On the train, back in time

Saturday Maggie and I caught an early train from Roma to Assisi. When I say caught I mean we ran for it. We had boarded the train way down the platform and realized we did not know how to validate our tickets. A nice woman told us we must do it on the platform. Two minutes before our train is about to leave we book it to the end of the platform and back just in time. A two hour train ride takes us out through Umbria (with a brief stop at the Spoleto station! don't worry I'll be back) and to the station at Assisi where we must take a bus up the mountain to the town. This blog post really has a part two on my facebook page where you can take a look at the accompanying photo album, the story is not complete without it. What a beautiful surprise Assisi is. I can truly say Assisi is one of my favorite places on earth. The views are magnificent, the Basilica of Saint Francis is astounding and the town is a maze of streets winding up to the fortress Rocca Maggiore upon the hill. Maggie and I went without a map wandering through the streets of the city, walking up and down stairs, following arrows, not following arrows, stopping to sit or play or read or listen to music. Our first stop was the Basilica di S. Francesco. The building has an upper level, lower level and crypt where St. Francis lies buried. The upper and lower levels are covered floor to ceiling with the most marvelous frescos depicting the old and new testaments. These are thought to be the work of Giotto. Sadly no photography is allowed inside but I highly recommend a google image search if you have the time because it is truely the most briliant, vibrant and theatrical church I have ever been in. The crypt is something like what I imagine the last scene in Romeo and Juliet to look like. After the church we began to wander the town stopping at a swingset and picnic table with a great view. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant with a patio over looking the valley and vegetables growing around the tables. I had a fantastic barbeque lamb dish and Maggie raved about the pepper to sauce ratio in her liguini in salmon cream sauce. We shared the house red wine which was light and delicious. After lunch we had gelato by a fountain with lions on it in the main piazza. Best pistacio gelato period. More wandering led us to the Basilica di S. Rufino which has plexiglass over part of the chapel floor so that the crypt underneath is visible. We continued to wind our way up the mountain the the Rocca Maggiore, a fortress which for me was like being allowed to roam a many hundred year old castle. The views from the top are magical. We had to laugh because the map to the Rocca Maggiore boasted an Enchanted Garden which was, I guess, not in bloom this time of year. A leisurly stroll back down the mountain lead us once again to the swing set where we chilled out for a while and then to the Basilica of St. Francis where we loitered to watch the carpenters and electricians setting up an outdoor stage (me) and the people who brought their dogs (Maggie). By sunset we were headed back down the hill to the train station where we stopped at McDonalds for dinner (don't judge). Assisi McDonald's is much like the town, middle ages themed, look at the pictures. Also they have waffle fries which are too cool. Then we road the train back to Roma, watching The Office and listening to This American Life.
If you have made it this far through the blogpost thank you for humoring me. Perhaps a play by play was too much. However it was my first favorite day in Italy and a place I hope to return to over my life; I hope to bring some of you with me.

The city is your textbook

My social circle is expanding. Today was the first day of classes. When I made it to school in the morning there were actually people I have met to chat with so school is all beginning to feel a little more familiar. I also made some new friends in my first art history class who like talking about...art history. It makes me so happy, art was my reason for coming here and I was beginning to think I was only going to meet business and communication majors surprisingly. I actually had a conversation today where we gushed over both Monet's Garden and the Pieta. The art history class was Roman Imperial Art and Architecture. The professor is intimidating in the kind of way that makes you want to be at the top of the class. He assured us the class would be challenging and my first thought was Sweet! This is mostly because he seems to really know his stuff and we will be spending the majority of the semester out in Rome understanding the layout of the ancient city. He explained that we have no textbook because "the city is our textbook" and we are going to have to "learn to take notes while walking". He explained that we can see the art anytime we want because it is available to us 24 hours day. For those of you unfamiliar he is refering to structures like the Roman Forum and Trajan's Column. Sweet.
The second class I had was Masterpieces of Italian Opera. It was one of those experiences akin to watching the olympics. You see the athletes exceling and the excitment of the event and think: I wanna do that! I'm not past my prime to be an olympic swimmer. Wether this is realistic or not, I left that class saying I wanna be an opera singer! Do you think i've missed that boat yet? Anyway lots of opera-going in store and just listening to all different types of music the way one eats a box of Godiva Truffles, slowly while trying to guess exactly which flavor each is.
My final class was Beginning Italian. For those of you who don't know my mother has taught English as a Second Language to adults for all of my life and I have been to her class many times over the years. Today was the strangest feeling of being the foreigner, the one who is just beginigng to understand. I understood why we did all the repetitive exercises and only attemped the same 10 phrases over and over again for an hour. I still haven't mastered where are you from in Italian (Che natzionalita sei?...It came out of my mouth in all that mispelledness). I can't wait to take my classroom italian out to the streets.
Today was also the day to sign up for school trips. Thanks to Amanda I made it into the trip to Pompei in October. I'm going to spend the rest of the evening doing some reading about other side trips like Assisi, Spoleto and Florence. I'm starting small but aiming to get to Paris!

Six hours ahead...

So I do have internet in my apartment here but I just don't keep running into any of you online and I think it may be the time difference. Right now here it is 11:30ish and for yall back home it is only 5:30. With a blog I guess I can write at you even if you aren't online so thats what i'm doing cause I miss you and because Monica and Andrea asked so many times.
Roma e bella! That may be Rome is beautiful or Rome and beautiful...I am learning my Italian on the streets of Rome and not in a proper classroom yet. Classes start next week and I am so excited to learn things. I have been speaking more Spanish than I do in the US because it sounds similar and as a result my friend Amanda and I have been confused for Spaniards more than once.
My apartment is lovely and around the corner from a small cafe that we visit daily. Cappucino freddo and coronetti are one of my new favorite things. That is iced cappucino and pastries.
We have also discovered in our neighborhood a daily food market. Today we bought fresh lettuce, carrots, green beans, tomatoes, mozzarella and basil and made a lovely suce for our fresh pasta that we also got from a shop in the hood.
In DC we've been known to wander and generally we end up at spring valley or the zoo. Today in my wanderings I happened upon the Trevi fountain by accident. Way cool. Trying to figure out the best time of day to go there when there are fewer tourists. Last night we strolled through trastevere and made our way to Piazza Venezia and the Colosseum. (see facebook for photos) Even with our jetlag we are trying to get out into the city but we do come home exhausted from the heat and walking.
Buona notte till I hear from you all!