Viewing Toscana from the Back of a Horse

Last week has been one of the slower ones. The many sleepless nights of studying paid off as we handed in our final art history exam with mixed emotions; sadness to say goodbye to the wonderful Bankers and relief for having one less class. We are reaching the half way marker of our stay in Italia. It is hard to believe that I have been in this wonderful place for six weeks now! Each day of my stay in Italy has led to new insights about me and the world around me. Prior to coming to Italy, I lived in my small Meredith College bubble, only associating with people who were just like me, but now my bubble has been popped and I am seeing what this world has to offer. When reflecting on everything, I have learned so much in Italy. I have become a much more mature and independent adult with an expanded view of the world. I am now not afraid to try things on my own. All the professors here push us out of our comfort zones and force us to depend on ourselves, rather than our parents or other adults. I am the adult now! One of the most frightening thoughts upon arriving in Italy was the thought of traveling around Europe without an adult. This opinion changed after I learned how to plan my excursion to Florence. I am currently working on my travel plans to visit Switzerland more confidently than ever!

Public speaking is not my forte, and the thought of giving a presentation to a bunch of middle school students sounded oddly terrifying to me. My memories of middle school were ones of humiliation and awkwardness. I reverted back to my middle school self a few seconds before going in front of the class and I constantly remind me that I was “the big kid” coming to talk about my college experience. I found humor in my generalizations about middle school students as I was greeted by the warm, welcoming, curious faces of Mrs. Chiara’s English class. I soon realized that I really was the “cool kid” in their eyes. For our Italy Today Service Learning Project, I gave an English presentation of my life in America and of my favorite activities. I observed the differences between schools in America and schools in Italy. The first thing I noticed when I walked in the classroom was that every two students shared a computer instead of each having his or her own. This made me realize how limited the resources are in the Italian school system. The Italian schools have their curriculum and schedule set up somewhat differently than that in America. Students go to school on Saturdays, but have shorter class hours than American schools. Students also are expected to know many different languages in the Italian school system, unlike the American school system where language is mainly an elective. Once the presentation concluded, the questions were non-stop asking me about my friends, if I drove a car, if I played sports, etc. I explained that we do not walk to places in America as Italians do in Italy, and that most middle class kids in America have their own cars. I flipped through the pictures on my facebook album of my family and friends and of course my pets. The English skills of the middle school children were surprisingly advanced. Animals proved to be the universal mediators. No matter what culture is mentioned in the world, the love of animals is worldwide. The remainder of the class was a discussion about everyone’s pets and what their names were. Right before leaving, the boys of the class had one more question for me. In a mischievous manner, they asked me if I had a boyfriend. This question made my day!

The weekend was greeted warmly by the Ragazze Americane! The celebration of a much deserved break was expected! The local discoteca opened Friday night, which also happened to be Patsy’s birthday! We were all excited to experience this much talked about phenomenon and we were not going to miss out on the fun. We were excited to get dressed up in our best outfits, which was a much needed change from our outfits from the previous day, suggesting that we didn’t have time to shower or change because we were stuck staring at a computer screen the entire night. As Granny Clampit would say, “we all clean up right nice!” We headed over to the disco around 12:30 a.m. because the party doesn’t get started until about 1 in the morning. There was loud techno music pumping from inside and I could see the strobe lights from the door. We walked down the stairs into a scene from a music video. The dancing was combinations of crazy MC Hammer moves, combined with wanna-be Usher impersonator. I was delighted at the absence of the nasty bumping and grinding that takes place in American clubs. This discoteca was much more enjoyable than I thought it would be, but I became deaf once the music started getting louder. The other girls and I had the most fun dancing to Lady Gaga and other exotic techno music that sounded like the beat of an African tribal drum. The strobe lights were disorienting and I felt as though I was in a dream, I would not recommend that an epileptic ever enter into the Scorpione.

The celebration continued Saturday! We were received by the mayor of Sansepolcro in the Town Hall on Saturday morning, when he recognized Meredith College as a part of the community of Sansepolcro. We continued the morning cleaning every crevasse in the palazzo for the night’s open house celebrating Meredith’s one year anniversary in the Palazzo Alberti. Many guest showed up to visit the palazzo and to see what Meredith was doing here in Italy. The guests were provided with a tour of the Palazzo, including the banquet room which is rarely opened. The room contains a famous fresco by Cherubino Alberti. To our great pleasure, our new friend Fabrizio, the wonderful café owner, showed up to greet everyone and to bring us flowers as a congratulations gift.  Fabrizio has been such a blessing to all of us here in the palazzo; he constantly helps us with our Italian and not to mention his wonderful coffee that helps us survive all those long nights of studying. Out of all the cafes in town, his seems to be the most authentic and the most welcoming. There is always a crowd standing around the bar and there is rarely an empty table outside under the awning.

No matter where I go in Sansepolcro I always find such pleasant people. Today I went to a horse stable with Patsy where she volunteers. While visiting the barn I ended up helping with the horses and eventually, I got to ride. The owner of the barn, Chiara is very sweet and a very talented jockey! I met several people at the barn who forced me to practice my Italian! I love how laid back the Italian businesses are compared to businesses in the United States. I was able to help out and pet the horses without a lot of fuss or opposition; the general mood of this barn was very pleasant. One very sweet man, who boarded his horse Penelope at this barn, asked me to ride her on the trail ride for him. She was a black trotter with a chestnut undertone. Once all the horses were tacked up, we headed out onto the trail, which wasn’t what I was used to at all. The “trail” consisted of many roadsides and public roads that cars were sharing with us. There were many narrow paths that wound through the woods going straight uphill or down a steep rocky road. Much like the people, the horses here in Italy have to be in much better shape than the horses in America if they have to walk up and down terrain as extreme as I rode today. Although the trails were tough, the views were amazing; scenes that make a beautiful postcard look mediocre. There were mountains, fields that stretched on forever, vineyards lined with the classic Toscan trees, and stucco houses with beautiful roofs. Penelope was a great trail companion, and I found out that she is four months pregnant with a foal. My experience riding was great, and the kindness that I have found in Sansepolcro really speaks highly of the Italians’ generosity and of their welcoming attitude.

I’m On a Boat…In Venice!!

A realist, in Venice, would become a romantic by mere faithfulness to what he saw before him. Arthur Symons

       Wisps of salty breezes and  beauty unsurpassed describe Venice. It is almost too good to be true how can an ancient city could have been built in the middle of a body of water, maybe that is the romance in itself, the imagined becoming one of the wonders of the world. Stepping out of the train station was a view from a post card, gondolas floating along the Grand Canal under ancient bridges that Casanova would have waltzed along. Upon our arrival, the 4 o’clock sun was reflecting off of the water making it sparkle; the enchantment of the Venice really became apparent.

       This past week, my parents came to see me and to travel around Europe. This was their first time ever coming to Europe and I had the pleasure of showing them around the Palazzo and Sansepolcro (both of which they thought to be amazing). I felt like a proud parent showing everyone where I lived and the beautiful town that I have had the privilege of calling home in the past month. I took them to many of the local restaurants around Sansepolcro and showed them where the good shopping was( wherein my mom and Corey took advantage of this opportunity). Watching my brother try to order entrées that only exist at Olive Garden really made me laugh! I was able to teach my family about life in Italy and how the cultures were different. My family was able to join our art history class on an excursion to Assisi with the Bankers as our personal “tour guides.” My parents were able to see how interactive the program really is and The Bankers assured that my family wasn’t left out of the academic discussion! In Assisi we saw the Basilica of St. Francis (whose sainthood celebration was on my birthday October 4^th.) Assisi resembled the small charming town in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, complete with a Fortress on a hill that looked like a castle. The limestone walls had ivy running down the side and there were flowers of colors in every window seal. The best pictures were the alley ways with winding cobble stone paths.  We all sat on the elevated wall outside the Basilica, while the Bankers gave a short lecture on the history and significance of the much loved St. Francis. He was founder of the Franciscan Order of monks and was born in Assisi, in 1181. St. Francis was really the first hippie; he was one with nature, he lived like a peasant, and his most used aphorisms were peace and love. Francis was best known for his commitment to helping the poor and living a simple life himself. I think the world has a lesson to learn from St. Francis and his example of generosity and lack of any materialistic desire.

       After returning from Assisi on Wednesday, the next excursion to look forward to was Venezia! My family, Patsy, and I all left early on Friday morning for Venice. Many modes of transportation later we arrived in the world’s only floating city. Our first full view of the city was from a water taxi winding through the Grand Canal. The concept of having to take a boat to get where we were going was quite amusing. Our final destination was the Grand Hotel Jolanda di Savoia. The term “princess for a weekend” was rather fitting considering the experience we were blessed to have during our stay in Venice. Our room looked like a guest room that would have belonged in Versailles. Patsy and I explored the Square around our hotel, browsing the tacky tourist stands with random assortments of masks and I love Venezia t-shirts. On Friday night we ate at the restaurant in the hotel which won the award for the best desert I have had so far in Venice: A fabulous banana split with real ice cream! We walked on the street-lamp-lit boardwalk towards Piazza San Marco. The best surprise of the trip started with a melodious sound from a string quartet that was playing music from the Titanic. They were situated under the barrel vaulted ceiling of the open-air Gran Caffè Quadri across from the Ducale Palace. I used to play the violin so I have a special fondness for strings. Drawn into the café like a moth to a flame, we sat down and became entranced by the sheer display of emotion and talent combined to create fine art for the ears. This level of performance and ability is normal found in the Trans-Siberian ocrastra and here we were listening to it for free. A small crowd gathered around the café and eventually many people were out of their seats dancing to the Italian classic “Volare!” It was one of those perfect scenes from a movie complete with a soundtrack of a “Lovely Bella Notte!” 

       The sun was coming up over the water, and the view from our window called us into the streets of Venezia.  The hotel arrange a “free” excursion to tour a glass factory, or more likely “we will give you a free tour so you can come look at stuff only celebrities can afford!” The factory no doubt was amazing! We saw an artisan create a glass sculpture of a horse with ease, faster than an Olympic runner can finish a mile! We were taken to a showroom where glass was on display some to be shipped to Tiffany’s and other wealthy clients. I looked at the price of a beautiful horse statue and it was about the same price as Meredith’s tuition! After the escape from the relentless salesman we continued on to the San Marco Square and took our picture with all the pigeons. The San Marco Square houses the oddly leaning clock tower and the Basilica San Marco, the most beautiful and ornate church I have seen so far in Italy!  Next was the Guggenheim Collection where Picasso’s works were held. Wake Forest has a palazzo right beside the Guggenheim; those students seem to have such a hard life! To be perfectly honest getting lost was my favorite part of my Venezia experience. Only then did I take time to stop and observe the people around me and how different life is in Sansepolcro compared to Venice. This was the largest variety of people I have seen yet in Italy because most of the people in Venice are tourists. I observed the clashing of some cultural ideals while waiting in line to enter a popular restaurant near the Rialto Bridge called The Trattoria alla Madonna. Americans and British are very aware of the  social “cue” to wait your turn when in a line, but some of the Italians were oblivious to the meaning of a line and just walked right into the restaurant and asked to be seated. The humorous melt-down reaction of one British lady made the longer wait worth the while!

       I will always remember the weekend I spent with my parents in Venice. My birthday was so much fun being celebrated in Italy with the people I love! My parents surprised me on Saturday night by having the whole entire restaurant sing to me in their best broken English! After turning purple from embarrassment, I enjoyed my chocolate cake! Everyone here in the palazzo made my birthday special as well! Fellow birthday girl Margarita cooked a beautiful lunch as usual and John Rose made a birthday toast! On Monday night going to the Compass Rose with everyone for my favorite cheese burger was one of the best birthdays ever! The trend of having the restaurant sing to me continued! All the presents I received were lovely and I felt so appreciative to have spent my birthday with such wonderful people!

What Will Happen Next?

       Time is flying here in Sansepolcro and I am trying to grasp every minute of it. The evidence of fall is becoming clear as the colder winds blow in and the trees are being to change color. Even though I will be missing my annual autumn trek to the North Carolina mountains to see the leaves, somehow I feel as though these Tuscan hills will be just as beautiful. The kids are beginning to go back to school and class here in the Palazzo is in full swing complete with midterms, papers, and homework. With all this school work, my daily escape is to venture across the street to Café Gerasmos and order a grande café latte with lots of sugar!

      Daily life in Sansepolcro feels like hometown living. I walk down the familiar streets and wave to the various people I have come to know since arriving in Sansepolcro: Andrea, Stella, Sara, Elena, and several others. It has only been four weeks but those weeks have felt like a lifetime now. I have become a lot more confident in my Italian and more aware of how things work in Italian life. Now, I walk into a café order what I want and continue on. Compare that to my first week in Sansepolcro where confusion was a consistent state of being and the change is apparent!  I am reminded constantly that I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world, and I make an effort to enjoy being outside as much as possible.  Staying inside is such a waste of time when the weather is gorgeous! A few times I have taken a bicycle out to ride around town down the back alley ways. In these secret nukes and crannies the hidden treasures of Sansepolcro are found, things that cannot be found anywhere else.  An open window pouring out a pleasant smell of freshly baked bread is around the corner, beside the quirky doors and windows that don’t match anything else on the building, and the friendly dog comes near looking for a friendly rub. Last week, John Rose held a very interesting English conversational session for the locals. We were invited to attend and contribute to the conversation. I realized that my own English is constantly being tweaked by him in conversation and by Dr. Webb in writing, so by the time I leave Sansepolcro I will indeed have a much fuller knowledge of Italian and proper English.

       Everything in Italy seems to be a little more formal than America, especially the way of dress. I rarely see an Italian in sweat pants and a t-shirt. The most common sight is a well dressed woman in form-fitting pants a button-down shirt and high heels. Only in Italy have I seen the “man purse,” a high-fashion bag that is usually worn as a sling across the body. The common fashion-forward styles for men seen on the streets of Sansepolcro are a high contrast to the khaki shorts and sporting event t-shirt that are worn by the average American college male. Finger foods are also a foreign concept to the Italians who always eat with a fork and knife even French fries. When not standing on ceremony I like to kick back and relax by listening to my grammatically incorrect American beach music. Listening to Jimmy Buffet belt out, “Cheeseburger in paradise, medium rare with mustard be nice!” certainly made me start craving a “huge hunk of meat!” The only problem was that I wasn’t exactly on the familiar beachside where I could obtain one in just about every restaurant on the causeway: I was in Italy! After searching the town for a decent piece of American cuisine we finally struck gold at the local Irish pub, the Compass Rose. We could hardly wait to get our hands on the golden burger complete with a real bun with seeds! We learned quickly that Italians don’t drown their food in sauce and condiments the way most of us do in America. The plate only came with one packet of ketchup for fries and a burger! I am making a trip this week to PAM, the local grocery store, to buy my own bottle of Heinz 57!

        On Saturday morning the group got up early for another excursion with the Bankers.  A one hour and thirty minute journey over the mountain and through many small country towns brought us to Urbino a famous Renaissance university town in the north-eastern part of central Italy! The road to Urbino was a winding route on the side of the Alps with a bonus of a panoramic view of Tuscany at its finest in the fresh mountain fog. Urbino is a walled city nestled on a sloping hillside. The University of Urbino was founded in 1506 and has about 22,000 students and is known for its humanistic studies. The Bankers specifically chose Urbino for our excursion primarily for its beauty and secondly for its classical style architecture. The Ducal Palace was the main sight we were interested in viewing. The Palazzo Ducale was built in the 15^th century by Federico II da Montefeltro. The palace designs reflect Federico's devotion to classical and humanistic studies. The palace is home to the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche which houses famous Renaissance pieces by Raphael, Piero della Francesca, and Viti. The palace had many interesting things that I never realized a palazzo would have. The stairs to the entry way were very flat and spaced out, this being for horses to come up the stairs and into the palace as the rider pleased. Oddly enough the most interesting thing to me was the bathroom and the water filtering system which I thought was very advanced for the time period in which the Palazzo was built. Urbino is now an elegant city full of culture and many different kinds of young people. While we were there we saw two weddings going on, and thus two happy couples starting their life together in a beautiful city!

       This week I am looking forward to my family coming to Italy! It will be their first trip across the pond and they will be staying in Sansepolcro for a week! Patsy and I are looking forward to traveling to Venice with them while they are here. I have learned new lessons every week and each week I become more comfortable and confident in my abilities as a world traveler. I wonder what will happen next?

A Walk Through History, Good Shopping, and Art Museums Galore

          This past weekend, I had the privilege of traveling to Florence, The most famous artisan city in the world. We finished classes on Friday around 10:30 and left for the train station in Arezzo. This was my first time ever traveling by train, and it was about what I thought it would be. The train is an interesting specimen of culture because one can see just about every type of person aboard. There is the Italian business man yelling into his phone, the excited backpacker waiting to get off at the next stop, and loud schoolchildren bantering back and forth about their latest crush. The train brought excitement of leaving behind school work and normal everyday life in pursuit of a new destination: Florence. I have traveled to Florence before but it was when I was younger and I was with a set program with no freedom to see what I desired. Upon arriving in the Santa Maria Novella Train Station, It was very apparent that we were not in small quiet Sansepolcro anymore. The crowds were enormous and the tourist piled in by the train loads to come see the famous culture-drenched Firenze.

      We left the train station and started our very long trek to our hotel all the way across the city. After fighting crowds, almost getting run over, and being distracted by every store and restraint that we wanted to go to we finally made it to our hotel. We spent our two nights in Florence in a very beautiful old convent (which most of the Meredith girls are used to anyway). We were on our own in Florence to make our own plans. This first excursion was a great way to get independent travel experience. I learned that smaller groups are easier to travel with for reasons of keeping up with everyone and making plans of what everyone wants to do. My group (Meredith Hyatt, Emily Melton, and Patsy McQuaid) was very successful in doing what everyone wanted to do plus a few things.  We went with a general plan of what we wanted to see then went with the flow based on what everyone felt like doing. Firenze is the keeper of the world’s most precious paintings and artifacts from the Renaissance. With such a great honor, Florence has become the Mecca of art lovers, history buffs, and culture seekers alike. Student passes, that we purchased at the Uffizi, enabled us to skip the long lines to see most of these famous pieces of history. On Friday after resting from the long journey, we went to the Palazzo Pitti. The Palazzo Pitti is a palace that was built in the second half of the 15th century by Filippo Brunelleschi for Luca Pitti. The palace was later sold to and used by the Medici family as their main residence. The palace is now a museum of art and other artifacts of the Medici family. The palace was beautiful, especially the architecture which was a classical roman style. All of the buildings and palazzos in Florence were absolutely phenomenal, still standing as they were in the 15^th century. As Fanny Burney put it “Traveling is the ruin of all happiness! There's no looking at a building after seeing Italy.”

       We continued our sightseeing adventure early on Saturday morning, starting with the Uffizi. This was by far my favorite museum because of the vast number of diverse pieces ranging from the early middle ages to the late renaissance and later. The emergence of the Renaissance was visible through the progression in style from the religious two dimensional medieval altarpieces of Giotto to the realistic neoclassical pagan reversions of Botticelli. I was excited to be able to view Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus and La Primavera. These famous paintings are main attractions that everyone comes to see. Although I have viewed the Birth of Venus many times in a book or on a poster, seeing it up close made me in awe of the Venus’s grace and the beauty of the pastel water against her glowing pale skin. I also noticed things about many paintings that I had never noticed when looking at them in a book. Behind Venus there are white horses running along the shore. After venturing through the many galleries at the Uffizi I felt like a distinguished and cultured scholar of art. To give our brains a rest from intensely analyzing priceless paintings we found the market of San Lorenzo and did some shopping. Firenze is famous for the leather market of San Lorenzo. I learned how bartering works in a market when purchased a leather jacket from a vendor. I felt accomplished as I left the market with my jacket that I have always wanted for a price much lower than I had originally planned to pay. My leather jacket and I spent the rest of the day bonding as it went everywhere around Firenze with me.

       After getting a pizza with pepperonis (which is rare in Italy) we decided to go burn it off by climbing the 467 stairs to the top of the Duomo. The hike up was exhausting but the view at the top was a beautiful panoramic view of the city. I meet a few new friends at the top of the Duomo who went to Stanford and were studying in Switzerland. After climbing the Duomo we headed over to the famous political Piazza della Signoria where the most activity is found in Florence. In the piazza there are several magnificent sculptures and statues such as the “Perseus with the Head of Medusa” by Cellini. After taking pictures, we got gelato at a very nice gelateria where I made the mistake of ordering a medium cone that was much larger than what I imagine a “medium” cone to be.  I became a “woman vs. food” attraction in the square when as I took on the huge cone, a few people stared at me while others cheered me on, it was quite a hilarious sight! A huge storm came out of nowhere and the crowds began to disperse, so we ended up going to the Borgello just down the street.  I felt scandalous upon entering having never seen so many naked people (sculptures) in my life! There is something about a sculpture that is just capturing; it is not a flat painting but a 3D figure that appears to be a living piece of marble. The highlight of the Bargello is Donatello’s David which is a more feminine boyish version of David than Michelangelo’s David. Donatello’s David almost poses in a sassy stance with one hand on hip and a big sword in the other hand.

       We ended our last day in Florence by going to the Galleria Accademia and the Museo Archeologicp. Viewing the David for a second time since my last trip to Florence was as glorious as the first time I saw him. The rippling muscles and the tall 17 foot confident stance is what make David my favorite masterpiece. Michelangelo represents the raw strength of God’s power through the strong powerful hands of David. After standing in awe for about thirty minutes we left the Accademia and went to the Museo Archeologico. To my surprise I actually enjoyed the museum especially the morbid mummies. The Egyptian artifacts were some of the exact ones that I had seen in National Geographic Magazine. We headed to the train station and caught a train back to Arezzo. We were ready to get back to Sansepolcro on the 6:30 bus, which turned out to be non-existent. We were stuck in Arezzo for 3 hours so we ended up eating at an Italian Chinese place.  The experience was interesting but we were ready to get back to our familiar Sansepolcro.  My first independent travel weekend was educational and fun, and I am learning more and more with each new experience.

Changes In Latitudes , Changes In Attitudes

       According to Jawaharlal Nehru, “Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.” This past week in Sansepolcro consisted of just that, the widening of my mind through new discoveries and new life lessons that are priceless. My previous trip to Italy was strictly from a tourist point of view; I went to the touristy spots and only saw what most people define to be “Italia.” I fell in love with Italia back then when I threw a coin over my left shoulder into the Trevi Fountain hoping to return to Rome as the legend suggests. Consequently here I am back in Italy scheduled to return to Roma shortly.  I have returned to Italy not as a tourist but as a student, ready to live in Italy not just visit.

       Prior to coming to Italy I had never heard of Sansepolcro and wondered why this location was chosen for us to spend an entire semester. Sansepolcro is famous for its beautiful art museum called Museo Civico. Sansepolcro is also known for being the hometown of the famous Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca many of whose paintings hang in this museum. Some of the greatest opportunities of study abroad are now available to me in Sansepolcro. By walking outside, my textbooks come alive from the pages. My art history professors, The Bankers, refuse to let us just look at the Madonna della Misericordia by Piero in the book, they insist that we view how rich a gold the background is compared to the ultramarine of Mary’s cloak.  When viewing The Resurrection also by Piero, a feeling of triumph is aroused as I view Christ stepping out of his tomb defeating death while the sleeping soldiers lie at his feet. It is one thing to look at some fresco on the wall in a museum but it is quite another thing to experience and analyze it, to go deeper into the meaning of what the artist was thinking when he painted such a picture.

        The Bankers have a quote for art history class that has become my motto for this whole study abroad experience, “You cannot know without seeing and you cannot see without knowing.” They use this to explain the artwork, meaning that you cannot know the picture fully until you have experienced it and you cannot experience the picture standing in front of it if you do not know about it. To me this explains how we learn and define who we are in the world around us. We think we know about ourselves and our culture through others’ descriptions, the media, and from living in the US, but we cannot fully understand our own culture. It is not until we leave the US and take a good look at ourselves from a different lense that we understand what we are really like compared to the rest of the world. I have been learning about myself and about being an American. It is funny to sit in the café and play the game, “lets see if we can pick out the American tourist.” No doubt we are usually successful in picking out the “I look like I am going to climb Mount Everest” back packer or the “let’s try to fit in as much as possible but fail” tourist. Getting to take on a different lifestyle than the one I left in America has been such an interesting opportunity. I have been meeting several people during my time in Sansepolcro, people from all different nationalities. In one evening I met two Australians named Josh and Nick, a Norwegian girl named Julie, and several other Italian guys and girls. From talking to so many different people I realize how large the world is but how people in general are so much alike. Some of the best learning experiences have come from the mistakes I have made in trying to figure out this new culture. I have learned that Italians do not typically drink milk with shots of espresso and that eating pizza with your hands is just as bad as not eating with your mouth closed. Trying to order marinara dipping sauce (which doesn’t exist in Italy) looked like a skit from SNL. Limited vocabulary and lack of knowledge for what is normal resulted in a huge bowl of cold tomato sauce in the middle of our table accompanied by confused stares. Maybe eventually I can go somewhere and not so easily pass as an American.

      Upon my return to Italy I have been able to see things that I would never see in the USA or even in the touristy spots in Italy. Sansepolcro was bombarded last week by men in tights parading around with big sticks and instruments, and it has been very enjoyable. Meredith students were asked to participate in the annual festival in Sansepolcro called the Palio de Balestra. The Balestra is a weeklong medieval festival with traditions that date back to the14^th century. The events, which include an opening ceremony, a sbandieratori flag presentation and a local cross bow tournament (between Porta Romana and Porta Fiorentina which are the two parts of Sansepolcro) all lead up to one final crossbow tournament between Sansepolcro and Gubbio. The Balestra dates back to 1594 and was started as a means of practicing and refining crossbow archery. The result of the competitive Balestra produced protectors of the town with great aim and a dangerous weapon. The people of Sansepolcro still take this local tradition very seriously. I was able to experience the tradition first hand as a maiden dressed up on the sidelines of the opening ceremony. Each one of us was given a renaissance style gown and matching doughnut-looking hats to match. I was given a red velvet skirt with a dark blue velvet off the shoulder blouse to match; a costume to make any renaissance fair junkie excited. All the costumes were beautiful and each one of them varied in style. Everyone was ready to shed their costume after parading all around the town twice behind the drummers and the flag carriers. The parading and cheering became a daily phenomenon last week in Sansepolcro. The girls became particularly fond of the flag boys, who were very good looking and talented. We hope to acquire lessons on how to twirl flags properly from them.

       My overall experience in Sansepolcro has been a wonderful one, full of learning opportunities and excitement, but it hasn’t been a walk in the park. My classes here are just as hard if not more difficult than the ones at Meredith: learning a new language with no background experience as well as adjusting to a new way of living have not been easy. The good moments have definitely outweighed the difficult moments, and growth only comes from being moved outside of my comfort zone. I look forward to seeing how I will grow over the next semester.

 Ciao,

Meredith

First Week In Sansepolcro

I have finally arrived in Sansepolcro and my journey has begun as I explore Italia and all it has to offer. It all came very quickly, and now in the blink of an eye I have arrived and started classes. My first week here has been quite an experience; I’m already getting a great taste of the culture. I have learned so much in just one week, it doesn’t seem real yet that I am living in the middle of a medieval renaissance town. The same Palazzo that stood in the 16th century has become my new home for the next three months. My favorite part about the Palazzo is the beautiful windows that look out into the busy street where life is very apparent. Some of the most fun we have had in the palazzo was scoping out the Italian boys from the third story window. Needless to say the whole event was very entertaining and we had a good laugh.

Each day I look forward to seeing what Margarita has cooked for lunch and to see what surprise guest will show up. I am very interested in getting to know all the many characters that make up the colorful town of Sansepolcro. I have already been introduced to many charming people through Dr. Webb and John Rose (who knows everyone in town.) One cannot experience authentic Italia more than living in the heart of Sansepolcro, waking up to the very loud sound of lively Italians arguing with each other under the windows while shouting out their animated greetings as they pass one another in the streets. Flowers on the rooftops, stone archways, and cobble stone streets are just a few views in Italia that remind me that I am not in North Carolina anymore. Each stone wall and building that have been eroded away to reveal the bricks underneath all tell a tale of days past. Italians really know the meaning of “taking time to stop and smell the roses.” Life here in Italy is defiantly much slower than life in Raleigh. One of my favorite things to do with my newly made friends has been to go sit in the quaint little café across the street and people watch while doing homework. There have been some very interesting moments here in Italia that have made me very aware that I am now the “American.” An interesting incident was in a shop, we were trying to ask for an agenda in Italian. Our efforts to communicate with the very sweet but confused woman were eventually successful after resorting to drawing pictures and acting it out. The saleswoman finally figured out what we wanted, an “agenda,” which is the same word in Italian as it was in English.

So far classes have been challenging like the classes at Meredith. The smaller class size is very pleasant and the location of our classrooms right under us is convenient. John Rose and Dr. Webb have become our connection to life in Sansepolcro by showing us the town and everything in it. The learning here goes beyond the classroom. Stepping outside is a learning experience in itself. The learning happens while experiencing the culture and different ways of life from that in America. Learning Italian is much more interactive when trying to order a cappuccino in Italian versus just reading about it in a book. The girls and I have noticed that the Italian people are night owls, the party doesn’t even start until around 10 when the streets become crowded with young people and old people alike. Adults with their children are out in the street eating gelato and socializing in the cafes and bars. Although small, Sansepolcro has a hopping night life with hundreds of people lining the streets out until the wee hours of the morning. The Italians have the same schedule as a college student of staying up late and taking a nap during the day. During the afternoon there is a down period or siesta. Shops and businesses close for a while in the afternoon from 1 until about 4. During this break Italians eat their largest meal of the day and take a nap or just socialize with friends and family. As mentioned before, one of my favorite things about the afternoon is just sitting and talking to people, which is a foreign concept to us Americans who “eat and run” to the next thing on our ridiculous check list.

Young people here in Sansepolcro hang out and socialize just like people our age do in the US. I cannot wait until I get to meet some more people our age but the language barrier is a bit of a deterrent for the moment. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the girls on the trip with me, we have all bonded instantly and have already made some great memories and laughs. Our favorite past times here in Italy include going to get gelato and going for strolls in the lively streets. We all bonded immediately in the airport in Rome as we all worked together to find our way through the airport and to not get lost. I know there will be many more memories to come considering it is only the first week. My goal is to soak in every moment of life in Sansepolcro because I know my time here will fly by very fast. Oh yes, Note to self: never order another banana cappuccino! Ewww!

Arrivederci,

Meredith Cox