Eight Years Later . . .

It's been over eight years since I last posted to this blog. Eight years of growing up, eight years of change, and eight years of reflection have ensued.

I started this blog because I was studying abroad and wanted a means of communicating with my family. Posts took on the form of a travelogue with occasional musings about my new Italian life compared with my life in New Hampshire. Reading the posts now provides a sometimes clear and sometimes foggy view of that person I was at 20. They're fun to read. It seems like it was another lifetime ago, and, at times, it seems like it wasn't me writing the posts at all – I'm that far removed from the place and time in which the posts were written. But it is fun to go back to those places I wrote about, to look again at pictures and recall the adventures and misadventures I engaged in during those closing months of 2008.

Oh, if I could talk to that kid before he boarded the flight from Boston that would take him to Amsterdam, and then from Amsterdam to Rome. If we could speak before the three hour bus ride from Rome to Ascoli Piceno, or in the taxi on the way from Ascoli's bus station to the hotel lobby that managed the apartment I'd be sharing with another UNH student. If we could exchange words as my younger self, jet-lagged and undergoing the initial stage of culture shock, struggled to carry his luggage through medieval cobblestoned streets . . .

What would I say to my younger self, so eager to part from his small world in search of things he'd dreamed about, imagined and reimagined? So sure of himself, so prepared for adventure. Overconfident. Overzealous. Sheltered. What should one say, if given the chance, to his younger self? Breathe. Observe. Don't worry about failure: you're going to fail and fail and fail. Just work harder.

I'd say this, I think, and other things: eat everything; talk to one new person each day; Italian is going to be hard (see above), but keep working at it; write; travel even more than you're planning to travel; don't worry so much about money, it'll all work itself out; drink coffee in Piazza del Popolo each day; try harder to be a nicer person.

Oh, if I could reach through space and time and tell myself these things. If I could, if I could, if I could . . .

But time and space don't work like that. Reaching myself at 20 is not possible. The best I can do is hope that someday I'll visit once more those places I wrote of long ago, and, in that far off, future visitation, I'll remember this post and what I would like to have said to myself when I first embarked with stars in my eyes for that older world.

In America

And so, the journey has ended.

The dream has been realized.

I had thought, upon re-entry into the USA, I'd be feeling some culture shock having been away from everything American for the past three months, but that really hasn't happened. I've been back for over a month now and I'm okay. Maybe it's because I've been working and have been surrounded by Christmas that I haven't had a chance to reflect on everything that's happened over the past three months.

I've woken up a few days in the morning with Ascoli on my mind. One day I woke up with a vision of me walking through Piazza del Popolo. Weird, huh?

It's been only a month, but it seems like a lot longer since I've been in Italy. I guess that's part of the re-entry process. My adopted home for three months is calling back to me in a way.

Italy: I'll be back, someday. Studying abroad has given me a great energy and thirst for knowledge, life and traveling. It's given me my dreams. It was everything I wanted it to be.

I'd love to write some sweeping expression of my time in Italy. I wish I could do that, capture my whole experiance in a grand paragraph of inspiration describing Italian excellence, but it wouldn't be accurate. No matter what I write about Italy my words wouldn't be true.

The country is so filled with expression and vibrancy that no words can capture it. Not even a writer far more experienced than I could do justice.

And, although I cannot wrap this blog up in such a way, I can provide some advice for my readers. It's short, but it's the one thing that I've learned over and over again during my time in Italy: Travel.

Yeah, I know travel is expensive and the economy isn't doing great right now. But, it will look up and there will be an oppurtunity. And when it comes take it! You'll be so glad you did. I sure am.

Ciao,

Alex


PS. Thanks to my teachers Dana and Susi who wrote reccomendation letters for me, Joanne Conrad in the guidance department at UNH Manchester for helping me with the application process, to Silvia, Cristian, Diana, Jessica, Adam and Christina for making the UNH-in-Italy classes so enjoyable. Thanks to the kids at San Agostino's who made my Monday and Tuesday mornings loud, but so much fun. Thank you to my family, especially to my mom and dad.

Thank you to everyone at my work and thanks to my boss who gave me my job back when I returned!

Lastly, thanks to the people and the city of Ascoli Piceno. I love them so much and cannot wait until we meet again.

The Last Full Week: Review, Thanksgiving, Offida and Grottammare

A View of the Historical Center of Grottammare

For Thanksgiving, most of us students went over the girls’ apartment. Erica, Darin, and Samantha made turkey, green beans, potatoes, salad, bruschetta and antipasto. I made sauce and brought it over for the second course.

We made the best out of what we could find in Italy. The turkey was turkey breast, not a whole bird. In Italy, they don’t sell whole birds in the marketplace. You have to special order turkeys from the meat.

However, they do regularly sell turkey breasts prepackaged in the meat case. Darin told me he basted the turkey with chicken broth. It was really moist and served as a pretty good substitute for a real bird.

For dessert, the girls bought panatone. Panatone is an Italian. It resembles the same consistency of fruitcake. Panatone is not my favorite. I brought a large Toblerone bar to share.

Of course, I wish I could have spent Thanksgiving with my family. It was great to talk to my aunts, my grandmas, my mom and dad, my brother and sister and my cousin Marissa. I really miss them, and on Thanksgiving it was a little bit hard for all of us to be away from our families. We will all be home for Christmas, though, and that’ll be great!

On Friday, Ben, Samantha and I went to Offida for the day. It was a 45 minute bus ride from the Giogli Hotel near one of the movie theatres in Ascoli. It was cold out and it poured for most of the day.



Upon getting to Offida and entering the historical center through a portal in the medieval wall, we found that Offida didn’t have much to offer. We got there around 1:00, and in Italy that means everything is closed. Everything.

There were several bars that were open, though. During our time in Offida, with nothing else to do, we visited three of them. In the first one, Sam and I got coffee and Ben got a sandwich. The second and third one, we all got glasses of wine.



To be honest with you, this was a really fun experience. The last bar we went to was decorated for Christmas and it was a very nice Italian café in Offida. I bought funghetti, which are little anise cookies that are shaped like mushrooms. They taste identical to the cookies my grandmother makes, except hers are dipped in confectioners sugar and have jimmies on them.

Even if we had come in the morning or stayed until the late afternoon, we probably wouldn’t have missed much. Offida is very small and when we were walking around we didn’t even see a lot of shops.

And visiting cafes isn’t so bad. And the views of Offida were beautiful. So, I am glad that I went.

When I walked back home from the bus stop I went through Piazza Arringo. There was a big wooden layout on the piazza. There were wood beams and people working on making what looks like a stage. I found out later that they are building an ice-skating rink for Christmas. That must be the wildest thing to have an ice-skating rink right in the piazza. Unfortunately, I’ll probably miss the finished product, but it did seem really cool.

Saturday, Samantha and I went to Grottammare, the seacoast town next to San Benedetto del Tronto. It was about a 45 minute train ride from Ascoli to Grottammare and we had to change trains in SBT.

We walked around the town for a bit and then walked to the historical center on top of a hill. The historical center was a small maze of streets with old brick houses running slanted on steep hills. It was beautiful.



Grottammare is very much an extension of San Benedetto. The two cities are a three minute train ride away from each other and they look identical.

Unfortunately, in winter, a lot of the shops are closed as both Grottammare and San Benedetto are summer resort towns. Still, we found some stuff to see and do. We had piazza bianca at a pizzeria in the center of town. The pizza is a piece of bread lightly brushed with garlic and olive oil and topped with some rosemary. It was very good.

Sunday, I packed some of my luggage, studied and cleaned the apartment. Tonight, more studying for Silvia's Italian test tomorrow and then more packing.

Today, I had my final for Christina's art class and the speaking portion of my Italian test. I think they went well.

In between Italian and Art, I had my last lesson with the 5th grade students at St. Agostino's. Over the past few weeks, I've been dictating sentences for them to write. After, we go over it together and fix any mistakes. Along the way, I taught them some grammar and colloquialisms that are used in the Northeast. I'm really going to miss those kids. The experience hasn't changed my career aspects to that of a elementary school teacher, but now I know that if that's where I end up, it wouldn't be so bad. Tomorrow will be my last day with the 3rd graders.

Then, I'll be leaving on the 2:30 bus to Rome. I'm going to stay about two miles away from the airport at a hotel and will fly out Wednesday morning at 10:00. I have a 2 hour stopover in Amsterdam, and will get into Boston around 5. Including the stopover, my total travel time clocks in at around 13 hours!

My time here is almost done. Reflections of my time will come in a little while, once I've gotten back and have settled back into home. After that I'll be blogging from a different website: www.writingcontemporary.blogspot.com Stay tuned!

Alex

The Premiere of Ascoli Ottobre

I finally did it! Here's the video I made for my Italian cinema class earlier this semester. I hope you enjoy it!

The Beach in San Benedetto and the Heights of San Marino

My classes are slowing down and we’re preparing for our final exams next week. I’ve started sorting through things I won’t be bringing home with me and I’ve been very surprised to learn that I have accumulated many things over the past three months. School papers and train and museum tickets make up a small pile in one of my drawers. I have to sort through all this stuff and decide what to bring home and what to leave here in Ascoli. That, along with studying, will fill up most of my last weekend in Italy.


Friday, Phil and I walked about an hour from our house to Oasi, the mall in Ascoli Piceno. We’d both never been there and it was something different to do for the day. The mall was very modern inside and I felt as if I walked through a door to an American mall. Going to the mall was an escape from Italy. It really felt that way, like suddenly I was in the Mall of New Hampshire walking around. This mall, however, has a huge grocery store in it that sells food, clothes, home goods and other things; the Italian Super Walmart, I guess.

On Friday, I had actually planned to visit San Marino for the day, but woke up too late to be able to make an early train. I was also tired and didn’t feel like traveling for the day. So, I postponed my trip to San Marino until Saturday.

Friday night, six of us took an afternoon train from Ascoli Piceno to San Benedetto. San Benedetto is a resort town along the eastern coast of Italy that the Italians frequent during the summer months. It’s about a forty-five minute train ride and a fifteen minute walk from the train station to the center of town.

We planned to walk around the town and sit on the beach for a while. We went to EuroSpin, a grocery store near the train station, and bought a couple bottles of wine, cookies and chips.

When we got there, we walked about fifteen minutes to the beach. We sat for a couple hours listening to music, drinking wine and eating. We went in the water up to our ankles. It was very cold, but certainly not as cold as if I had gone in the water in Hampton Beach in November. It was a very relaxing night. Sam brought a blanket from her apartment and we all talked for a while. We reminisced about our time here and we all couldn’t believe how fast the time has gone by and that our time in Ascoli is nearly over.

After the beach, we walked around the shops of SBT, and made our way back to the train station, the ankles our jeans wet from the water.

When we got back to Ascoli, we went for Chinese food at the restaurant near our school. Surprisingly, I was not disappointed. On that particular night, they were having a buffet, and although it was small spread, it consisted of descent food. Still not as good as the American version, but an effort was made.

Saturday, I had planned to get on the 6:08 am train to San Marino, but I woke up around 9. I had set my phone to wake me up at 5, but when it rang, I was too tired to get up and went back to sleep.

When I got up, I decided that I had to go somewhere on Saturday. The Eurail pass I had bought before I came here had one day of travel left on it and it was going to expire on the 24th of November, during the school week. So, I got dressed, flipped through a few Italian travel books and headed towards the train station.

I got on a train that was going to Turin and would pass Fano and Rimini. In one of the travel books I read before heading out, I read that Fano has a nice historical center and from Rimini I could take the bus to San Marino if I still wanted to go there. I would decide on my way there.

I found the train, hopped on, put on my Ipod and tried to make up my mind about Fano or San Marino.

When we got to Fano, I had decided to go to San Marino. I had been planning on it, and it wasn’t too much further on the train. About 45 minutes later, I arrived in Rimini, found where the bus station was, asked a guy where I could buy the ticket for the Rimini to San Marino bus and when the next one would come. He told me the bus would leave at 2:30, and that I could buy a ticket on the bus.


Since I got to Rimini at about 1:20 and the next bus to San Marino would leave at 2:30, I had an hour to walk around the town. Of what I saw of Rimini, I wasn’t too impressed. It was an average town, but they did have Christmas decorations hanging from the buildings, so it looked really nice. All the stores where closed for midday break though, so I just walked around, drank an espresso at a café and headed back to the bus stop.

I bought a ticket to San Marino from a woman who arrived at the bus station and was selling them from her pocketbook. I had to ask myself if it was legit for a minute, but everyone else was buying their tickets from her, so I did too.

The bus took about 20 minutes to get to the Republic of San Marino and then another 25 minutes to wind up a mountain to the capital of the small country, San Marino. I got to the city around 3:20.

Once I got off, I checked the sign at the bus stop to find out when I could get on the bus back to Rimini: either at 5 or at 7. I planned to take the five o’clock; it would give me an hour and a half to explore. As it turns out, that was the perfect amount of time to go for as there wasn’t too much to see.


Most of San Marino is covered with little shops and cafes. To get to them, I had to walk up steep hills and side streets. I just kept going up, far up the mountain to other little shops and cafes and to the views of the castles in the distance.
Remember when I told you about my fear of heights when I climbed the tower in Bologna? Well, that same fear came rushing back to me when I was in San Marino.

The capital is on a very big mountain that overlooks many other big mountains. Those other mountains in the distance serve to remind a person how far up they are. Also, it was windy and cold.


At many points during my trip I thought I would fall off one of the ledges. In general though, I try my hardest not to go near ledges whenever they are present. Most of the pictures I took of the surrounding mountains were taken from about five to ten feet away from any ledges.

This doesn’t apply, however, to the castle I went in while in San Marino. It wasn’t so much a castle as it was a watchtower that you could walk around. The watchtower was situated on the highest point of the mountain. It wasn’t a good idea for me. My body was shaking the whole time I was there, and I had to hold the bridge of my glasses to my face or I would have lost them due to the cold wind blowing in my face.


Anyone who is afraid of heights shouldn’t go to San Marino. I shouldn’t have gone to San Marino. The more times that I face my fear of heights really only makes me more afraid of them. I thought it would do the opposite and the fear would dwindle. I was wrong.


Still, San Marino was beautiful. It was a nice daytrip and it’s good to get away from Ascoli for a day. Ascoli is beautiful, but to appreciate the quaintness of it, it’s necessary to leave for a little while.

I got on the bus back to Rimini at five. I went to the train station and had to wait 45 minutes for a train to bring me back to SBT. I took that train, listened to some music and fell asleep. I arrived in SBT about three hours later and a bus to Ascoli was waiting right outside the station and would leave in ten minutes. I ran to the automated machine, put in the 2.50 euro for a ticket, and headed back to Ascoli Piceno.

Today, with nothing to do on Sunday, I walked back to the mall with Sam. Everything is closed on Sundays except for the mall. I just found out the other day that the mall is opened on Sundays and also doesn’t close for midday break. Oh, well, better late than never.

Sam and I walked the 45 minutes there in the cold, walked around the mall, stopped at a couple places for coffee and pizza and then headed back. I think I’m done with my Ascoli mall experiences. It was good to escape the “Italianess” that I’ve been surrounded by for three months and have a taste of America.

The cold has settled over Ascoli these past few days and just when I thought the hat and gloves I brought with me from home would go unused during my stay in Italy. Certainly, the weather is not as cold as it must be back in New Hampshire, but it’s cold enough to be wearing hats, gloves and heavy coats. It’s a good warm up for me to get used to the cold back home.

Alex

A Skeletal Update

The bodies that I mentioned in a previous post are the bodies of monks.

They found five different skeletons: four men and one woman. They think the woman's body was buried before the monks. In the middle ages, people liked to be buried near the grounds of monasteries and piazza that the site is near was part of a former monastery.

The Classrooms of UNH-in-Italy

The UNH-in-Italy telecom button.

So I’ve been here nearly three months and have yet to showcase the UNH-in-Italy classrooms. There’s not much to see, but it’s been my workplace in Italy for the past couple of months, so it is worth noting and documenting this part of my experience.

This is the door outside of where UNH-in-Italy is located. To the left is Bistro, a café that is frequented often by us UNH-in-Italy students.

This is the courtyard of the building the school is in.

This is the door of the UNH-in-Italy program. Behind this door are the classrooms. The stairs on the left of the door is where we students sit and get internet access when the school is closed.

I spend every weekday from 8-8:30 sitting on these steps getting internet from the wireless network before the school opens.

This is an entrance room where Diana, the assistant to Christian, the director, has her desk. The entrance room leads to the other classrooms.

This is the computer room located off to the right of the entrance, where we students spend most of our time. Christian and Julia, the resident director, both have their offices in the rooms behind the doors in the computer room.


From the computer room, you can head through a door on the right that leads to the copy and supply room and the faculty bathroom. Going through the portal door on the right, you can take a left to get to the bathroom, or a right to get to the two classrooms. The first classroom has an oval table where I have my art class with Christina on Mondays from 12-4 with an hour lunch break from 2:30-4:30.

If you head straight down the hallway, you get to the larger of the two classrooms where I have language class from Monday to Thursday 9-11 with Silvia and, when Adam and Jessica were here, I had cinema class on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11-2.

And so, the grand tour is over.

Skeletons, Urbino, Rain and Dinner

First things first: There are skeletons in Ascoli.

The locals have been doing construction on the streets ever since we arrived in Ascoli and last week, on the street next to the Piazza where the fruit and vegetable market is held, they happened to stumble across the bones of three skeletons of who I assume were previous Ascoli residents.

I have no idea who the people were; all I know is that the Ascolians have been walking on their remains for hundreds of years.

I went to take a few pictures of the archeologists digging up the bones, making graphs of the area and taking pictures. Just another day in Ascoli.

Once again, classes rolled steadily by. Nothing new about my classes to report except that they’re almost done, which provides equal measure of happiness and sadness.

On Wednesday Manlio, a guy that lives in Ascoli and works at a travel agency near the school, came in the UNH office and spoke with Diana, the program assistant. He had heard that there were American students studying in the building and was looking for someone to speak English with as he plans to go to Australia in a few months.

Ben, Phil and I were in the computer room when he came in. Manlio asked if any of us were busy the next day around lunchtime to go and have lunch and talk in Italian and English. Phil did most of the talking and told Manlio that he and Ben were busy with classes during lunchtime the next day, but that I would be free. I agreed and we made plans to meet at Bistro, a café on the first floor of our school, for lunch.

Thursday at 1, after Italian class, Manlio and I met and had sandwiches at the café and talked for a couple hours in English and Italian (Okay mostly in English and about 15 minutes in Italian) about politics, American school systems, Italian school systems, girls, our jobs, the world financial crisis, Obama and McCain, Berlusconi, our families, and what countries we’ve been to and want to go to, and also what we want to do in the future.

It was great to talk to an Italian about his life in Ascoli. Once again I must say that Italians are not much different from us. They have the same worries, fears, successes and failures; it’s just in a different language!

At the end of our lunch, Manlio invited me and my friends to his friend’s house for dinner on Saturday night. I agreed, and started rallying the troops.

Although everybody initially said they would come, 7 of us total minus Ben who was in Finland for the weekend, only 3 of us went. The other four were sketched out by Manlio’s invitation. They didn’t understand why he was inviting us all over for dinner. I did my best to explain that Italians were very hospitable and generous, that this offering was a cultural extension that they would otherwise never experience; they wouldn’t budge. Their loss.

Point of interest: When given these unique cultural opportunities, take them!

So, on Saturday night Phil, Cameron and I went to Manlio’s friend’s house and had a meal of pasta, sausages and pork roasted on an open fire, wine and roasted chestnuts for dessert. All the food was great, except the chestnuts weren’t nearly as good as they looked. They lacked flavor and consistency. Now I can say I tried them though! At dinner were a bunch of Manlio’s friends, and we talked, half in English, half in Italian about a bunch of stuff.

It was a really great night. I’m happy that Manlio came to the office because I wouldn’t have been given this great experience otherwise.

Friday, I went to Urbino for the day with Chelsea and Samantha, two other students from the program. Urbino is a small town three hours north of Ascoli. We took the 6:08am train from Ascoli Piceno to San Benedetto, and then took a second train from SBT to Pesaro. As there is no direct line to Urbino, we had to take a bus from Pesaro to get to our final destination.

When I got off the bus from Pesaro around 10, it was pouring. The girls had umbrellas; I forgot to bring mine and had to use a five euro newspaper I bought in San Benedetto to keep me dry for 15 minutes before I found a store and bought one for 2.50 euro.

It rained all day, and the mountains that surround the town and are supposed to highlight its beauty were not visible because of the massive blanket of fog that was set over the city. Still, it was a great day.

We walked around, and went to Palazzo Ducale, once the massive home of the Duke of Urbino, and now a Renaissance art museum. We went for lunch at an osteria and I had pasta with wild boar meat for my primo piatto and lamb stew Urbino style for my secondo. We shared a bottle of wine and a plate of olives, also done in the Urbino style as they were marinated in wild fennel and garlic.

Unfortunately, after lunch we found that most of the stores and sites were closed for midday break, so we walked around and did what we could do. It was a nice daytrip to another area of the Marche region. On the way home, we bought a bottle of wine and some cookies to ease the long ride home. I suggest doing this for long train rides.

Saturday and Sunday and today, Monday, it rained. All day. Nonstop. The antique market was in town, but there weren’t nearly as many stalls on account of the rain. Hopefully it’ll clear up soon. I’d really enjoy some sun before heading back to the New Hampshire.

And, I’ll be heading back soon. This past week I changed my flight to come home December 8th to December 3rd. Don’t ask my why. The agent on the phone said the fare was the same and I’d just have to pay a penalty from the airlines. She said she had my credit card number on file and asked if I wanted to switch it right then, without hesitation I said yes. Since then, I’ve thought about a million and a half reasons why I should have stuck it out until the 8th, but one big reason it’s good that I’m coming home on the third is that I really miss my family. It’s going to be great to see them.

Alex

PS: Thursday night at Laliva, Marinella taught us how to make meatballs. Grandma Rose: you might have some competition when I get back in town!

Rome, Cooking Classes and Florence

Last Friday I ventured off with the UNH Italy crew for a night stay in Rome where we were to meet Christina, my art history teacher, on Saturday for a tour of the Bourghese Gallery. We all woke up early and met at the train station in Ascoli for the 6 am bus to Rome. Most of us slept the whole way there, me included.

Once there, we briefly settled into our hotel and ventured out onto the streets of Rome. Two students went with Julia, the resident director and teacher of a criminology class, to a criminology museum that I was told after was really gruesome and interesting. The museum showcased different ancient to modern time torture devices and methods. Phil told me it was really cool.

Some other kids ventured off to the Coliseum, but I had already done that with my parents and grandmother. So, instead I wanted to go and see some of the things we missed during our stay in Rome a couple weeks prior.


I went to the Pantheon and Piazza Navona, the Piazza in Rome that hold the Fountain of the Four Rivers, a supposedly beautiful fountain. I say supposedly because when I arrived, it was covered in scaffolding and I was only able to see a shoulder of one of the four statues that adorn the fountain.

Other than that, the Piazza was a bit uninspiring as it was covered with people selling their art and cafes that didn’t look too welcoming. It was a nice area, but very crowded.

After, I went to an Osteria and had two Roman specialties: Spaghetti alla’cabonara and a lamb shank. Both were delicious.

I went to the Pantheon near Piazza Navona afterwards. The Pantheon is a beautiful building of Roman antiquity, the only building from ancient times that holds is structure. From the audio guide I listened to, I learned that the Pantheon today is very similar to what it looked like to the ancient Romans. It was originally designed as a temple for all gods, but after Christianity was introduced as the official religion of the Roman Empire, it was changed to be a place of Christian worship and is now adorned with statues of the Virgin and Apostles.

Getting late, I decided to navigate the Roman bus system to get back to the hotel. With only a little bit of trouble I found the hotel.

Okay, I lied.

I actually had a lot of trouble getting back to the hotel: I must have gotten on and off a half dozen buses trying to find a bus that would bring me back to the train station. From there, I would be able to navigate my way back to the hotel.

Hopping on and off each bus I was really nervous, because I wasn’t quite paying for all the rides. You see, not all the buses have ticket machines in them. So, I was paying for 45 minutes at a time on some buses, and then when the 45 minutes ran out and I found myself on a different bus without a ticket machine. I was riding kind of illegally.

No big deal though, I didn’t get caught. I’m sure that a lot of locals do the same thing I did, there’s no one to catch you if you don’t pay.

Anyway, side note: If any of you ever go to Rome, there are two train stations, one called the Termini and the other the San Pietro Stazione. I learned that there were two the hard way. But, I finally did get back to the hotel.

Phil was back from the museum, so we went out for a very cheap dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Once again, I was not impressed by the Italian version of Chinese food. Not nearly as satisfying as the version we get in the US. I probably won’t be doing that again.

On Saturday morning we all met Christina at the Borghese Gallery. We took a tour of the Renaissance Palazzo of the Borghese family where I was able to see a lot of impressive art.

The only problem with art is, for me, after you see so much of it, it all looks the same. It was a great tour, and Christina is a great tour guide and teacher, but sometimes art is just art.

Sometimes after a while it hurts my head to have to listen to someone analyze every single work of art we see, providing historical significance, back-story, and artistic techniques used. Not really my thing. I guess that is just the consequence of being in a place that inspired so many different art styles and movements and is saturated with the stuff.

After the tour, some of a few of us took the 2:30 bus back to Ascoli, and a few others stayed an extra night in Rome. After two times visiting Rome, I didn’t feel that I needed to spend an extra day there, so I was off to Ascoli.

From there, the week flew by. School went by as normal.

On Wednesdays, I have been attending a cultural walking tour of Ascoli. A retired professor and novelist leads a few of us around the town and explains the historical significance of things around it.

The tours started two weeks ago: the first week we visited a section of an old B.C. Roman road in a building on Piazza Arringo, and another section of the road in Piazza del Popolo. Last week, we walked up a hill and saw part of an old Roman architectural device and then went to the Roman doors and theatre near my house. We also walked along the medieval road that borders one of the rivers in the city. Once again, I was struck by how much history is soaked into this small city in the Marche region; it’s such a wild feeling.


From the left: Kay, the resident director's son, Phil, Ben, Cameron, Chelsea, Sam and me

On Thursday afternoon, the group of us UNHers went to Laliva, a trattoria located off of Piazza Arringo, for cooking classes with the chef, Marinella. While we were there for a few hours, she taught us how to make two different types of sauces.



One of the sauces was made with celery, carrots, onions, olive oil and tomato sauce. Once everything was cooked and soft, she blended everything together and created a smooth sauce. It was really sweet and delicious. I have never seen anyone add celery and carrots to a pasta sauce, but I made it myself the other tonight for dinner and it was really good!



We also made a veal dish and Marinella cooked up some of her stuffed olives for us. Next class, she said she will show us how to make them. There are three more cooking classes, each Thursday at four. Afterwards, we eat what we made. It really was an awesome experience to cook with a chef in Italy and I’m looking forward to the next classes and to the Thursday night dinners!



Sunday, I got back from a weekend trip to Florence. I had been there before when I came to Italy in my senior year of high school, but since I have the opportunity to see it again, I took advantage of it and on Friday I hopped on a 6 am train to San Benedetto del Tronto. From SBT I went to Bologna and from Bologna I arrived in Florence on a third train.

The unfortunate thing about living in Ascoli is that it takes a few extra steps to get to other cities and towns in Italy. Bologna is actually located north of Florence. Since there is no line from SBT to Florence, I had to go to Bologna, which has a large train station that serves as the hub and gateway from the south to the north of Italy. So, I caught that train and arrived in Florence in the afternoon with little trouble at all. This train experience was by far the smoothest I had, and although I wouldn’t call myself a pro at navigating the system quite yet, I sure am getting there.

Once I got to my hotel, Hotel Signoria, a surprisingly cheap hotel right near the Ponte Vecchio (or Old Bridge in English), and a short walking distance from all the “must see” attractions in Florence, I dropped my bags off and headed off to explore.





I walked through Palazzo Signoria and then walked to the Duomo. I almost convinced myself to climb up to the steps of the Duomo to see Florence from there, but after briefly recalling my fear of climbing the tower in Bologna, I decided it would be better to keep my feet on the ground this trip.




I walked on the Ponte Vecchio, one of the only bridges in Florence that was spared in World War II, apparently because Hitler thought it was too beautiful to destroy. A long time ago, the bridge used to hold a fruit, seafood and meat market in the stalls that line the bridge, but a king, not sure which one, thought that is smelled too much, so he kicked them all out and replaced them with the gold merchants that line the streets to this very day. The gold was beautiful and very expensive. No purchased were made.

On Friday night, having honed my cooking skills the night before, I signed up for a Tuscan cooking course across the Ponte Vecchio. I met a few Australian students and a few older American couples traveling through Italy on vacation. There, we made gnocchi, panecotta, crepes, and a few other dishes. It was a good experience, but I have to say that compared to Marinella’s class the night before, it wasn’t as good. Still though, I learned a lot that I will be able to take back home and that will help me show up my dad in the kitchen!

Saturday, I took a tour of the Academia and the Uffizi Gallery. After a half hour in the Academia that similar feeling about art felt in the Borghese Gallery came back again, and I started to get bored. Still though, it was a good tour. I got to see Michelangelo’s David for the second time and then went to the Uffizi for the first time and was able to see a lot of Renaissance masterpieces. Of all the paintings in the museum, Leonardo da Vinci’s Annunciation was by far my favorite. Although online pictures don’t do it justice, I suggest you google the picture and take a look, it really is quite a stylistically impressive and beautiful painting.

I walked around the town some more, and then headed to bed for an early return to Ascoli Piceno on Sunday. As getting to Ascoli on Sunday can be a bit of a hassle because trains don’t run to Ascoli on Sundays, I decided to give myself the day to get back.

Once again, the train system provided no hassles. I was lucky that once I got to San Benedetto, there was a bus to Ascoli leaving in 20 minutes. I hopped on and got back to my apartment around two in the afternoon. I did some homework, made dinner, studied for a test I had the next day and soon went to bed.

And now it’s Tuesday. I’m doing well and hope you all are too.

Alex

A Word About Being Halfway There

So, this dream of mine is nearing complete realization. I’ve done it. I’ve planned, saved and studied and now I am here. I can't bring myself to imagine that it’s halfway over.

I’ve gotten over the transition phases of studying abroad and I am finally getting my feet settled in this soil.

I can't believe my luck: I'm in Italy; I'm living here and doing great.

Sure, I miss home and have had to struggle a few times when all I wanted to do was see my family. I think I'm okay now, especially after seeing my grandma and parents a few weeks ago. Seeing them made me realize home will always be home and it'll always be there for me. They’ll all be there, too.

What won't be is this experience. In the remaining five weeks I really need to sink my mind and soul into this place, soaking up all it has to offer.

This experience has given me a sense of how big the world is. Coming to Italy for a week when I was a senior in high school really didn’t do that. It was a vacation, more of a time to see the monuments and the beauty cities had to offer. It was an inspiring time that I wouldn't trade for anything, but different than what I'm doing now.

This has been much more a cultural experience. I'm partaking in the daily life of Italians.

It’s given me a life’s worth of stories and memories. A dream that seemed out of reach for so long.

The saying “Dreams come true” is cliché, but true. They do come true. This experience has enhanced my life in so many ways and I will remain forever thankful to everyone who has helped get me here.

Cheers to being halfway there and to dreams coming true.

Alex

Break Week: Rome, Ascoli Piceno, Venice and Bologna in Eight Days

It’s been a long week and I have had a lot of fun.

Last Friday at 6 am I walked to the Ascoli Piceno bus stop and with a sore throat I boarded the bus en route to Rome. I was very tired and not feeling so well, so I quickly drifted off to sleep and woke up around 9:20 a.m. in Rome at the START bus station I had waited at when I first arrived in Italy for my study abroad.

I walked around for a few minutes trying to find a cab that would bring me to the Marco Polo hotel that my family and I would be staying for three nights. Within a few minutes I spotted a taxi stand and walked over to ask a driver for a ride. I showed him the reservation for the hotel with the address on it that I had printed out the day before. He looked at me and shook his head, pointing straight ahead. From what I could understand, he told me I was about five minutes away from the hotel and he wouldn’t drive me because we were so close. And he was right.

Quickly I found the hotel, a few steps away from the Termini train station in Rome and hopped on the elevator to the third floor. The guy at the reservation desk, an American from Philidelphia that had moved to Italy with his mother a few years back, told me my room would not be ready for a few hours and let me leave my bag in the lobby.

I ventured out on my own around the train station area in Rome. There wasn’t much to see. I had to stop a few times to load up on cough drops and water. My cold had just started a few days before and was only getting worse.

I went back to the hotel around 2:15, and was told by the guy from Philly that my room was still not ready. It would be ready around three and I could wait in the lobby or go back out. I decided to wait, and soon enough I was led into the room. It was a small quad, but fortunately very clean.

I was hoping that the hotel would offer some channels in English, but I had no luck: all Italian. So, I surfed the internet for a bit with my laptop, and then took a nap. Soon there was a knock at the door and I ran to open it to discover my mom, dad, and grandma, fresh off the plane with traveler’s tales of their own.

Over the next few days we went around Rome.

The day after they arrived, we bought tickets for a “Hop On Hop Off” bus that took us to all the really important must-see things in Rome. We spent half a day at the Vatican Museums, and the next day we toured the Roman Forum and the Coliseum. We also went to the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps and went for a few good dinners during our time in Rome.


Rome is a beautiful city. It's everything you have ever heard or read about. It sinks into the bones, a blanket city of Italian iconography.

The next stop on our trip: Ascoli Piceno. We had planned to spend the full third day during the trip in Ascoli. I had planned for us to take a 9 a.m. bus from Rome to arrive in Ascoli around 12:00. We all got our stuff packed and were at the bus station to buy our tickets and hop on the bus.

The ticket agent, however, told us that there was no 9 a.m. bus to Ascoli and that the next one would leave at 2:30. Apparantly, I had read the time table wrong, and the bus would leave Ascoli at 9 to come to Rome, not Rome to Ascoli. So, we spent a half day in Rome around the Spanish steps and had overpriced coffee at a nearby café and sandwiches and gelato sitting at the Fontana della Barcaccia (Old Boat Fountain) at the bottom of the Spanish Steps.

We did make it on the 2:30 bus to Ascoli and a few hours later were eating dinner at Lalivia, a tratoria next near Piazza Arringo. The food there was delicious. I actually just found out that starting next Thursday, I'll be taking cooking classes there with my fellow UNHers. I'm very excited about this.

The next day we walked around, had coffee at Café Meletti and a round of drinks at The Murphy’s, a bar in Piazza Arringo run and owned by a Polish guy. Since Murphy is my brother-in-law and sister’s last name, we toasted to them and to our trip in Italy.

That night we went out to Cantina dell’Arte (or The Art Cellar) for another great meal.

In Ascoli, my parents and grandmother stayed at Hotel Guiderocchi. It was a beautiful hotel and the staff was very nice. Even though I was not staying there, they let me eat breakfast with my parents and my grandmother. Their room was very beautiful and I spent a while watching American television on the Skye cable they offered.

After Ascoli, we took a train to Venice for a few days. It was my second trip to Venice and the city was no less stunning this time around. Piazza San Marco has always been a favorite of mine and seeing it for the second time was amazing. A person really feels the weight and power of the Venetian empire when they stand in the square, dwarfed by the massive and imposing buildings and the unique beauty of San Marco’s Basilica.


After Venice, we hopped on a train to Bologna and soon were relaxing at a café overlooking Piazza Maggiore. Nothing has changed since I have last been to Bologna. There is stuff to see and do, but it doesn't quite compare to other Italian travel destinations that are scattered throughout the peninsula.

We walked around, saw the couple of things that are there to see, and then went for a nice dinner at an osteria near the hotel. An osteria is an inn that also has a restaurant. The food was really good and it was an excellent way to spend the last night of our Italian vacation.

The next morning at 5 a.m.I wished them good bye as they headed back home. I went back to bed for a few hours and hopped on the 9:29 train to San Benedetto and then hopped on another train to Ascoli. This time, the train ride went smoothly. Five hours of not panicking is always a good thing!

When I got back to my apartment, I unpacked and then walked around the town for a little bit and then went to bed a little earlier than normal.





Sunday, I walked around Ascoli Piceno. In Piazza Arringo and Piazza del Popolo the antique market was going on and I was lucky enough to have my camera with me. I walked around for few hours talking photos and then I bought some cheese and olives in the specialty food market held in Piazza Roma. Also, at the antique market, I bought an Italian grammar book from 1948 for 3 euro. After that, I brought my clothes to be cleaned, read a little bit, made lunch and rested.

I want to thank my mom, dad and grandma for coming to see me. I hope you all had a wonderful time here, I know I did and I am so happy that you came.

Alex