Caving in Parrano

Wednesday the 30th, our class went to Parrano, to the Tane del Diavolo (click on the name to see a Youtube video of a group (not ours) going into the caves) - a set of caves set in cliffs where ancient peoples used to go for shelter, to quarry stone, and to hold religious rituals. It was amazing. We were guided by three guides, Andrea and Francesca (who were on the dig site - it's the same Andrea that was my trench leader) and another guy whose name I can't remember. We harnessed up, and had to clip into steel cables with 2 foot ropes so that if we slipped we wouldn't fall down the cliffs. It was really safe, though. There were metal rods and steps driven into the sides of the cliff on the harder parts, and trails (though narrow) on the easier parts. We went into a small cliff first, then into the actual Tane del Diavolo, which was a long cave with narrow parts where we had to drag ourselves through, and with slippery mud that got all over our clothes. The last thing that we got to do was go through a "birth and rebirth canal", which was a narrow, hairpin curve around some rocks, with slippery mud, a sharp incline, and almost no handholds. Katie and Xenn went before me, and in the end Xenn had to pull me up a few inches because I kept slipping and couldn't find any holds. It was worth it though, just for the feeling of accomplishment. We had lunch outside the caves, and drove back to spend the afternoon at home. Most of us slept or just relaxed after our showers- we were all so dirty and sore and tired, no one wanted to go out. My legs are still sore today - it's been making stairs an admirable feat to overcome. Again, though, completely worth it. Tomorrow we're going to a necropolis nearby - more out-in-the-country time! The weather's been beautiful, so I'm sure it'll be fun.

The epic tale of Venice and Milan (abridged)

Well, as usual, a lot has happened lately. Last weekend was a three-day weekend, so I went to Venice and Milan with my friends Xenn and Katie. Venice was absolutely beautiful, and just plain old. Everything about it announced that it had been around for ages, and had seen more than its share of history. Getting to the city was exciting. We got on our first train, and misunderstood when the last stop was, so when the train started moving back to where we'd come from, we were more than a little worried. It ended up being a short mistake, though. We got off ont the first stop we got to and got on the next train, which came in 15 minutes, then got off at the right stop and were back on track. 3 train changes, 2 hour-long layovers, and a LOT of confusion later, we arrived in Venice at 5:30 pm, after picking up our first train at 6:15 that morning. Yes, we spent all day on trains. We walked around Venice a little bit, originally looking for a restaurant that was recommended in my Italy for Dummies book, called Trattoria della Madonna. However, we got to the restaurant at 6:20 and it didn't open until 7, so we had some time to kill, which we used perusing the nearby tourist stands. We went back to the restaurant early, about 6:50 (we were starving), and it's a good thing we did. The restaurant was already almost full already - apparently they had decided to open early due to demand. We finished off the free bread and the appetizer of fresh crab quickly (norhern Italy is known for its seafood, even more so than the rest of Italy, so we had to try some). It was amazing - the crab was absolutely perfect. We all got seafood entrees too - Katie got fish soup alla Venezia, Xenn got a whole lobster, and I got what was basically an eel steak. It was absolutely delicious. We all sampled each others food, and there was nothing that was even remotely sub-par. The meal was expensive, but we were in Venice, we'd just spent all day on trains... we figured we deserved it. Our hotel was in a nearby town, so after dinner we caught a train and went to the hotel, which was fortunately around the corner and a couple blocks away from the train station. We were exhausted. Katie and I went to sleep right after our showers, but I think Xenn stayed up and walked around for a while. The next day we ditched our original plan of spending half the day in Venice and half in Verona and just spent the day in Venice. We went shopping for masks, cloaks, hats, Murano glass - all the things Venice is known for. We didn't even see any museums or anything - we were all about museum-ed out.

We weren't done until the evening anyway, so we caught an evening train to Milan and decided to go straight to our hotel there to drop off our bags before dinner. Unfortunately, we had no idea how to get around Milan, so we ended up calling a cab and driving to our hotel. We got dinner a few blocks away at a quiet little restaurant (unlike the one the hotel attendant recommended which was packed and had a line) and ordered simple but filling dinners of pizza, pasta, and rice with - yep - more seafood. When we got back to the hotel, we had a good time trying on all our masks and taking pictures. Showers and bedtime again, ready to tackle Milan in the morning.

As it turns out, Milan is one of the cleanest, easiest to navigate big cities I've ever been to. We had a bit of a rough start in the morning figuring out how to take the trolly and where to get tickets, and which one to take, but once we figured it out (and the locals were really nice and very helpful), it was super easy. We ended up buying a daypass for 3 Euro apiece, which works on any of the public transportation methods in town for the whole day. We were able to access anything in the city within 15 minutes. We took the trolly to the duomo, which is possibly the largest church I have ever seen, and Katie said it was more impressive (and imposing) than the Notre Dame. It was spectacularly beautiful, with tall, slender spires and marble that had blue and pink swirls in it, making you unsure what color it was and making it appear to change colors throughout the day. The inside was just as impressive as the outside, and the center aisle seemed to go on forever. It was so large, they set up tv screens all down the hall so people could see the altar. Since it was a Sunday, touring was a bit limited, but it was still impressive. After the duomo, we took the subway (which is infinitely cleaner and easier to use than even New York's) to a castle, where the Pieta is being held (one of three - this one was the last unfinished piece). It was amazing - you come around a wall, and there it is - no rope, no glass, just sitting there. I couldn't believe how easy it was.

We finally left the castle and decided to hold off on food until we got closer to the train station. We took the subway back to the station (5 min on the red line, 10 on the yellow) and ate at one of the nearby pizzarias. Most. Expensive. Pizza. Ever. 10 euro for an 8-inch pizza. But, as they knew we would be, we were hungry and in a hurry, so we had to do it. It was that or McDonalds. We went to the station, which took forever to navigate - it's huge. 3 stories of train station. We bought our ticket at 4:20... for a train that left at 4:30. It was expensive, but only 4 hours, instead of 12. We ran up two stories of slanted moving sidewalks and jumped into the 4th car instead of the 7th that we were assigned to, walking back through the train for 3 more cars. It was exciting and scary, but we made it, and were soon on an express train back to Firenze (Florence), where we would have to buy another ticket to Orvieto. But that ticket was only 11 euro and took an hour and a half. Problem was, we had over an hour to kill until it left, so we went to the pizzaria that we'd stopped at on the way to Venice and got more pizza. We managed to catch a bus up to the top of Orvieto from the train station at 11:30, and were home by midnight.

Amazing trip, great memories, sooo crazy.

Pompeii trip!

September 18-20

Pompeii was amazing! The city itself is so BIG and they've only excavated 1/9 of it, with the thought that when technology improves, they can do more and be more careful, and they can leave some for future generations, which is really cool. Maybe someday I could come back and work on restoring a fresco in a newly uncovered section! That would be awesome. Many dreams. We also went to Paestum, where there are temples to Athena, Apollo, and Hera that are still in really good condition. Friday we actually started by going to the National Museum in Napoli (Naples) which was amazing. They have all kinds of statues, frescoes, artifacts... everything you can imagine from all the major sites in that region/state, including stuff from Pompeii. The quality of preservation that the ash created was incredible - some of it looked better than things you find in modern antique stores or your Aunt Fannie's attic! After the museum we went to Pompeii, then we went to Paestum and Herculanium/Ercolanium on Saturday. In Ercolanium we went to the virtual museum, which I had read about a year or two ago. You should look it up - I can't even describe it but it was the best museum ever - totally interactive and all technological. Sunday I went to mass with one of the other students at the Basilica in Pompeii, which is the most beautiful and richly decorated church I have ever seen in my life - frescoes with such details and vibrant colors... it had such quality Michelangelo could himself could have painted it yesterday! It also had mosaics in gold, glass and precious stones and metals, pillars of colored marble, and the wood was all dark, heavy wood. It would be worthy of a king or the pope. My favorite part was the oculus/dome at the top of the church in the center. It was on two levels - the first had saints looking up toward the center, which was set deeper than the saint level and depicted the ascention. After mass (at 7am) we went to breakfast and went to La Reggia di Caserta, a palace in Caserta with gardens, a palace, a small castle, a fish pond as big as a small lake, and statues everywhere. Xenn, Katie and I rented a bike for 4 and rode all over the property. We barely made it back in the hour we were given. We got back to Orvieto at about 6:30pm (after a short stop to buy buffalo mozzarella cheese, which comes in soft balls bigger than a man's fist... soooo yummy. The hotel was nice enough, but I still had 3 roommates. Fortunately, we each had our own bed, and I managed to get the double bed for myself. Everyone else was too busy being nice and doing the "don't take the last slice" rule, so I just went over and sat on it and claimed it.

August 29, 2009

Saturday

Aug. 29, 2009

Not much to write about today. I was sick all day with nausea (and other even less pleasant things), so I stayed in bed all day. I managed to eat some Ritz crackers, half a croissant and a bowl of cereal throughout the day, but that was all. I have a theory that the meat last night did me in. Not that it was ill-cooked, but I’m now on an almost vegetarian diet (purely by circumstance), and I think the steak and several ribs that I ate were a bit much for my digestive system. One of the things about Italian food is that there’s very little meat involved, and even less of that is rough or red meat. In any given day I’ll have a slice of bologna or a couple slices of salami at lunch, and maybe some chicken (about one breast worth) at dinner. We’ve only gotten chicken twice so far, and once we had fish fillets. Any other meat is some ground meat in the sauce, so it’s not surprising that this happened, really. Anyway, I’m going back to sleep.

August 28, 2009

Friday

Aug. 28, 2009

The rain yesterday did us another favor today: it gave us an extra 30 minutes of sleep this morning. It was announced last night at dinner that instead of starting at 7:30, we would start at 8. It was still really hot, but the breezes and clouds came as usual, which helped.

Tonight, we had a “trench dinner” at Andrea and Rosanna’s house. It’s a really pretty two-story house – very Italian – and it’s in the middle of a bunch of fields. We had steak, ribs, figs, eggplant, and “pizzettas”, which I helped make. Pizzettas are like the crust of pizzas (hand-tossed style) which are fried and salted, and eaten with a spaghetti sauce style of dip. The dinner was outside, since that was the only place big enough for all 15 or so of us. After a dessert of home-made tiramisu, we gathered around a bonfire in the other part of the yard and sang songs until about 1am. It was fun, but I’m pretty tired.

August 27, 2009

Thursday

Aug. 27, 2009

Today was an exceptionally hot day. Usually there’s a breeze that comes around at about 11:30 and again at about 3, but this morning there was nothing. By lunch time we were all stumbling in like beaten animals, and the 6 liters of water at each table were gone in the first 15 minutes. After lunch there was still no breeze, and there was no evidence of the usual afternoon cloud cover. We trudged back out to the site, eyeing our tools mournfully and glancing at the sky with little hope before letting out a communal sigh and dragging picks, shovels, wheelbarrows, buckets, and trowels to our assigned places. The usual chatter and singing were gone, replaced by grunts of effort and defeat against the heat and humid air which was more akin to a wet blanket.

Finally, a miracle.

From the clouds which had raced in over the hills like a phantom army, tiny drops of rain fell, carried by the wind which had finally woken from his slumber. With renewed energy and hope, we cleaned our areas and prepared for a storm. A few minutes later, we experienced fear when the drops seemed to vanish. But our hope returned with the next wave of rain, which rode in even faster than before. We all went home to shower, and I sat out on the porch and watched the rain fall in the courtyard.

August 26, 2009

Wednesday

Aug. 26, 2009

I was in the lab again today, which was a relief after yesterday. I wasn’t going to go, but they asked for volunteers and no one offered, so Andrea asked me if I wanted to go. Of course I’m not going to refuse. I just washed pottery today, so there’s not much to talk about there, but tonight was fun.

We’re actually in a small town outside of Orvieto, though still part of the “community of Orvieto”. Tonight was the first of 4 nights of their “party of the year”, where all the residents come out to dance, sing, and socialize. Tonight – or at this point last night – there was a singing/accordion playing/electric piano playing duet. The music mostly consisted of waltzes and foxtrots and other ballroom dance songs, but there were a lot of line dances (like our Electric Slide or Cotton-Eye Joe). I was able to participate in those by watching the residents, who all knew the steps, and an “older gentleman” helped me learn some of the other dances (I’m sure the really simple versions, but it was still fun). The average age for most of the night was probably somewhere in the mid-sixties. Only at about midnight did the age level drop, and that only because some of the eldest people had gone home and ¾ of the excavation team showed up. The dance floor was just across the creek from our dining hall. By then, the music had changed to almost all line dances, and then we took over and just jumped around for a while.

It was probably the best night I’ve had since I’ve been here, but I am so sore and exhausted, I know I’ll pay for it (later) in the morning. It was worth it.