What will I miss most when I return to the United States? The Italian food! It was said best by a Venice store owner who explained, “It’s all good food. Every restaurant has pasta and pizza.” Pasta and pizza are certainly the two main food groups here in Italy. The pasta options are endless but, for the most part, are all equally delicious. However, as mentioned in my previous blog, I do have favorite, gnocchi with marinara sauce. Italians are very passionate with the preparation of meals; it a significant part of Italian culture. Lunch is taken very seriously and most of the shops will close to respect this tradition. Maybe this explains my dad’s obsession with food, it is his culture and it is in his blood. Recently we had a cooking lesson preformed by Sara’s husband, Fabrizio, who is a chef. He taught us how to make homemade pasta and gnocchi; I cannot wait to show everyone at home how it is done.
This past Friday afternoon the group visited Anghiari, a town not too far away from Sansepolcro by bus. Once again, my adventure is always the process of getting to the destination. Kim, Shannon, Lilly and I thought the bus was leaving at 12:37 p.m.; so we planned to be at the bus stop at 12:30. It turned out that the bus actually left at 12:27 so we missed the bus by three minutes. The next bus was not for another ninety minutes. So, Kim and I walked the main street of Sansepolcro and window shopped since all the stores were closed for lunch. We headed back to the bus stop and waited there for 45 minutes with Shannon and Lilly. Even though we missed our bus, it was a beautiful day so it was nice to absorb the vitamin D. We caught the bus at 1:45 and arrived in Anghiari about fifteen minutes later. The late comers met up in the main piazza with the other group who were on the earlier bus. The group each had a gelato with flavors ranging from panna cotta to vanilla and John Rose enjoyed a cup of tea. After we were finished with our afternoon treats, the group meandered through the streets, hiked up a few hills, climbed a few stairs and got to upper part of the city that had an incredible view. We were even able to see Sansepolcro from the top. We took some pictures and then made our way back down through the town. Anghiari was a quaint, little town with a few stores and the main attraction was the Brusati factory, where fine linens are produced and manufactured. I would like to return to Anghiari for another visit; it was a nice change of scenery but I still prefer Sansepolcro.
The next morning, Kim, Kelsey and I took a bus to Arezzo then rode the train to Florence. It was a quick trip, only about two hours total. We spent the day exploring the markets and enjoying the sunshine. I purchased quite a few family presents; I’m not going to say specifically what because I know some of my family will read this and I want the presents to be left a surprise. I can say that my shoulders were not happy with all the presents I purchased; it was a bit of a challenge carrying everything I bought. After my mission of family presents was completed, Kim, Kelsey and I went to H&M. It is one of my new favorite stores since it is affordable and has cute clothes.
Kim always dresses in the cutest clothes paired with the perfect accessories. She usually wears a headband or flower in her hair; John Rose has a different name for her hair accessories. Every day when Kim doesn’t wear one John Rose asks her where her “fascinator” is; it’s a palazzo joke. Kim has become my stylist and I call her K.Fashionista. She helped me pick out some cute outfits at H&M; however, the outfits looked better on the hanger. Instead, I got accessories to extend my jewelry collection; I even got a “fascinator.” Kim purchased a few cute outfits. And Kelsey, who I call Little Gray because she wants to be a doctor, found a dress she liked.
On our way back to the train station, we found a little mini-market selling antiques with profits supporting the Misericordia. One of the women working the stand, speaking only in Italian, asked me where I was from and why I was visiting Florence. I explained to her that I am an American student studying aboard for about three months in a small town. She told me she has never been to the United States but all the pictures she has seen are bellisimo. After our little talk, I found the perfect antique elephant figurine; it was only five euro and since the lady enjoyed our conversation she gave me a free calendar containing pictures of Florence. The elephant figurine has accents of gold and its trunk is up, which I have just recently learned means good luck.
After a successful shopping day in Florence, we headed back to Sansepolcro. I used my time wisely and was able to get some reading for my literature class accomplished while on the train. Upon arriving back at the palazzo, I organized my gifts and placed them in my suitcase so they would not be in the way. I wrote down all I had purchased and luckily I only have three more gifts to find; this is a major accomplishment.
In Sansepolcro there is a disco club called Lo Scorpione. It opens at 10:45 p.m. on the weekends but for some reason the locals do not go to the club until closer to 1:30 a.m. Due to all the traveling on weekends, the group had not been to Lo Scorpione yet so we all decided that this Saturday night was the time to go. To prepare for our late night out, after the Florence trip, I took a nap. I am a morning person, I enjoy going to bed relatively early compared to everyone here and then waking up earlier; so I really need that nap if I planned to stay out late. So after a two hour nap, I woke up, had a delicious cereal dinner and got ready for our big night out. My outfit was a black skirt paired with a black tanktop and my silver sweater; I would like to thank K.Fashionista for helping me make this outfit possible. Once we were all ready we had to use some persuasion and convincing then Lilly and Kayley agreed to go to club too. We were very ‘Italian’ that night because we did not officially leave the palazzo until about 2:15 a.m.
I had never been to a club before so I knew this was going to be an interesting experience to have my first occurrence to be in a European club. We get to Lo Scorpione and the cost for donnas (women) is ten euro with a drink included. My drink of choice for the night was Coke with lemon. The atmosphere of the club was very different than I thought it was going to be. The club was set up with white lounge couches squaring around the dance floor. It was dimly lit with strobe lights projecting onto the dance floor. The music was, legitimately as reflected in the name of ‘discoclub,’ for the most part all disco; so to me, all the songs sounded the same. The DJ did however play one American song that I recognized, “I’ve Got a Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas. The experience of the club was very noisy, dark and smokey. It was an enjoyable time however, clubs just are not my scene; so this club may have been a once in a lifetime experience for me.
It is incomprehensible to me how quickly time has flown by. Just the other day, I registered for classes for my Junior year in college; it’s unbelievable that I’m almost more than halfway through my college career. Time continues to fly by here in Italy as well. Three weeks, that’s all we have left of our time in Italy. That means only a few more weeks of classes, a couple more blogs and not enough of Margarita’s and Alessandra’s marvelous lunches. I cannot believe how quickly time has flown before I know it I will be back on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Until then I will be living it up in Italy because this once in a lifetime opportunity is drawing to an end.
No comments:
Post a Comment