Susan:
Somehow another week flew by here full of the current usual: daily Italian class for all, other classes for others, group lunches with occasional guests (Gabriele, son of one of the button shop owner-ladies, member of the city council), tour of the city offices and meeting with the mayor (who told us to come see him if we had anything to discuss - okay!), walks to various stores (we signed up for a grocery store shopper card - quite the accomplishment), Jeff cooked dinner for the students a couple times (much appreciated), and before leaving town on Friday we had our second Italian test (stiff competition among the family with Jake in the lead by half a point. Those young brains!).
Friday we grabbed bag lunches after class and headed for Florence via bus to Arezzo and train from there. Interesting note: our temporary hometown of Sansepolcro is a walled city; literally busting out of and beyond the medieval walls built to protect it all these many years ago and last updated in the 15th century I believe. There are a handful of openings in the wall. The one nearest us is Porta Fiorentina, door to Florence (literally, a female Florentine? or it's feminine because it modifies door which is feminine? Oy, back to studying), and at the other end of the main street is Porta Romana, door to, you guessed it, Rome. Off to Florence!
Well, Florence is quite the high achieving change agent it turns out. Birthplace of the Renaissance, home of the Medici family, modern Italian language influencer, and locale of a few well known pieces such as Brunelleschi's Duomo, the Boboli Gardens, Michelangelo's David, Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, and da Vinci's Annunciation. If that weren't enough, it also sports more great food, captivatingly beautiful store displays, beautifulllllll leather shoes and bags made in town, lots and lots of tourists and super narrow sidewalks with buses roaring by a couple inches away. All in all, despite the less than great weather, it was pretty cool.
Our meal Saturday night was capped off with a round of limoncello flavored digestifs, on the house, after our waiter/manager was impressed with our two and a half weeks' worth of Italian, which in turn, our Italian teacher was impressed with upon the recounting. He said that had to have been someone from Napoli (the south of Italy), as no one from Florence would do that. Ha! As we well know, countries can have vast regional differences when it comes to culture, habits, dialect, etc., and this one is no different. Funny thing: We chose our Saturday night restaurant based on yelp reviews and it turned out to be as great as promised. The name of it was Pensavo Peggio which our Italian instructor found quite funny, as it translates to 'I thought worse.'
Oh, we stayed in a convent turned hotel. There are still a handful of priests living out their days there, going about their churchly biz, including doing some tremendous bell ringing periodically.
It's not hard when going through multiple museums to become acclimated to the vast amount of artistic perfection you're walking by for hours, but I think we appreciated what we saw a great deal. It's difficult to adequately describe the vast difference between seeing a photo of a sculpture and seeing it in person - looming over you with movement and musculature and emotion. It really made quite an impression on us all. In the end we didn't see and do everything we wanted to, and hope to make another quick trip there during our time here.
Photos to be added. It's late and we've got theory number 20 to try as to why some photos are sticking around and some aren't.
Ciao!
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Sunday, February 11, 2018
Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Jeff:
As we made our way on foot--everything here is on foot--to the closest grocery store to pick up supplies for dinner, I had a couple of epiphanies about Italy and the fundamentally different lifestyle into which we have plunged ourselves.
First, everything takes longer here. And by everything, I mean that day to day life is just a longer process. Going to the store involves getting your bags, walking, choosing from among the usual options available to Italians but unfamiliar to me, walking back to the palazzo, and putting stuff away in our tiny kitchen. If you want medicine of any kind, you'll be making a second stop because the grocer does not even stock Advil. If you want fruit, you really must go to the fruit vendor because it's so much better, but that's an extra stop too.
Cooking involves multiple steps because we have only two burners, as many pans, and no oven. Washing up is it's own process with an odd corner sink into which nothing really fits, a drying rack in a cabinet over the sink, and a refrigerator that holds less than half of what most Americans are used to. Laundry is an all day affair, with a washing machine that takes two hours and a dryer that takes even longer and is so expensive that you are not supposed to even use it. Instead, we hang our clothes all over the room on racks and then wait days for them to dry hard and stiff. Convenience is decidedly not the guiding principle of product sales or anything else the way it is in the great USA. Italians have their own ways of doing things and seem determined to defy American influence, though there are signs that the resistance is fraying around the edges if only a bit.
My second epiphany is that the slowness is not only OK, I find myself wondering if it might be preferable. By trading in all day laundry, multi-stop shopping, challenging cooking and long cleaning for fast washes, Walmart, and drive-throughs in the name of convenience, we recover some free time to . . . surf Facebook, read the New Yorker, watch sports, and check our email. Somehow, the gained time, at least for me, seems to be at least in part an exchange of meaningful time for something less meaningful. This all feels epiphanic to me, but maybe everyone else figured this out a long time ago. It does seem as if the Tuscans did.
Friday consisted of our first test in Italian class--we get results tomorrow I hope--followed by my second Principles of Marketing class, and an afternoon of shopping and putting away and cooking a spaghetti dinner for the students. That was followed by a group watch of The English Patient, set in part in Florence (our destination next weekend). It all felt purposeful, somehow.
To get a sense of the random beauty that's everywhere, here's a picture I took on the way to the grocery.
__________________________________________________________________________
Saturday began with an early alarm and bus ride to Anghiari, the castle city on the hill about 10 minutes ride from Sansepolcro. Like NC's own Boone, every building in town looks like it's clinging for dear life to the side of the hill, except for those at the top, which if not for all the stonework, would appear certain to blow away. It was pretty cold and windy in Anghiari when we arrived, but we were all bundled up and left the bus bubbling with anticipation of the day ahead. Anghiari is, in Italy at least, famous for its beauty and it didn't disappoint. Like every other Italian city I have been to, much of the wealth and art is housed in the numerous Catholic churches scattered all over the town.
The main town Piazza Garribaldi is not at the top of the hill, but instead about halfway up, featuring this statue of the man himself pointing theoretically toward Roma, but actually toward Florence.
Something about the aesthetics being better with him situated the way he is being more important than actually pointing toward Rome. That kind of sums up Italy in a nutshell--beauty trumping practicality, occasionally for worse, but mostly for better, and with zero doubt that it's the right approach to the world.
I took these next three photos without moving from my spot looking out over a wall, about two thirds of the way up the walled city, merely turning in place to capture the entire scene. As I said to my students: "It's a little bit pretty." And these phone pics don't begin to do justice to the place.
The churches were impressive too, but as if to distribute at least some of the beauty, they were not the most impressive of the day, though still worth a look. All of these next pics were taken in Anghiari, but I did not note the church or saint names.
After lots of hiking up and down the hills, we paused at a little overlook where we had some great views but also a close up chance to see these ubiquitous roofs and the way they interlock and are designed to last hundreds of years. Maybe not classically beautiful, but it would be great to think you'll never have to replace your roof again.
In this one, you can really see how they hook together and are almost impervious to leakage:
After Anghiari, we took the 11:20 bus to Arezzo, the closest train hub to Sansepolcro and altogether about an hour bus ride away. From Aghiari, it's about 50 minutes, getting us into town just in time for lunch.
Of course, in Arezzo, more churches, including this spectacular cathedrale that cannot be captured in pictures. For someone who is not religious, I am oddly impressed by old cathedrals, especially when I think about the sheer number of hours of human labor that went into these sometimes mammoth undertakings. Construction on this building began in 1278 and finished in 1511, a mere 233 years later. Here's a picture of the outside from Wikipedia, followed by my own snaps from the interior.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Sunday was a sleep-in day and a chance to catch up on work before venturing out in the afternoon to catch the Carnevale parade. The big one in Italy is apparently in Venice, but we were content with Sansepolcro's homemade version.
As we made our way on foot--everything here is on foot--to the closest grocery store to pick up supplies for dinner, I had a couple of epiphanies about Italy and the fundamentally different lifestyle into which we have plunged ourselves.
First, everything takes longer here. And by everything, I mean that day to day life is just a longer process. Going to the store involves getting your bags, walking, choosing from among the usual options available to Italians but unfamiliar to me, walking back to the palazzo, and putting stuff away in our tiny kitchen. If you want medicine of any kind, you'll be making a second stop because the grocer does not even stock Advil. If you want fruit, you really must go to the fruit vendor because it's so much better, but that's an extra stop too.
Cooking involves multiple steps because we have only two burners, as many pans, and no oven. Washing up is it's own process with an odd corner sink into which nothing really fits, a drying rack in a cabinet over the sink, and a refrigerator that holds less than half of what most Americans are used to. Laundry is an all day affair, with a washing machine that takes two hours and a dryer that takes even longer and is so expensive that you are not supposed to even use it. Instead, we hang our clothes all over the room on racks and then wait days for them to dry hard and stiff. Convenience is decidedly not the guiding principle of product sales or anything else the way it is in the great USA. Italians have their own ways of doing things and seem determined to defy American influence, though there are signs that the resistance is fraying around the edges if only a bit.
My second epiphany is that the slowness is not only OK, I find myself wondering if it might be preferable. By trading in all day laundry, multi-stop shopping, challenging cooking and long cleaning for fast washes, Walmart, and drive-throughs in the name of convenience, we recover some free time to . . . surf Facebook, read the New Yorker, watch sports, and check our email. Somehow, the gained time, at least for me, seems to be at least in part an exchange of meaningful time for something less meaningful. This all feels epiphanic to me, but maybe everyone else figured this out a long time ago. It does seem as if the Tuscans did.
Friday consisted of our first test in Italian class--we get results tomorrow I hope--followed by my second Principles of Marketing class, and an afternoon of shopping and putting away and cooking a spaghetti dinner for the students. That was followed by a group watch of The English Patient, set in part in Florence (our destination next weekend). It all felt purposeful, somehow.
To get a sense of the random beauty that's everywhere, here's a picture I took on the way to the grocery.
__________________________________________________________________________
 |
| War memorial just outside the Sansepolcro bus station |
The main town Piazza Garribaldi is not at the top of the hill, but instead about halfway up, featuring this statue of the man himself pointing theoretically toward Roma, but actually toward Florence.
Something about the aesthetics being better with him situated the way he is being more important than actually pointing toward Rome. That kind of sums up Italy in a nutshell--beauty trumping practicality, occasionally for worse, but mostly for better, and with zero doubt that it's the right approach to the world.
I took these next three photos without moving from my spot looking out over a wall, about two thirds of the way up the walled city, merely turning in place to capture the entire scene. As I said to my students: "It's a little bit pretty." And these phone pics don't begin to do justice to the place.
The churches were impressive too, but as if to distribute at least some of the beauty, they were not the most impressive of the day, though still worth a look. All of these next pics were taken in Anghiari, but I did not note the church or saint names.
After lots of hiking up and down the hills, we paused at a little overlook where we had some great views but also a close up chance to see these ubiquitous roofs and the way they interlock and are designed to last hundreds of years. Maybe not classically beautiful, but it would be great to think you'll never have to replace your roof again.
In this one, you can really see how they hook together and are almost impervious to leakage:
After Anghiari, we took the 11:20 bus to Arezzo, the closest train hub to Sansepolcro and altogether about an hour bus ride away. From Aghiari, it's about 50 minutes, getting us into town just in time for lunch.
Of course, in Arezzo, more churches, including this spectacular cathedrale that cannot be captured in pictures. For someone who is not religious, I am oddly impressed by old cathedrals, especially when I think about the sheer number of hours of human labor that went into these sometimes mammoth undertakings. Construction on this building began in 1278 and finished in 1511, a mere 233 years later. Here's a picture of the outside from Wikipedia, followed by my own snaps from the interior.
 |
| This is the grand piazza, near the top of Arezzo, just a bit down the hill from the Cathedrale |
Sunday was a sleep-in day and a chance to catch up on work before venturing out in the afternoon to catch the Carnevale parade. The big one in Italy is apparently in Venice, but we were content with Sansepolcro's homemade version.
A Test, Travel and Carnivale
Friday February 9, Saturday February 10, Sunday February 11
Hello, Julia here. Yes, I'm finally writing. On Friday we had our first Italian test and that was interesting. We were tested on how to introduce ourselves, ask for phone numbers, addresses, where someone is from and what their nationality is. It has certainly been an interesting week. Our teacher is very good. He is a native Italian and his name is Antonio. His hometown is Anghiari. I love that name, it sounds so poetic and beautiful, almost like a fairytale. Antonio's an excellent teacher and we can pick up what he teaches us very quickly. Earlier this week, the other students and I were joking around with him and we screenshotted this picture of him from an old video about here with a man bun and showed it to him.
His reaction was priceless. He didn't even know the term "man-bun" and said that was his long hair phase. Apparently his hair was down to the middle of his back. Wouldn't that have been a sight to see?
On Saturday we woke up early and took a bus to Anghiari. It completely and utterly lives up to its reputation for beauty. It's like a town out of a fantasy novel. The views are breathtaking and the town is hilly filled with stunning buildings. I found a cat. It was an orange tabby and I think it had hurt its foot; it was holding it really funny. Despite that, it was super sweet and affectionate.
We walked all around Anghiari for the morning and got some coffee at the cutest little coffee shop. We got to practice our Italian to order Cappuccinos. We've ordered them a good number of times so we've gotten pretty good at it. Later we went to Arezzo (say Ah ret so) and walked around a bit before having a lovely lunch then going and seeing a series of frescoes called the Legend of the True Cross. After that we walked around until five thirty then took a bus back to Sansepolcro.
Today most of us woke up late around eleven thirty, ate breakfast, then went out and walked around for awhile before having lunch at a little place called Happy Bar. We walked around before coming back for short time, then everyone including the faculty went and watched the Carnivale parade. That was such a spectacle. Everyone from the tall to the small, the young and the old came and paraded through the town. Some were dressed up others weren't. Most of them were throwing confetti and it was just amazing. After the parade, four of the other students and I went to the main square where we saw some dances and a costume contest then participated in a dance party. We all got confetti in our hair; I still need to comb it all out of mine. We left the square around six fifteen and finished watching a movie called The English Patient. After that we all got tacos that my dad had made. It's been a whirlwind as usual and I can't wait for more.
Ciao,
Julia
Hello, Julia here. Yes, I'm finally writing. On Friday we had our first Italian test and that was interesting. We were tested on how to introduce ourselves, ask for phone numbers, addresses, where someone is from and what their nationality is. It has certainly been an interesting week. Our teacher is very good. He is a native Italian and his name is Antonio. His hometown is Anghiari. I love that name, it sounds so poetic and beautiful, almost like a fairytale. Antonio's an excellent teacher and we can pick up what he teaches us very quickly. Earlier this week, the other students and I were joking around with him and we screenshotted this picture of him from an old video about here with a man bun and showed it to him.
His reaction was priceless. He didn't even know the term "man-bun" and said that was his long hair phase. Apparently his hair was down to the middle of his back. Wouldn't that have been a sight to see?
On Saturday we woke up early and took a bus to Anghiari. It completely and utterly lives up to its reputation for beauty. It's like a town out of a fantasy novel. The views are breathtaking and the town is hilly filled with stunning buildings. I found a cat. It was an orange tabby and I think it had hurt its foot; it was holding it really funny. Despite that, it was super sweet and affectionate.
We walked all around Anghiari for the morning and got some coffee at the cutest little coffee shop. We got to practice our Italian to order Cappuccinos. We've ordered them a good number of times so we've gotten pretty good at it. Later we went to Arezzo (say Ah ret so) and walked around a bit before having a lovely lunch then going and seeing a series of frescoes called the Legend of the True Cross. After that we walked around until five thirty then took a bus back to Sansepolcro.
Today most of us woke up late around eleven thirty, ate breakfast, then went out and walked around for awhile before having lunch at a little place called Happy Bar. We walked around before coming back for short time, then everyone including the faculty went and watched the Carnivale parade. That was such a spectacle. Everyone from the tall to the small, the young and the old came and paraded through the town. Some were dressed up others weren't. Most of them were throwing confetti and it was just amazing. After the parade, four of the other students and I went to the main square where we saw some dances and a costume contest then participated in a dance party. We all got confetti in our hair; I still need to comb it all out of mine. We left the square around six fifteen and finished watching a movie called The English Patient. After that we all got tacos that my dad had made. It's been a whirlwind as usual and I can't wait for more.
Ciao,
Julia
Thursday, February 8, 2018
The Ordinary is Unique Again and Lunch with Kate Middleton
Susan:
Wednesday, Feb 7
A student’s disparagement of the increasing repetition in her (strongly encouraged) journal had a familiar ring to it. Since classes have begun we have all fallen into a predictable rhythm: class, outstanding lunch :), some days more class, studying, adventures in laundry or grocery shopping or coffee shop lounging, dinner. I suggested that familiar routines aren’t such bad things, though. There’s comfort in creating a structure to venture out from and return to, not to mention beauty, and certainly amusement, in the details.
For instance, Jeff and I missed a turn on our walk to the co-op and using our ‘just enough to be dangerous’ Italian, we asked a grandmotherly type how to get there. Well, you know, there’s a fair amount of gesturing that happens here plus she used her cane and her cigarette for emphasis, so we got the gist (and the direction to turn in) no problem. And? We finally remembered our shopping bags! (Small charge if you need the store’s plastic bags.)
We also did laundry which is just a little more of a deal here; longish wash cycles and discouraged use of the dryers (pricey electricity), though allowances are made for a collective load of jeans. We were assured we would be amazed by how quickly things dry on the drying racks......................................................................... :)
You must empty water out of the collector under the dryer after the cycle (yes the dryer) and sometimes empty the water out of the washer when it gets a bit tired. Also you’ll see in the photos - I figured out why it’s so chilly in the laundry room.
Finally, at 9:40 we attempted to get a slice of pizza at the awesome hole in the wall Pizzeria Yummy Di Incandela Maria Rosa, or Yummy’s, as it advertises itself. Listen up American pizza joints, Yummy’s has figured out how to make a whole pizza with, if you wanted it, each perfectly topped and separated slice having different toppings. You can also buy just a single slice. Note: they have a potato and sausage offering that’s killer. Further note: They of course close for a bit in the afternoon and reopen for the evening. But the closing time for each day on their hours sign has been blacked out. They close when they feel like it, which last night was before 9:40.
So on to L’Appennino’s, the pizza place on the ground floor of our building. Just as great pizza, even better crust Jeff says, a little more upscale and pizza by the whole pie. So we suffered through a shared potato, red onion, gorgonzola, and three other cheeses pizza, a draft, and a front row seat to our enthusiastic pizza maker, as excited about life and our pizza as the soccer game on tv.
Thursday, February 8
The school brings in local lunch guests periodically to enhance the students’ cultural experience and give them a chance to talk with a variety of folks in a more relaxed setting. I mentioned Andrea, the opera singer, who visited us last week.
Today it was none other than not-that-Kate-Middleton, haha, and her father, Bill. What an interesting and lovely pair. He’s from New Jersey originally, married an Englishwoman. Now he lives here with Kate and her family who are living a quite busy life hither and yon. They have a B&B nearby and run a farm among other things. Check her and her amazing photos out... https://www.facebook.com/oliveoilandraspberries/
Inside the door, tile steps built over wooden steps...
Wednesday, Feb 7
A student’s disparagement of the increasing repetition in her (strongly encouraged) journal had a familiar ring to it. Since classes have begun we have all fallen into a predictable rhythm: class, outstanding lunch :), some days more class, studying, adventures in laundry or grocery shopping or coffee shop lounging, dinner. I suggested that familiar routines aren’t such bad things, though. There’s comfort in creating a structure to venture out from and return to, not to mention beauty, and certainly amusement, in the details.
For instance, Jeff and I missed a turn on our walk to the co-op and using our ‘just enough to be dangerous’ Italian, we asked a grandmotherly type how to get there. Well, you know, there’s a fair amount of gesturing that happens here plus she used her cane and her cigarette for emphasis, so we got the gist (and the direction to turn in) no problem. And? We finally remembered our shopping bags! (Small charge if you need the store’s plastic bags.)
We also did laundry which is just a little more of a deal here; longish wash cycles and discouraged use of the dryers (pricey electricity), though allowances are made for a collective load of jeans. We were assured we would be amazed by how quickly things dry on the drying racks......................................................................... :)
You must empty water out of the collector under the dryer after the cycle (yes the dryer) and sometimes empty the water out of the washer when it gets a bit tired. Also you’ll see in the photos - I figured out why it’s so chilly in the laundry room.
Finally, at 9:40 we attempted to get a slice of pizza at the awesome hole in the wall Pizzeria Yummy Di Incandela Maria Rosa, or Yummy’s, as it advertises itself. Listen up American pizza joints, Yummy’s has figured out how to make a whole pizza with, if you wanted it, each perfectly topped and separated slice having different toppings. You can also buy just a single slice. Note: they have a potato and sausage offering that’s killer. Further note: They of course close for a bit in the afternoon and reopen for the evening. But the closing time for each day on their hours sign has been blacked out. They close when they feel like it, which last night was before 9:40.
So on to L’Appennino’s, the pizza place on the ground floor of our building. Just as great pizza, even better crust Jeff says, a little more upscale and pizza by the whole pie. So we suffered through a shared potato, red onion, gorgonzola, and three other cheeses pizza, a draft, and a front row seat to our enthusiastic pizza maker, as excited about life and our pizza as the soccer game on tv.
Thursday, February 8
The school brings in local lunch guests periodically to enhance the students’ cultural experience and give them a chance to talk with a variety of folks in a more relaxed setting. I mentioned Andrea, the opera singer, who visited us last week.
Today it was none other than not-that-Kate-Middleton, haha, and her father, Bill. What an interesting and lovely pair. He’s from New Jersey originally, married an Englishwoman. Now he lives here with Kate and her family who are living a quite busy life hither and yon. They have a B&B nearby and run a farm among other things. Check her and her amazing photos out... https://www.facebook.com/oliveoilandraspberries/
This guy turns his back on the laundry room...
Inside the door, tile steps built over wooden steps...
See the clothespins hanging in space between the railings? Those are attached to clotheslines running between the railings. Note those round holes in the wall with light coming through them...
Close up... Hey, that's outside, and airy...
Stairs to upper level. Note that square hole in the wall..
Close up. Hey, that's attic, and daylight, and airy...
I look at it this way; it's like drying your clothes in the fresh air but you don't have to worry about rain.
A gratuitous photo of Jake hanging in the lounge with the watchful ladies...
Tuesday, February 6, 2018
Market Day!!
Jake:
Today was Tuesday, the bigger of the two market days here in Sansepolcro. After waking up at 7:45 for a cold bowl of oat flakes, I headed off to Italian class to learn about numbers, days, and addresses. We got our first sheet of homework today, a fill-in-the-blank about telephones and small talk. Shortly after class, my parents and I headed off to the market. There were shops all up and down the main road, all along the square, and the smell of shoes and fish wafting over it all. I was even convinced to try on a pair of shoes by one of the shopkeepers, but politely said "No, grazie" as soon as my foot hit the rock-hard sole of the shoe. I then wandered off towards the end of the main road, scanning the stalls for a warm pair of gloves and trying to dodge 11:00 Italian foot traffic. At the end of the road, I discovered a nice view of the mountains surrounding the town and the source of the fish. Turning around, I headed back to the palazzo and settled down. Today I also attempted to start a college level game of Cantine e Draghi, or CeD for short (the Italian version of Dungeons and Dragons, which is exactly the same apart from the name). I got one character completely filled out and a few faint promises to do more soon. All in all, it was a nice day with another fantastic lunch. To quote my mom: "Am I not allowed to say this is the best meal I've ever had - every day?"
Pics:
Today was Tuesday, the bigger of the two market days here in Sansepolcro. After waking up at 7:45 for a cold bowl of oat flakes, I headed off to Italian class to learn about numbers, days, and addresses. We got our first sheet of homework today, a fill-in-the-blank about telephones and small talk. Shortly after class, my parents and I headed off to the market. There were shops all up and down the main road, all along the square, and the smell of shoes and fish wafting over it all. I was even convinced to try on a pair of shoes by one of the shopkeepers, but politely said "No, grazie" as soon as my foot hit the rock-hard sole of the shoe. I then wandered off towards the end of the main road, scanning the stalls for a warm pair of gloves and trying to dodge 11:00 Italian foot traffic. At the end of the road, I discovered a nice view of the mountains surrounding the town and the source of the fish. Turning around, I headed back to the palazzo and settled down. Today I also attempted to start a college level game of Cantine e Draghi, or CeD for short (the Italian version of Dungeons and Dragons, which is exactly the same apart from the name). I got one character completely filled out and a few faint promises to do more soon. All in all, it was a nice day with another fantastic lunch. To quote my mom: "Am I not allowed to say this is the best meal I've ever had - every day?"
Pics:
Monday, February 5, 2018
First Day of School
Susan:
9:00-10:30: All of us were promptly in our seats for the start of Italian 101 with Antonio, our teacher who hails from Angiari (Sansepolcro's rival town, apparently). Jake is taking the class for credit along with the students. Jeff, Betty, John, and I are auditing for the obvious benefit of being able to talk about town. Time went by in surprisingly quick fashion as we worked to force a new language into variously aged brains. Mi chiamo Susan!
10:30-12:30: Second class... Learn to Travel, Travel to Learn. I sat in on this one with the students. It's all about comparisons of cultures, discussion of perceptions, expectations, ideologies, etc. How to "have an open mind but not let your brains fall out."
1:00: Perhaps the best lunch we've had yet. We felt we had earned it. :) And perfecto, the sun shone through the windows for what felt like the first time in days.
Post lunch: Students made flash cards (on an app) for Italian, Jeff and I continued the process of picking out house colors, towel bars, and more from far away. Doesn't everyone do that? Did I mention that my carry on bag warranted being pulled from the conveyor belt and inspected by hand ? For two reasons: 1. A coin purse bulging with donated leftover Euro coins from traveling family, and 2. The Sherwin Williams paint fan deck that I brought along to finish selecting room colors. Who doesn't travel with one of those?
Post, post lunch: While Jeff toiled away with class prep, I went on a walk with Betty out of the city and up into the hills. What lovely views the surrounding cities have of each other. She pointed out Angiari in the distance, as well as another town, and said when we visit Angiari this weekend that we'd have the same view of Sansepolcro. We saw olive groves, Chestnut trees, and enormous Cypress. Also, walked by the mansion type house that Buitoni pasta began in and ran from for quite a long time. For a while it was the largest employer in town. It has, of course, been bought out by Nestle, moved elsewhere, and the home is getting ready to be sold. We wrapped up our walk with tea from a pastry shop.
While we were out, the students, Jake, and John took yoga. Between the senior citizen, various uncoordinated folks, one student with a broken, casted thumb, and a relatively small room, that was apparently an enjoyable hoot.
I had hardly sat down back in the palazzo, coat still on, when John suggested that he take me and Jeff around the block to introduce us to some of his friends. That was an amusing treat. John is an impressive study in how to just throw oneself out there. He knows a fair-to-good amount of Italian and has no qualms about diving into a conversation, making mistakes, learning, asking about peoples' families, making jokes, introducing us over and over as the Professore and... (? honestly I have no idea; I don't think he was using the Italian word for wife - haha). We used our very basic Italian a lot (Piachere - pleasure to meet you!). The butcher/cheesemonger and we pantomimed and learned new words. We sampled prosciutto and pecorino (and learned that sheep = pecora, hence pecorino is cheese from sheep's milk) and took home gorgonzola with fruit in it that was *mwah.* The meat and cheese guy definitely fell into the category of folks who feel certain that if a foreigner can't understand you, you just need to talk louder. :) Also, no sooner would we point out to John that we were holding up the customers behind us, then he would pull them into our conversation also. There's no being an introvert on a walk with John. We met the button shop proprietor and admired the carved ceilings and building adornments in her store. We also met the kitchen store woman and her daughter (niece?) and the two women running one of the fancy clothing stores. I think that was everyone.
From the afternoon walk...
Monastery that Meredith used to stay in...
View from above...
And Jake deemed this noteworthy from lunch...
Ciao!
9:00-10:30: All of us were promptly in our seats for the start of Italian 101 with Antonio, our teacher who hails from Angiari (Sansepolcro's rival town, apparently). Jake is taking the class for credit along with the students. Jeff, Betty, John, and I are auditing for the obvious benefit of being able to talk about town. Time went by in surprisingly quick fashion as we worked to force a new language into variously aged brains. Mi chiamo Susan!
10:30-12:30: Second class... Learn to Travel, Travel to Learn. I sat in on this one with the students. It's all about comparisons of cultures, discussion of perceptions, expectations, ideologies, etc. How to "have an open mind but not let your brains fall out."
1:00: Perhaps the best lunch we've had yet. We felt we had earned it. :) And perfecto, the sun shone through the windows for what felt like the first time in days.
Post lunch: Students made flash cards (on an app) for Italian, Jeff and I continued the process of picking out house colors, towel bars, and more from far away. Doesn't everyone do that? Did I mention that my carry on bag warranted being pulled from the conveyor belt and inspected by hand ? For two reasons: 1. A coin purse bulging with donated leftover Euro coins from traveling family, and 2. The Sherwin Williams paint fan deck that I brought along to finish selecting room colors. Who doesn't travel with one of those?
Post, post lunch: While Jeff toiled away with class prep, I went on a walk with Betty out of the city and up into the hills. What lovely views the surrounding cities have of each other. She pointed out Angiari in the distance, as well as another town, and said when we visit Angiari this weekend that we'd have the same view of Sansepolcro. We saw olive groves, Chestnut trees, and enormous Cypress. Also, walked by the mansion type house that Buitoni pasta began in and ran from for quite a long time. For a while it was the largest employer in town. It has, of course, been bought out by Nestle, moved elsewhere, and the home is getting ready to be sold. We wrapped up our walk with tea from a pastry shop.
While we were out, the students, Jake, and John took yoga. Between the senior citizen, various uncoordinated folks, one student with a broken, casted thumb, and a relatively small room, that was apparently an enjoyable hoot.
I had hardly sat down back in the palazzo, coat still on, when John suggested that he take me and Jeff around the block to introduce us to some of his friends. That was an amusing treat. John is an impressive study in how to just throw oneself out there. He knows a fair-to-good amount of Italian and has no qualms about diving into a conversation, making mistakes, learning, asking about peoples' families, making jokes, introducing us over and over as the Professore and... (? honestly I have no idea; I don't think he was using the Italian word for wife - haha). We used our very basic Italian a lot (Piachere - pleasure to meet you!). The butcher/cheesemonger and we pantomimed and learned new words. We sampled prosciutto and pecorino (and learned that sheep = pecora, hence pecorino is cheese from sheep's milk) and took home gorgonzola with fruit in it that was *mwah.* The meat and cheese guy definitely fell into the category of folks who feel certain that if a foreigner can't understand you, you just need to talk louder. :) Also, no sooner would we point out to John that we were holding up the customers behind us, then he would pull them into our conversation also. There's no being an introvert on a walk with John. We met the button shop proprietor and admired the carved ceilings and building adornments in her store. We also met the kitchen store woman and her daughter (niece?) and the two women running one of the fancy clothing stores. I think that was everyone.
From the afternoon walk...
Monastery that Meredith used to stay in...
View from above...
And Jake deemed this noteworthy from lunch...
Ciao!
Saturday and Sunday - February 3 and 4
Jeff:
For a weekend, it was a busy couple of days.
Our Saturday started late as we ambled out of bed around 11AM and made our way to the remnants of Sansepolcro's street market. When I was here in March, the only market day I saw was on a Tuesday when the streets were lined from the palazzo to the piazza (about 500 yards) with an array of vendors of every conceivable stripe, selling everything from fish to fruit, houseware to silverware, jackets to jeggings. I expected today to be even bigger, being a Saturday market and all, but the only thing we found was a lonely fruit vendor peddling a pretty sad slate of fare. The steadily drizzling rain and brief snow forecast may have driven the other vendors away, but given that we were in search of jackets, we quickly retreated to the warm palazzo.
Around one, my colleague Betty Webb led us on a tour of town churches, starting just about a block away. Sansepolcro has a population of about 16,000, but has 16 churches inside the city walls, many of which are hundreds of years old. The church count is especially high when you consider that, unlike many U.S. southern small towns with a similar or higher ratio of sanctuaries to population with Baptists and Lutherans and Presbyterians all competing with each other for the devout, in Sansepolcro, all the churches are Catholic. Though we have seen quite a diverse population since our arrival in terms of apparent ethnicity, the worship choices seem to be remarkably limited. That said, the Catholic Church's near monopoly here has enabled it to build some pretty amazing things, starting with the chieses (churches) where all these eclectic parishioners come to worship and pray and confess their sins. (The confession part is real and active. I remember Catholics sometimes going to confession when I was a kid, but here there are lines.)
Here's the first church we visited, the Church of Santa Rita da Cascia, with a beautiful blue pastel roof and some old statuary, including Santa Rita herself.
Santa Rita is apparently the saint for women with troubled men in their lives. Though we saw lots of candles "lit" under her alter, there was not a line of women out the door like you might expect . . .
The church ceiling was really impressive, and these phone pics don't really do it justice
Next we moved on to the largest church in town, the Cathedrale (pronounced ka te drah lay), where we returned for mass this morning.
Many of the paintings around the exterior dated from the 15th century, and one as old as 1350. Below are a couple of the ones that had been restored, and it is easy to see how much more vibrant and colorful they are than the ones the church has been able to bring back to life yet.
The old church across the street was much smaller, but had some very cool features including this dome or cupola, almost hidden down an "alley off to the side of the altar end:
It also had a picture of this guy, apparently someone other than Jesus who was also crucified:
After the churches, we went to the Museo Civvico, the town's art museum which houses several famous works including several by Piero Della Francesca, probably the most famous Sansepolcran in history. His contributions to perspective in art changed the way that painters understood the mathematics of painting, and you can see in the museum how painting perspective changed in the years before and after Della Francesca worked and wrote: Here's his most faous painting, The resurrection of the Christ:
And here's Piero himself:
Do you think he did some sparing on the side? That's not in the official guidebooks.
Just outside the museum is a statue of Luca Pacioli. To accountants, he is probably the most famous Sansepolcran, having invented double entry bookkeeping and worked on several mathematical treatises with both Della Francesca and Leonardo da Vinci.
We capped off the evening with a fabulous dinner at a small restaurant that is closing at the end of the month. Since they have announced the end, it has been pretty busy, but we were able to squeeze in. I ordered stinco, a shank of pork shin that is roasted and very delicious. I don't take pictures of my food, but this internet photo is a pretty good representation of what I was served. Any southern barbecue aficionado would have felt right at home sitting down to a plate that looks like this:
All in all, a great day, and a nice chance to begin to get a feel for life in small town Tuscany and get a sense of the pulse of things here. Though we are far from settled or at home, this town has a very welcoming feel to it, and I think we will find our place, if only briefly, among this culturally rich town and its inhabitants.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Sunday was about more cultural immersion, as we headed first to mass in the aforementioned Cathedrale and then to the street market, this time with many more wares to choose from.
The cathedral was pretty full by the middle of of the service, but remarkably empty at the start. The priest didn't begin on time and the parishioners seemed to expect it, rolling in for the published 10:30 service at about 10:45, just in time for things to really get underway. We sat in the back in the most upright pews ever constructed--the molding on the back actually forced you to lean forward a bit--and just next to all the families with their kids, running, yelling, coloring, and fighting throughout the blessings. The mass, led by an African priest who many of us were surprised to find in small town Italy, was quite a cultural experience and offered an interesting perspective into the practices and habits of the population. It was also amazingly short by my Catholic youth standards, clocking in at just over 45 minutes. That gave us plenty of time to peruse the market for jackets and score one each for Jake and Susan.
Susan and the kids wrapped the day with a walk into the countryside, while I spent time preparing for class, an obligation to which I have given too little attention with all the house stuff going on. Thankfully, our house renovation is done, for better or for worse, and I can now turn my attention to teaching marketing and learning Italian, both of which I am going to savor.
For a weekend, it was a busy couple of days.
Our Saturday started late as we ambled out of bed around 11AM and made our way to the remnants of Sansepolcro's street market. When I was here in March, the only market day I saw was on a Tuesday when the streets were lined from the palazzo to the piazza (about 500 yards) with an array of vendors of every conceivable stripe, selling everything from fish to fruit, houseware to silverware, jackets to jeggings. I expected today to be even bigger, being a Saturday market and all, but the only thing we found was a lonely fruit vendor peddling a pretty sad slate of fare. The steadily drizzling rain and brief snow forecast may have driven the other vendors away, but given that we were in search of jackets, we quickly retreated to the warm palazzo.
Around one, my colleague Betty Webb led us on a tour of town churches, starting just about a block away. Sansepolcro has a population of about 16,000, but has 16 churches inside the city walls, many of which are hundreds of years old. The church count is especially high when you consider that, unlike many U.S. southern small towns with a similar or higher ratio of sanctuaries to population with Baptists and Lutherans and Presbyterians all competing with each other for the devout, in Sansepolcro, all the churches are Catholic. Though we have seen quite a diverse population since our arrival in terms of apparent ethnicity, the worship choices seem to be remarkably limited. That said, the Catholic Church's near monopoly here has enabled it to build some pretty amazing things, starting with the chieses (churches) where all these eclectic parishioners come to worship and pray and confess their sins. (The confession part is real and active. I remember Catholics sometimes going to confession when I was a kid, but here there are lines.)
Here's the first church we visited, the Church of Santa Rita da Cascia, with a beautiful blue pastel roof and some old statuary, including Santa Rita herself.
Santa Rita is apparently the saint for women with troubled men in their lives. Though we saw lots of candles "lit" under her alter, there was not a line of women out the door like you might expect . . .
The church ceiling was really impressive, and these phone pics don't really do it justice
Next we moved on to the largest church in town, the Cathedrale (pronounced ka te drah lay), where we returned for mass this morning.
Many of the paintings around the exterior dated from the 15th century, and one as old as 1350. Below are a couple of the ones that had been restored, and it is easy to see how much more vibrant and colorful they are than the ones the church has been able to bring back to life yet.
The old church across the street was much smaller, but had some very cool features including this dome or cupola, almost hidden down an "alley off to the side of the altar end:
After the churches, we went to the Museo Civvico, the town's art museum which houses several famous works including several by Piero Della Francesca, probably the most famous Sansepolcran in history. His contributions to perspective in art changed the way that painters understood the mathematics of painting, and you can see in the museum how painting perspective changed in the years before and after Della Francesca worked and wrote: Here's his most faous painting, The resurrection of the Christ:
And here's Piero himself:
Do you think he did some sparing on the side? That's not in the official guidebooks.
Just outside the museum is a statue of Luca Pacioli. To accountants, he is probably the most famous Sansepolcran, having invented double entry bookkeeping and worked on several mathematical treatises with both Della Francesca and Leonardo da Vinci.
We capped off the evening with a fabulous dinner at a small restaurant that is closing at the end of the month. Since they have announced the end, it has been pretty busy, but we were able to squeeze in. I ordered stinco, a shank of pork shin that is roasted and very delicious. I don't take pictures of my food, but this internet photo is a pretty good representation of what I was served. Any southern barbecue aficionado would have felt right at home sitting down to a plate that looks like this:
All in all, a great day, and a nice chance to begin to get a feel for life in small town Tuscany and get a sense of the pulse of things here. Though we are far from settled or at home, this town has a very welcoming feel to it, and I think we will find our place, if only briefly, among this culturally rich town and its inhabitants.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Sunday was about more cultural immersion, as we headed first to mass in the aforementioned Cathedrale and then to the street market, this time with many more wares to choose from.
The cathedral was pretty full by the middle of of the service, but remarkably empty at the start. The priest didn't begin on time and the parishioners seemed to expect it, rolling in for the published 10:30 service at about 10:45, just in time for things to really get underway. We sat in the back in the most upright pews ever constructed--the molding on the back actually forced you to lean forward a bit--and just next to all the families with their kids, running, yelling, coloring, and fighting throughout the blessings. The mass, led by an African priest who many of us were surprised to find in small town Italy, was quite a cultural experience and offered an interesting perspective into the practices and habits of the population. It was also amazingly short by my Catholic youth standards, clocking in at just over 45 minutes. That gave us plenty of time to peruse the market for jackets and score one each for Jake and Susan.
Susan and the kids wrapped the day with a walk into the countryside, while I spent time preparing for class, an obligation to which I have given too little attention with all the house stuff going on. Thankfully, our house renovation is done, for better or for worse, and I can now turn my attention to teaching marketing and learning Italian, both of which I am going to savor.
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