek ruins buried under Roman ruins buried under a modern-day city, itself covered in trash and graffiti, and over all of which swarm people: little boys kicking soccer balls, old woman hoisting buckets with goods from the street up through their windows, and cars and scooters barreling through streets so narrow that pedestrians are forced to press themselves up against the walls of buildings to avoid being run over. 

We got to check out some of the city's layers in an underground tour. Our tour guide spoke really fast (we, with perhaps a bit too much confidence, chose Italian over English), so I didn't pick up a lot of details, but the gist of it was that we were climbing down to a Greek city that the Romans used as an aqueduct and the WWII-era Italians used as a bomb shelter.  At one point, we used candles to explore unlit passageways that were so narrow, we had to walk sideways, which was slightly panic-inducing, but also really cool.

Greek or Roman quarry, can't remember which.

Exploring underground

According to Giovanni, there are Greek roads like these right underneath our hostel.

Back above ground, the city was still it's bustling self, and I never saw it calm down for a second--until Sunday, that is.  We ventured out in search of some fried pizza, one of Napoli's delicacies, and were surprised to find that absolutely nothing was open.  We were able to cross streets without fearing for our lives, and could walk for blocks without seeing another person.  We peered inside some open windows and realized that everyone was home, watching the Napoli vs Roma soccer match.  Each time Napoli scored a goal, the empty streets would erupt with noise--shouts and cheers bursting out from every building.  It gave us goosebumps.

Coming soon: The best pizza in the world and other local food, climbing Vesuvius, a visit to Capri, and new friends

Sono preparata per la pizza

I think right now I'm stuck in a strange middle place regarding the Italian language--on the one hand, I've been making my way (pretty successfully, I think) through college-level readings for my ECCO courses and taking detailed notes during lectures, but strangely, simple interactions tend to be more difficult for me.  I had to meet with a UniBo professor on Monday to find out if I would be able to take the final exam for her course before leaving Italy, and I left both of us so confused that one of my program advisers had to contact her to sort everything out for me.  Luckily, everything worked out fine, and next Tuesday I start Archeologia dell'Emilia-Romagna in medievo with real Italian university students!  I'm also taking History of Art with ECCO, which starts next Wednesday, and my Italian Cultural History course (anthro credit!), also with ECCO, has already met twice.

So, with everything finally worked out, I'm ready to celebrate the long weekend (no class on Monday for la festa di San Petronio, patron saint of Bologna).  Tonight, I have my first official Italian cooking class, and from there I'm heading straight to the stazione to catch an overnight train to Napoli.  I haven't yet had absolutely incredible pizza in Italy, but from everything I've heard, that's going to change this weekend!

Le Piccole Cose

My courses at ECCO started this week, and next week the UniBo courses begin.  Unfortunately, I still haven't found a course that a) fits into my schedule b) can count towards either my Anthropology or Italian Studies major or c) that I can take the exam for before returning to the states (exam schedules are really weird here--my roommates are all studying for exams from courses they took last semester!)

I'll post my schedule/fun facts about my courses once I work everything out, along with some fun anecdotes about the add/drop process (I'm assuming I'll be able to find the humor in the situation later on).


My silver lining of the day was going over to Liz's room to vent.  She wasn't able to solve my problems for me, but she was able to offer me some of the roasted apples and sweet potatoes that she was about to take out of the oven.  For some reason, sweet potatoes in Italy aren't orange--there's no real way of distinguishing them from regular potatoes until you taste them.  To me, they're the perfect fall food, but I don't think they're very popular here- Liz's roommate tried some and thought they were weird.  She seemed about as confused as our Italian professor was when we tried to explain why American kids love peanut butter and jelly.  I'm not saying I don't love pizza and pasta, but sometimes I think Italians are missing out on variety...

Shakespeare e Svizzera

Updated with better photos!

This Satuday, Liz, Sarah, Gina and I planned on spending the day in Florence.  I was looking forward to see the tons of great art that supposedly causes this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stendhal_syndrome and to celebrating the changing season with the purchase of a new leather jacket.  We decided it would be worth having to wake up early for, and so at 9:30 am made our way to the train station.

Turns out, trains here actually sell out, even if you're willing to stand.  As there wasn't another train to Florence until noon, we walked over to the bus station to find out if there was another way of getting there.  We took a number, deli-style, but by the time the one bus to Florence was about to leave, the window was still about ten numbers behind.  While we waited, we met an older woman from California who's spending the month taking courses in Italy, just like us.  Liz thinks that she might have been her third-grade teacher, but she was too embarrassed to ask.  Anyway, we decided to just buy our tickets on the bus, but for some reason the bus to Florence was the only one on the departures board without a gate number.  We found the capostazione, who informed us that we had been waiting at the wrong window.  The right window, which of course had no line, was where we found out that our bus was still en route from France, and that there was no telling when it would get here.  Knowing Italy as well as we do by now, we understood that we would not be taking a bus to Florence that day.

So, we returned to the train station, but by this point the noon train to Florence had also sold out.  But, there was a train to Verona that would be leaving in a few minutes!  Since we haven't been to many places in Italy and didn't want to return to Forni in defeat, we quickly bought the tickets, validated them, and sprinted to track #3.  Unfortunately, the track was leaving from #3 West, which was nowhere near regular #3, and we missed that train, too.  According to the posted schedule, there wouldn't be another train to Verona for hours.  We went over to customer service to try and exchange our tickets (we would have been able to save them for another day if we hadn't already validated them), where we were informed that there actually would be another train in an hour.  So, we picnicked at the station instead of in a Florence garden, as we had planned, and, two and a half hours later, made it to what was basically Shakespeare Disneyland.

Seriously, Verona owes Shakespeare for all the publicity; their entire tourist industry is based off of his fictional star-crossed lovers.

"Romeo and Juliet's Kisses" were the specialty at this cafè

For ten euros (which we'll get reimbursed for from our program, since Verona's sights count as "cultural activities") we each purchased a "Verona Pass," which granted us admission to almost all of the city's attractions--just like Disney!  There were the standard churches and stadiums, but the main attraction was La Casa di Giulietta, the house of Juliet Capulet.

You're probably thinking: "Wait.  Juliet is a fictional character.  Why would anyone pay a 6 euros admission fee to see what, in that case, is just a house?" Well, admission was included on our Verona Cards, and it did seem like a very nice house.  Plus, a helpful sign informed us that, "While no documentation exists proving that Juliet Capulet actually existed and lived in this house, no documentation exists to disprove it, either." There's also no existing proof that rubbing the right breast of the Juliet statue in the courtyard won't bring you good fortune in love, but you'd better believe we decided to go along with that as well.

Firm!

Juliet's a bit like Santa Claus, in that people like to write her letters

Juliet's balcony

We didn't make it to Juliet's tomb (also fake, of course) before it closed, but we did find the time to experience some actual history.  My favorite part of the day was climbing the bell tower in the middle of the city.

The view from the top was incredible.

Being directly under the bells at the strike of the hour was not so incredible.

There were some really amazing churches

Throughout the day, we started to suspect more and more that something unusual was happening in Verona.

The Swiss flags were our first clue.

This, too, aroused our suspicions.

Turns out, the Swiss had invaded, and were holding some sort of expo.

The costumed participants wandering around made the similarities to Disney even stronger, and they certainly added a fun element to all of the tourist sites.

Sarah had gone back early because she had plans with her roommate, but Liz, Gina and I stayed long enough to grab dinner in town.  We sat down to eat two hours before our train back to Bologna was supposed to leave, and figured that we'd have plenty of time.  Turns out, we'd become more accustomed to the Italian lifestyle than we'd thought, and as we finally left the restaurant to make our way over to the train station, we realized that it was 8:45...and our train was leaving at 9:06.  We sprinted, tried in vain to hail a cab, sprinted some more, hopped on a bus, validated our tickets, and sprinted to our train (which was leaving, of course, from the furthest track), and missed it.  The next one didn't leave until 11:35.  We considered ordering martinis at the station's McDonald's, decided that would be too pathetic, and instead headed back into town to try and kill two hours.  By this time, Verona no longer held any charm for us.  Liz elegantly summed up our feelings as thus: "It's no wonder Romeo and Juliet killed themselves."

We were extra-careful to arrive very early for the next train, since that was our last chance to get home for the night.  We were exhausted, but afraid to fall asleep, since the train's final destination was Lecce, and the last thing we wanted to do was end up back there.  We ended up chatting the entire time with the other people in our compartment: a married couple that had just dropped their 20-year-old son off at college and an older woman who told us all about how, instead of going to college, she had worked in a factory.  She taught us a new hand gesture (hand gestures are an integral part of the Italian language) in which you indicate the different sizes of your fingers to signify that not everyone is equal, and reminded us to thank our parents for paying for us to be in Italy (thanks, guys!).  She also pointed out that, despite having spent three weeks at the beach, we were all bianca come una mozzarella (as white as mozzarella)- a very typical Italian expression that I'd heard of, but was excited to hear actually used in conversation.

Long story short: We made it back safe and sound, slept very late Sunday morning, and are going to spend a lot more time planning the next time we try for Florence.

Alcune fotografie

Me with Berina, la mia compagna di stanza (roommate)

 

New friends

Tower at the center of the city

This is how we work off the gelato

The view from the top

La nostra bella città