In my new home, I find much enjoyment when I go in the kitchen and find my favorite snacks restocked in the cabinets. Margarita, our fabulous chef, refills and purchases our desired foods. Some of my favorites include green apple juice and chocolate croissants for breakfast. A staple here in the palazzo is Nutella (it’s a spreadable chocolate substance that’s good on just about anything; it kind of reminds me of a chocolate peanut butter). Before coming to Italy, I had never tasted Nutella and now I’m hooked. The Art History class, that some studentesse are taking, is two hours long and about half way through we have “Nutella Time.” I’ve even become creative with my Nutella and added it to bananas, cookies and even, potato chips, let me just say it was a successful experience. Nutella is a boost of energy and a spoonful of happiness. So all of those out there who haven’t tried it, I highly recommend a jar.
My dad is convinced my whole family is all Italian; he is similar to an Italian version of the father from the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. He even (jokingly, of course) changed my boyfriend’s last name from Andrews to Andrewlini so he could be Italian too. Needless to say, like most Italians, my dad is very passionate and he is more than pleased that I’m back in our “home country and going back to my roots.” Of all the events my dad would want me to photograph, he has requested that I capture every meal on film; so most lunches I take a picture of the food so my Daddy-o can see authentic Italian cooking.
Speaking of lunches, every single meal is delicious and out of this world. Margarita, our Italian chef, plans lunch every weekday and it usually includes several courses. The menu of what we are eating is always written in Italian on the dry-erase board by the table. My favorite foods so far have been risotto, a traditional Italian rice dish and a cooked olive oil/zucchini dish. Lunch isn’t only a time of great food but also lessons on how to properly spit out an orange seed: the key is to be discrete.
My roommates and I have all bonded and become close friends; perhaps this is because we are all huge Nutella fans (hmm, I wonder?). The roomies (as I call them) include Shannon, Megan, and Kim. We have a lot of fun together but we also get our school work done as well. We have quite a bit of complex reading, for our Justice and Liberty class. So for the first couple of reading assignments, we took turns reading aloud and summarizing it together. For the most part, we stayed on topic and finished the readings in a timely fashion. I liked that we helped each other with the readings because it emphasized everyone’s strengths; when one person didn’t understand, someone else did. It’s as if we are a little family.
Our group outing this past weekend was a day trip to Arezzo. We left Saturday morning to catch the nine a.m. bus to Arezzo. We were truly lucky because the day before it had been snowing, so the entire bus ride we were privileged to see all of the trees covered in snow. There was a white fog out the front window so we couldn’t see very far off into the distance, only the snow covered trees were visible. With all the surrounding white fog and snow capped trees, it felt like a beautiful dream. Bekah, our RD, said it was as if we were in Narnia. After a winding fourty five minute ride, we arrived in Arezzo. Bekah showed us the bus schedule and explained how to decode it. We were then shown the train station we will be using next weekend for Florence (I can’t wait for Florence, there’s going to be such great shopping there!!).
One of the day’s first stops was a very nice shop called Donna Pue. It was an accessory shop and had everything a girl could possibly want (purses, sunglasses, jewelry, hats, gloves, etc.). I was searching for gloves because that first day I left mine on the bus coming from the airport. The lady in the shop was an adorable older woman who helped us learn the colors. She went around her shop picking up items and saying the color (blu, rosso, giallo). I bought a pair of marrone knitted gloves; I also got an oro headband. Another good purchase of the day was Megan getting her black ‘trash bag’ jacket on sale. Here, almost every Italian wears a black, shiny, puffy jacket that looks like a trash bag and Megan wanted one. It was a major score because she found one for about twelve euro and we’ve seen some for as much as six hundred euro. Overall, shopping experience: successo!
We continued to venture around Arezzo and we can upon il prato, a very large and beautiful park. There was so much snow that we had an Italian snow ball fight. Good thing I had just bought gloves, my hands were nice and warm. I really liked the park, there was snow everywhere and it was just beautiful. I don’t know what it is, but I love snow. Snow makes trees look prettier, the atmosphere more magical and it’s my present from Pittsburgh. I grew up in Pittsburgh (Go Steelers!) and I now live on the Outer Banks (not much snow there) so whenever I see snow it reminds me of my old home.
After the snow ball fight, it was getting close to one p.m.; so the girls decided that we needed to find a place to eat quickly. Lunch is very important in Italy and should be spent with family and friends, so most places close from one to four p.m., sometimes later. It’s nice that the shop keepers and restaurants get a break but we didn’t have much time and we had to find something quick. We ended up getting lost for close to an hour and we decided to just go to whatever restaurant or café we found first. It was only about 12:15 and some owners had already closed for lunch. We found this place that had Pizzeria on the outside thinking there would be pizza inside, that was a negative. Helpful lesson of the day: Pizzeria does not always mean pizza is served there.
With the help of our map plus Kim’s and Shannon’s navigational skills, we found our way. We ended up having lunch in a cute little café called Gusto. I ate a salami and cheese sandwich with a coke. Coke Cola here is in a narrower and taller can and since I really like them I’ve been collecting some and putting them on my dresser. The café was right across from the bus station so we ate quickly to catch the bus before two.
The buses were a little overwhelming since Sansepolcro is a small town and it’s not a destination printed in clear writing on any of the buses. After boarding about five buses saying “Sansepolcro?” we finally found the right one. Once we found our way and got off the bus at the Sansepolcro gate, it certainly felt like an accomplishment. Arezzo is very pretty and definitely worth the short but winding bus ride, I can’t wait to go back another day.
After Saturday’s big adventure, Sunday was Valentine’s Day. We woke up to a delightful surprise of chocolates, sweetheart candies, heart cookies, and a card from our valentines: Dr. Webb, John Rose, Bekah and Sara. It was so sweet of them to get us something for Valentine’s Day. To thank them, we took a bike ride and got them each some flowers. The rest of the day was spent doing homework, mostly reading. I then had a delicious dinner with the roomies. We went to a Pakistani takeout restaurant that serves panine sandwiches with lettuce, tomato, piccante sauce, ranch, mayonnaise with chopped lamb meat. It was so good that we went back and got dinner the next day at the same place.
The upcoming weekend’s adventure is to Florence. I’m looking forward to viewing some historic artwork in amazing museums, leisurely walking around the beautiful gardens and of course, one of my favorite past times, shopping! Something I hope to accomplish within the next week is to end my hunt for the perfect, black leather “Bon Jovi” jacket…hopefully, this will be a mission possible. I’ll keep you posted!
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