la mia prima settimana in italia

After the first day of walking around on our own, we ate in the hotel’s restaurant, le Grenier. We had some typical Italian foods in a few courses, which I’m not really a fan of (multiple courses, not the food – that was great!) since I can never eat that much.


The next day we woke up early and repacked everything so that we could move into the program housing. We had breakfast at the hotel. We found out where we were living and I got the residence hall! This was my first choice and lots of people requested it but didn’t get it, so I felt pretty lucky. We walked over there to check out the building and it looked nice from the outside and it wasn’t too far from the hotel, which wasn’t too far from the downtown area. Viterbo is a city with a medieval wall around it and the central “downtown” area is inside the walls. Most of the apartments are inside the walls but the dorms are outside. We took a walk around the center and our program director, Stefano, pointed out some of the sites of Viterbo. After that we got to go back to the hotel and actually move into the housing. Everyone in the apartment’s luggage was taken by a taxi for them, but because the dorms were “close” (closer, but not really close! Not with 2 suitcases, one at 50 pounds and one at 60, plus a backpack weighing about 30) we had to walk with everything. So that took awhile and we felt like we had just run a marathon afterwards, plus the dorms (or anything here) aren’t air conditioned so we just got there and continued to sweat and be really hot. The rooms are really nice though (even with no air-conditioning). We are on the seconda piana, which is really the third floor because they start at floor 0. All 8 of us living here have our own rooms with our own bathrooms and the furniture is newer and we have a desk, wardrobe, nightstand, phone (which has free incoming calls, if you want the number!) 2 chairs, etc. Plus a maid comes everyday and cleans it! The downsides are that it is outside the walls, and most other people live inside the walls, so they are close to restaurants, bars and just about anything.. though we are a bit closer to the Wal-Mart-like grocery store, and the Università Della Tuscia’s other campus (Agraria – Forestry), and we have a communal “kitchen”, which is really only a sink, 2 fridges and 4 hotplates. So cooking is going to be a little hard and I don’t really think I am planning on doing much of it. That night we went out for pizza which was so good. Pizza is EVERYWHERE, seriously everywhere. It’s like their version of fast food. Pizza, pasta and panini are so common. Oh and gelato! I have eaten a lot of pizza since I’ve gotten here and it’s all really, really good. And I have also eaten a lot of gelato, which is even better! Sometimes I have it twice a day. It’s so good though I doubt that I will ever get sick of it!


On the third day, we had school orientation. The campus is so pretty. The bad part was meeting there at like 9 and it being a half hour walk. The school is really old (like everything here) and so are the courtyards and we learned a little about how to get around, then broke for lunch for like 2 hours (a typical lunch break!) and then came back for our first day of class. Beginners had an actual class, but people signed up for intermediate and advanced ha a placement test! It wasn’t so bad though and it was multiple choice. After the test we went around and introduced ourselves. In the beginning I was kind of dreading class because I want to spend all my time traveling and exploring, but after getting our schedules and hearing a little about each class I was so excited! It sounds like they are really going to weave in the culture and the fact that we are in an Italian city into what they are teaching, so everything seems so practical. Plus we have fieldtrips! I can’t wait to start learning Italian again because it’s been awhile since my last class and once we start class up again I’m sure I will get into the flow of speaking Italian a bit more.


Day 4
We did permit of stay paperwork, which was complicated and none of us are really sure why we need it since we have a visa. After that there was a class, but I wasn’t in it, so I was free until later to go and apply for the permit at the post office. My card got stuck in the bancomat that day though, which totally freaked me out. Apparently I entered the wrong pin 3 times and so the ATM took it! I went into the bank to talk to someone and no one spoke English. The only good part about this day was that I was able to explain and have this conversation with the teller about how the ATM took my card. I felt pretty good about that but not about the fact that she said they would not give it back to me. Luckily after I explained that I would be studying here for 4 months and would need the card she said if I could come back with a director or professor that they would give it back. This night we also went to a place inside the San Pellegrino section of Viterbo, which is the oldest preserved medieval town in Europe! Apparently Viterbo is so well intact because of the fact that people don’t really know about it so much (and I think there was less bombing during the wars).


Day 5
We had some more orientation at the Università’s other campus, Agraria, and then had an American woman who lived here in Viterbo explain a little about this Santa Rosa festival that would be going on that night. Santa Rosa is the patron saint of Viterbo and ever since we have arrived that has been all anyone talks about! Thursday is the actual holiday when things are closed, but on Wednesday night is when the real festivities happen. Santa Rosa was apparently a young girl who wanted to be a nun but she was crippled and they said she was too stupid and didn't have enough money to be a nun. Later on she died and the pope had 3 dreams about her so they dug her body up a week after she died it hadn’t decomposed so they realized that she was a saint (or something like that, really I don’t get any of this). So when they realized that, they took her body and put it in the nunnery where she really wanted to be (her body is still in there for anyone to see anytime!) Now every year they parade her body through the streets during the day, and at night, a group of 100 men native of Viterbo in white called “facchini”, carry a huge statue that was built in her honor through the city. In between some Santa Rosa festivities we got to see the dress rehearsal of the only opera being shown in Viterbo this year, il Barbiere di Siviglia (Barber of Seville). I don’t even like opera, and I didn’t know what was going on, but it was amazing!! The singing and the orchestra - like seriously, we all just could not believe that we had just seen an Italian opera in a seriously old opera house in Italy! After that it was time to sit on the street to wait for the parade, which didn’t start until 9 pm, however, people begin lining up at 12 noon or even earlier! And it was so, so crowded! Everyone must have come from not only Viterbo, but the outside surrounding towns, and there were cameras and newspapers taking pictures, this was like bigger than a national holiday for us in the States. Afterwards there were fireworks too! During the parade, they turn off all the lights in the city and light the statue up with candles. It was quite a site.


Day 6
Thursday is the actual holiday for Santa Rosa. The entire area inside the walls (the downtown area) was filled with street venders selling anything you could ever imagine. They had housewares, clothing, bags, pets, vacuums, food, everything!

i'll post the rest later, ciao!