So I know you all love hearing my stories of traveling and meeting strange people in Italy, but I figured that one thing you might all really enjoy is a special opportunity to see into my daily life here in Orvieto. It will give you a chance to see how different things really are, but also how great they are as well. I will tell you about 2 different days: A weekday and a Saturday in Orvieto with Maggie.
Weekdays:
Classes are different from day to day but this is generally my routine for school during the week. I wake up around 8:00 to shower and get ready for the day. On my way out the door (around 9:00) I grab breakfast to go from my gigantic fruit basket in my slave’s kitchen, which usually is piled high with pears, bananas, and oranges, which I bought fresh from the local market that weekend. It only takes me about 5 minutes to walk to the study center from my apartment and along the way I pass an art school, San Francesco cathedral (very beautiful interior but the exterior is quite sad and plain), a couple restaurants and wine shops, and, of course, the Duomo. The duomo (church) is amazing and I take it for granted to be able to walk by it everyday. Its façade is covered in beautiful tiled artworks, columns, guardians (lions, dragons) and a gorgeous gold leaf that can be extremely blinding and mesmerizing when the sun shines just right. So I reach the study center with about 30 minutes to spare before Marco’s history lecture begins. I set up my office in the back row with some classmates who have already staked their claim (the back row is very popular amongst those of us with computers because there are outlets on the wall). Then I go out to the hall to get a cappuccino. The study center has coffee machines and you can get anything from tea to coffee to hot chocolate. So I always get my coffee before class starts. Then I check my emails, facebook, etc. before class begins and I eat my breakfast. Then around 11:00, we take a short break from lecture, in which I usually invest in my second cappuccino of the day and continue to email and blog. Then around 11:30 the lecture commences once again and goes until 1:00. Yes, it is a 3 hour-long lecture. After the lecture, we have about an hour and half until we meet for our Italian language class at 2:30. So I move my office to my studio desk and grab my bag and head out for some lunch. I usually head straight for Muscatelli. This is a pastry and pizzeria shop (the lady knows me quite well and always greets me with a smile). I get whatever pizza looks most tempting at the time and I can usually get a pretty large piece for only 1,50 Euros. This is one of the cheapest pizzerias in town. So I head back to the study center with my pizza. So while I wait for my language class to begin, I eat lunch and do homework or chat with others to pass time. So language class is basically just a kindergarten class in which usually consists of singing, dancing, playing board games, etc. And me with an extremely confused look on my face the majority of the time. Our teacher speaks only Italian unless we are absolutely confused then she may stick in an English word or two. This class ends around 4:00 so I hang out at the study center until around 5:00 or so just doing work, painting, sketching or playing on the internet. Before dinner, I usually go for a run/walk around the trail or just around town til 7 or so. Dinner most nights usually consists of a medley of the veggies I picked up on the market or some sort of pasta. Whatever I decide on always turns out awesome though. The rest of the evening is either spent working on sketches, paintings, watching movies, or on occasion going out for wine with some friends. We always go to our favorite spot, Il Vin Café. We love this spot because it has a great atmosphere with quaint little tables and they always give you free munchies if you order a bottle of wine.
Saturdays:
If you ask me what my favorite day is, without a doubt, I would answer Saturday, and not because it’s the weekend and it’s the “party day”. But, because it is market day! The local market only takes place on Thursday and Saturday mornings and Saturdays have more vendors and are livelier. So, my day begins at 9:00 when I get up (and yes, I do get up even if I went out the night before and didn’t get in til 5:00 am, because… I just can’t miss the greatness of the market). I head to the Piazza del Popolo, which is the square that the market is held in. It is only a 3-4 minute walk from my apartment. I met friends at a place called Scarponi to get breakfast. This pastry shop/chocolate shop has amazing pastries and an awesome variety of handmade chocolates. So I usually get the most appealing pastry of the day and a coffee to help me get started. Then we head over the bakery (also in the same piazza space), because if you don’t go early then you’ll miss out on all the good stuff. I usually get a couple rolls (they get stale extremely quickly so its not worth it to stock up), and I usually get some other baked goodies too. My favorites are these little breaded balls with sunflower seeds, bacon and cheese in them. So, after bread shop, we hit the market up. The market has everything from food to clothing to kitchen appliances in it. And once I think I even saw rugs. But all the food is in one area down by the bakery and pastry shop. I head over to a vendor who’s from Sicily, because he always has blood oranges (because blood oranges come from Sicily) and he usually has the freshest fruit and I can usually get 3 oranges, 3 pears and bananas/kiwis or under 2 Euros. Then I head to one of the cheese vendors (there is usually 3 or four) And I look for the cheeses I really like: Pecorino al peperoncino (this is extremely similar to a pepperjack cheese, except much softer and much hotter), and the Morridella (This is a milder cheese that’s extremely soft). Sometimes if I’m feeling lucky I’ll see a cheese that looks good and I’ll get a taste test and usually I’ll get some of that too. I’m in love with Italian cheese. Then I’ll go to a large vendor who sells tons of vegetables, it is run my a husband and wife couple who are in the 70ish and they just constantly yelling back in forth to one another in angry Italian, but then they always start laughing, so I don’t ever know what’s going on. Here I get garlic, onions, zucchini, eggplants, tomatoes, bell peppers, lettuce and whatever else that looks good that day. The one thing you always have to remember about the market is that you can’t go with a grocery list in hand. You have to just look around and base your grocery list on what’s in season and what looks best that day and what looks ripe and fresh. So after I finish with the market I usually wonder around to the other vendors just to see what’s being offered. Nothing has sucked me in yet though. So I drop my groceries off at my apartment and then I head to the Alimentari (this is a version of a grocery store/butcher/condiment store), Here I can get all the things that I can’t get an the market, like meat, eggs, milk, cereal, pasta, sauces, pop, wine, napkins, toilet paper, etc. So by the time I reach home with all my shopping completed then it is usually around 1:00 and I’ve definitely worked up a lunch appetite. So I proceed to make my favorite sandwich, EVER. I get out a fresh roll from the bakery, slice up some peperoncini cheese, salami, fresh tomatoes, a little pepper and a little olive oil. …amazing. I would eat this sandwich every day if I could. Then after lunch, I pack up my computer and head to the Blue Bar (one of the 3 internet café’s in town). It’s only a 3 minute walk form my apartment. I get a cappuccino and hang out and use the internet for a couple hours and usually am joined by several other students as time passes. To pass time until dinner, I usually just keep myself entertained at the apartment or go do things with friends. Then after dinner I meet up with friends and we all usually start the night out with a bottle of wine somewhere and then we head to Corso (the main street in town) and hit up some of the bars, clubs.
So these are typical days in the life of me, give or take random adventures here and there.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
.jpg){kind=small}
No comments:
Post a Comment