Wow...

So I know I wasn't intending to post more than once a week, but now I feel like I actually can get a few comments in about my actual time here!

After a grueling march up a hill dragging our luggage, we managed to get up to the Monastero San Paolo!  The monastery is very cool, but only a portion of it is currently habitable.  They're working on making more of it habitable, but until then we inhabit three floors.  The first floor contains several large spaces; a chapel, a large dining area (that we don't use, at least not for its intended purpose), and a smaller area that has, in the past, been used as a exhibition space for the artwork the students here do (or the professors!).  The second floor houses the Program Director and his family, a library for classes, and the Art Studio for the students taking the art track.  The third floor is our floor! :)  We live on this floor (occasionally with one of the professors and their families on the floor.  We have our own rooms and bathrooms, and a communal "sala" (living room-type thing), as well as a kitchen and mini breakfast room.  Our rooms are pretty sparse, but I'm finding that I really don't mind, since we're not that often in them...  Which brings me to...

The town!

We've managed to walk around the majority of Orvieto proper (there's a smaller area below the main town called Orvieto-scala, which grew up around the train station that couldn't make it up the hill), and I think I actually might be able to walk around Orvieto without getting lost already!  We live just a two minute walk away from the "ristorante Locando del Lupo", which is where we eat lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday.  We visited the Duomo (the very large cathedral just a minute from the center of town), and today (Sunday) we climbed up to the top of the clocktower in the center of the town.  All I have to say about that is WOW (hence the title of this post).  It was up about 5 stories of stairs.  Imagine (for all you Chicagoans) trying to walk up a quarter of the Sears Tower.  Yeah.  My legs were killing me by the time we'd made it up to the top, but...  The view was phenomenal.  Really.  You could see the whole city from there.  We marked the "courso", or the main road that cuts the town in half, the Duomo (which you can almost see from anywhere in the city), and the newer and medieval parts of town.  Our monastero ("monastery" in English) is in the "Quartiere della Stella", or "Star Quarter" of the city, and in the newer part of town, despite the fact that the monastery itself is at least 800 years old.


This morning (after waking up late...  Both my roommate and I set alarms, but neither went off!) we walked around the city, starting at the old Etruscan fort just down the road from the monastero.  From there we walked down to a passage underneath the fort and exited the city proper and began a walk around the cliff that houses Orvieto.  It's really fascinating to observe how the Italians, over the centuries, have built themselves and their city walls into the cliff-- the fort and city wall itself are part of the cliff face, and also buttressed with the same rock, a soft stone that actually can withstand the occasional earthquakes they get here!  The blending of nature and infrastructure was really fascinating, although walking back up into the city was a little difficult as we had to head up a couple of small hills...  And since living in flat Illinois, I haven't been so good at that.


From there we made our way back up past the Duomo to the Bar San Paolo, and for those of you suddenly worried that I've become an alcoholic (Mom and Dad), allow me to inform you that it is the best pastry and coffee place I've ever been to!  And it sells chocolate!!!  So I was very excited.  So after that wonderful breakfast (yes, all that before breakfast!), we headed to Mass at San Giovenale.


Mass was alternately fascinating and bewildering!  I was alternately following and lost in the language, depending on how close to Spanish it was at that particular moment.  But it was certainly an interesting experience to worship in a church in which I could see my own breath!  But it was also even more interesting to worship in a church that has held services since the year 1004 A.D.!


Everywhere you walk in this city, history hits you over the head!  The whole town is gorgeous and so full of history!  The history is so much a part of everyone's life here, but it's no one is stuck in the past--they're all very present in the city and in their lives in the 21st century.


So after hitting up the church service, we headed to the clocktower, and then after that went back to the monastero for some relaxation before a delicious lunch, cooked by our program director, Matt Doll, and his wife.  I have never liked soup for some reason, but as of today, I am a convert.  Lunch was delicious!  In fact, all of our meals have been fantastic!  So no one need worry about me starving! :)


Well, my Internet's going to cut out in a minute, so Ciao!


Love you all!


Buona notte!