All Roads Lead to Rome

We woke up at the crack of dawn to catch the train for Rome. Sitting down to enjoy our breakfast, we realized there were too many people for a regular train this early in the morning… we had caught the train during rush hour… I ate a Nutella and apple triple club sandwich and a half or a pamplemousse  that was worthy of Italian fruits: fresh, juicy, sweet, and, consequently, delicious.

Getting off the train at Roma Termini, the main station, we realized we had another train to catch to get to the airport that would take us longer than we could afford. We had to go to the bank to get money out and it ate my friends card. We managed to call from the phone of a really nice Italian, who I should have asked out but did not think about it at the time… Anyway, when we finally got to the airport after having fixed the bank card issue, we were early compared to the rest of the group! We waited at the airport until 3pm and finally left on a nice bus toward Acquapendente.

I do not remember much of the ride. Everyone was sound asleep. I nearly fell off my seat while drifting away. The place is called Agriturismo Buonomore. It had a few apartments and very nice restaurant. We get free breakfast and supper. So far everything has been delicious. I sleep with 2 other girls in the same room, and two other girls in a separate room. We have 2 washrooms, a kitchen, and living/dining room with our own terrace facing the back yard. I slept amazingly well that night.

The next day was a Saturday. We got a guided tour of the city and were told many wonderful stories. In particular, one very important to the city. It is the story of the Pugnaloni. They have a festival every year to commemorate the day that the evil Emperor Barbarossa was thrown out of their town (that is where the term “Barbarian” comes from, by the way). After the fall of Rome thanks to Constantine, everyone went wild. The villages all tried to become the next source of power by invading every other village they could. Barbarossa took Acquapendente. The sad villagers asked for a sign from the Virgin Mary to start an uproar. When a cherry tree grew in the middle of winter, they knew it was the time to attack, and they drove him out successfully. Since then, they have 15 teams competing to make the best pugnaloni: a large canvas painted by collaging flowers and leaves of different colors. We met a few of these teams and were invited to work on the pugnaloni with them. We eventually ended up in a wild party with typical Italian sing-alongs, followed by intense dancing with the typical American party music (Waka Waka, Thunderstruck, the Macarena, etc). We had a blast and made lots of friends!

On Sunday, I did my laundry, relaxed, went into town where I ordered some gelato all in Italian- a first (so far the best combination has been orange and coconut!), and later had my first official Italian class given by my teachers Italian boyfriend. I ended the night with a panic attack: we had plates of seafood for dinner and although I did not have any, my face was red and swollen and I thought I was having an allergic reaction. Turns out it was a sunburn… oh, and those “bed bug bites” were actually mosquito bites!

Today I had my first drawing class. It lasted all of two hours. The demands of the course are a bit vague, very poetically explained by the teacher. I feel as if as long as I have passion I will be just fine. We went into the field across the road, and practiced loosening up our pencil by drawing without looking at our paper, then did some observation of space, and contrast. The idea is to get the feel of the place, not necessarily each leaf on each branch.

I managed to pick up Eat, Pray, Love in English and I am at page 17. I am in love.

Will also be uploading photos soon of drawings and sights. Stay updated!

WORD OF THE DAY: sarò

It is the future tense of “will be”, as in “Io sarò un insegnante di arte”, or “I will be an art teacher”. This was the sentence I officially learned in class yesterday. This is exciting!

CIAO!