I ate too much--Put in in the pantry with your cupcakes.

So I left off with my last blog post and I was on my way to Assisi, the lovely medieval and holy city on the hill.  It was a memorable and refreshing and, at times, slightly stressful trip--but it was the most fun I've had so far, and I think I will tell you why.  


My gorgeous lovely friends, before I go any further, I would just like to apologize for not keeping in touch more regularly.  My life here moves quickly and slowly in turns--depends where I am, what I'm thinking, if I'm sick, if I need to get somewhere ecc.  I don't want to send postcards because stamps are expensive and if I'm going to send a letter I want to expedite more than just five sentences.  Be patient...I am thinking of you always and will probably put a letter in the mail that has your name on it within...the next 4 months.  Cheers tutti :o)


Last Thursday I finished my language intensive class with a nice, but heavy, sigh of relief.  I never considered that one language intensive class would be as tiring as this one happened to be--but it was more than just three hours of Italian daily.  It was getting up; it was showering and brushing my teeth and trying to look presentable; it was cramming myself onto the tram with the centinaia of other people who were going to work and to school; it was learning how to eat dinner at 8:30 PM and how to have a cappuccino before 10:30 AM but never afterwards.  


Boh' my class ended and I was free for a weekend with no homework or serious obligation to anyone except myself. (does this honestly ever happen anymore?  Opportunity was knocking.)  Thinking ahead, my friend Isabella and I decided that we wanted to go on an Italian journey.  I suggested that we stay in a monastery because that is one of the things that is really characteristically special about traveling here in Italy.  There are monasteries and abbeys, churches, and convents, in every city, all over the countryside, and basically in every major place (or minor) that you would like to visit.  As a result I stumbled upon monasterystays.com--which became a friend, and a foe at the same time.  We had a place to stay, and the only thing left to do was to consider where we wanted to go.  Isabella suggested Assisi and I immediately jumped at the chance because, in my opinion it is one of the most peaceful places I have been before...and it is beautiful.  Quick background on Assisi from my point of view--Assisi is the home base of Saint Frances of Assisi--the guy who preached/talked to animals.  It is medieval and slightly small in the sense that it is not a city like Rome or Florence or even Padova.  For a relatively small town it is full FULL to the brim of churches and religious orders--monks, friars, sisters, nuns, priests--you name it, they've got it (Catholic-wise).  Finally, Assisi is built on a hill(s) in the Italian region of Umbria. It sounds nice, doesn't it?  Here is a picture:

The view from our monastery's front door.

We were decided.  Assisi would be our vacation destination.  I made the reservations (le prenotazioni) on Monasterystays.com.  We chose to stay with a group of nuns and we were honestly extremely excited--how many times in your life can you stay with real nuns?  I booked one twin room and got confirmation of my reservation--only 30 euro a night!  The next day I receive and e-mail saying that they couldn't make a reservation at the abbey so they suggested another monastery.  I booked a twin in that and later got an e-mail saying that they couldn't book it.  My frustration was bubbling up so finally in a desperate act to save our vacation I booked two single rooms in a monastery.  Guess what?  We got it!  Sometimes whims are good.  Like Emerson said, "I'm going to write whim on a post in front of my door" (not directly quoted, but it was something like that).  We finished our written grammar exam (yuck yuck yucky) and an oral exam in which I quoted Kant--can I get a high five from my war class buddies?  Kant and other political philosophers ALWAYS come in handy.  

That night we had dinner at an osteria, which is a traditional Italian restaurant type--it's like a buffet, but it's not.  The people who work there serve plates of food, and you sit with other people at a large table ecc.  It's like what a pub might have been like hundreds of years ago.  But, we had our own private rooms and we basically walked around upstairs and drank wine and ate cheese and meats, polenta-ish things, pasta with pumpkin and mushrooms (in season in season in season) and later a pear and chocolate type of pastry.  Yum.  Did I mention that our professors joined us?  This resulted in conversations about tartuffi (truffles) and all different types of mushrooms (e' anche i funghi magici haha) wild boars, interesting things that we had eaten, mammoni (mama's boys but more specific to Italy--as in "my host brother is 34 and still lives with us."), our host families, our plans for the upcoming semester and other funny and randomly wine induced things.  After, I grabbed a gelato and headed home to pack for my journey--we were leaving the next morning at 9:40 (always a bad idea to leave this early).  Then it was home, packing, and sleep sleep sleep (glorious sleep).

I was up like a madwoman the next morning (Friday/Venerdi) and was excited and prepared BUT my stomach was killing me and I was heartbroken because I had already made plans and paid and I didn't feel good.  Oh and it was raining.  I have a skylight in my room and it is honestly the worst thing to wake up to--rain hitting the window pane and I know I have to make myself walk downstairs to take a shower/go outside to get to the train station.  Bleh.  

I met up with Isabella and our friend Caterina to walk to the train station--we were late, grazie a me. Isabella was sick too--she had a sore throat and cold.  We finally boarded our train after much running and realized that we all had different seats in different compartments on the train--that's what we get for buying our tickets from three different ticket desks.  I left my buddies in terror because the train was made of compartments--think Harry Potter--and I had no idea who I would end up sitting next to.  I ended up in a full compartment of Italians.  One guy was sleeping, the other was looking distrustfully at all of us, one woman was Chinese and talking on her cell phone for the whole trip (in the compartment and I think that the Italians wanted to wring her neck) and there was also an Italian woman who was talking on her phone too (I think the other Italians wanted to wring her neck as well) oh and another girl about my age, who was studying.  So I spent half of the 3 hour ride with them.  They all got off at Bologna and then a new group of younger people entered and we all just sat in silence and read our books for school ecc.  I read Hemingway because it's just a good thing to read when there is nothing else to do, plus I've really gotten into it lately.  

After that train we got off at Florence but we got off at the station outside of the city--not the main station.  So we left Caterina, who was going to Toscana to see her family--and we got on a train for Florence Santa Maria (the bigger station).  From Santa Maria we got on a train to Arezzo because there was a sciopero (strike) and then from Arezzo to Assisi.

Will write more later, am tired.