Monday, October 06, 2003
Yes, yet another huge update. It’s been a loooooooong week.

Monday: Went to Rome! But only for the wholly non-exciting purpose of, yes, college visits. Not even to an actual campus or anything, just UPenn and GTown visiting on their little circuit thing. Well, had to run to train, caught train, laughed about it with other panting classmates, sat on train (double-decker! Whee!) for hour and a half, arrived in Rome. Came out of station and began to realize why people come here to Italy as first thing I saw was the Circus Maximus, glowing that faintly peach color as if the bricks were being watercolored in gold. This poetic bit lasted all of half a second before it was run run run to the St. Stephen’s School, where the talk was being held. First, let me say that if you ever find yourself having to find a school in Italy with American classes (other than SYA, haha,) go there. They board, they have kids (mostly diplomatic although quite a few term abroad people) from all over the world and they have a renovated chapel that is a very intriguing performance space. Also for talks they employ very good bakeries :P. The talks were interesting, the slide show of DC made me very, very homesick (although so not enough to make me want to actually go to Georgetown) and the UPenn talk was…intriguing. Assuming I pass this year, I think actual visits are in order. Then back to train. Didn’t get back till 10:30, after which I did…homework….for a very, very long time.

Tuesday: Not much. I think this is the day Mom called, which was coolerz in the extreme- get me names of hotels you want me to look at, okay? I mean, other than that, the highlight of the day was packing for the trip.

Wednesday: I Got Mail! And not just a letter, oh nonono. I got my package of comics/Dave Barry/Gene Weingarten/GL (cheap makeup tips) and SEVENTEEN! My vegetation material for the trip ahead was very complete. Also the school finally got an International Herald Tribune subscription, so now I actually have some news. (I love newslinks though! Still!)
And then the trip. Vell. The bus is double-decker. How fabulous is that. And I got a seat in the FRONT on the TOP which was incredible. Also a bit car-sick making but oh well. Didn’t get into Volterra until eight, meaning a six-hour trip with exactly one stop along the way. Climbed up to hostel (the town is on a hill. Buses and most cars aren’t allowed inside the city, due to the extremely twisty streets and tiny amount of room. Buses park at the bottom. Our hostel was at the top. Whimper.) The food they had was great. The rooms were….a bit on the sketchy side, mostly because lack of toilets, showers and light fixtures in the rooms as well as odd little cartoons on wall. Also across from old state prison. But not bad.) ‘Went out’ at night. Haha. There is nothing in Volterra at night aside from three gelaterie and one very odd arcade, full of smoke and American/Japanese video games with only English instructions.

Thursday: We hit the Museo Guarnacci (spelling?) to look at more Etruscan artwork. The most famous piece was probably the Ombra della Sera (Shadow of the night) boy, made of bronze but oddly stretched out, like a twilight shadow. More gold jewelry, more funerary urns, yet another incredible view of the rolling Tuscan countryside. Also tried translating the Italian description plaques with Clara, much fun. Then we tromped over the old Roman theatre, which was situated on the side of the hill so not only did the people in the seats look out over the backdrop, but also beyond that the fields, rolling again off into the distance. Dating from the Augustan period (1st century BCish) and then turned in the 4th century AD into a bathhouse, there is little remaining of the backdrop but it’s enough to make you realize how incredible it would have been. Next off to the Etruscan acropolis, on top of yet another dip on the hill. I guess it’s a bit of a mystery as to what the acropolis actually was. They presume two contemporary temples of opposite styles. Neat.
More free time, almost as useless as last night. Many, many tourists. Signs are in Italian (sometimes) English, German and in one memorable case, Arabic. Some cultural immersion the tourists are getting. Lots of shops with lots, but lots, of alabaster. It’s a specialty of this area and there are vases, wine-stoppers, cheese boards chess sets games lamps dishes ashtrays jewelry….some exquisite, most mass-produced and some just horrible. Did pick up someone a present in a very, very cool store though :D.
Off to San Gimignano! Yes, I’d already been but it was just as fabulous as before. However, this time I was able to avoid the Museo della Tortura, thankyouVERYMUCH cousins James and David and brother Phil. San Gimignano is famous worldwide for being one of the only entirely intact medieval cities. It still has the original towers and walls and some fantastic artwork in the museums and churches. I climbed the walls again, at beginning of sunset, so not only did fog in the valley gleam but also when the bells rang I could see one swinging out. Very, very neat. One church has this amazing amount of work from the 14th century AD on; mostly brutal biblical iconography but these neat little Technicolor angels taking the souls up in one picture. Also some cherubs with actual expressions. Still fairly inane expressions but really adorable. Bought some more postcards. And yet another mini-rant- I love San Gimignano. So does, hmm, every other tourist. But instead of trying to at least maintain some semblance of Italy, they just give in. Every store is selling touristy stuff, I heard No One speaking it Italian and most of the signs didn’t even have Italian. It just erks me- although Viterbo is small, I’m so glad they picked it, because if they’d picked somewhere like Volterra we might never learn Italian…although probably decent German and a smattering of Japanese :P.
Back to the hostel and Volterra, for another installment of Volterran nightlife, i.e. gelato and skipping around the streets.

Friday: Left Volterra in morning, drove to Siena. Long talk about Siena and these paintings in one of the museums- a scene of the Madonna con bambino has every gold stitch in her dress, the canopy and the halos of the surrounding people intricately painted- and this with glass jewels accenting, in a work that must be at least twenty feet long and ten feet tall. Dates to the early thirteen-hundreds. Did not get to climb tower as tickets were sold out. Had no time for Duomo, although the facades outside were incredible. Did get to see the Santuario di Santa Caterina, who wrote a great many letters to the Pope that take credit for convincing him to come back to Italy from France. While a huge building with nice art, I have to say I’m still not hugely enamored of the relic trend. I realize she was incredible, I realize she’s really important to all of Italy….but keeping her head on display in one church and the other bit in another church across the country is a little macabre. Also just before that, we wandered into a courtyard of some Academie. The building itself was off-limits, but there were these frescos on the top of the arches in the portico that (guess what I’m going to say next, ha) were incredible. (I bet you guessed that. Someone fed-ex me a new batch of adjectives.)
Back to the bus to go home. Went home, got barked at by Lampo, unpacked. It was a great two days, but very, very long. Must get back to Siena on independent travel.

Saturday: Lazy day. Slept in, did homework, had a pastry for breakfast (I love Italy) and did homework. Visited Lampo Lesson (dog school) and played with dogs. Also visited Italian version of DIY store. Almost got fed foie gras for dinner and now I feel terrible that I really hate liver because the rest of the family really, really loves it.


Message For All: I have sent postcards to the following people- two teachers, Anu, Brooksley, and the family. (If you haven’t gotten them, um, wait a bit and then yell at me.)This really has nothing to do with how much I like you. In fact, I have a huge stack of postcards already written out and stamped. This has everything to do with my lack of addresses for people. Please send them! Or give them to Mother darling so she can send them!
Also, I know my Holton account works now. If something bounces from the yahoo one, I’m really sorry, just send it to jbarr at holton-arms.edu. I’d prefer yahoo, that’s why I linked it, but arghhh.
Thank you guys so much for all the emails too- even if I don’t respond, I can’t thank you enough- it really manages to make mah day exceedingly coolerz. Ciao!


judy scribbled a note at 10/06/2003 11:02:00 AM