Tuscany: Arezzo and Siena

Ciao a tutti!

I've been hearing some people wanted to see photos or see if I'm alive. As for the latter part, well, here I am! I actually meant to update as soon as I got back from Tuscany last week but the midterms hit... and the spring break planning got me carried away... and then even more midterms... and some other personal stuff on top of that. yeah. It's been a really stressful week.

BUT I have persevered and by next week, I'll be able to relax 100% because by then, I'd be entering SPRING BREAK! How about that?! But first things first: Tuscany.

So from February 21st through the 23rd, the API group went to Tuscany. Tuscany is a region, NOT a city. The region is named after a city called Toscana for those wondering. We visited the beautiful towns of Arezzo and Siena, spending one night in each.

We first went to Arezzo to see a farm that grew olives for olive oil and a bit of wine. But it focused on olive oil. We did an olive oil "tasting", that was interesting in the way that the historian showed us how to warm the little cup of olive oil we were given in our hands and by doing so, we were able to smell every single spice that was in it. We were given a tour of the place and background history. Afterwards we had a "light" lunch but everyone else and me were starving so we piled up like two plates each, haha. It was full of cheeses, crackers drizzled with olive oil, pasta with pesto, prosciutto, and salami... and of course wine. They also had a spa inside this place that had reasonable prices. We didn't go though because we had a special treat in Siena the next day!

We toured the actual town of Arezzo afterwards. Arezzo is the town where "La Vita e Bella" or "Life is Beautiful" directed by Roberto Begnini is partly filmed! It was my favorite Italian movie and I was so ecstatic to be there. PS: now that you've heard of this movie, you have no excuse but to WATCH IT. It's so good - it even won the Academy award! The Piazza Grande is where the some scenes in the movie was filmed. Seeing it in person was so surreal because Piazza Grande was so beautiful and different since the whole town was built on a hill so everything is like... tilted.

Arezzo was really pretty and I didn't really want to leave. My last views from the town was over the edge of the hill to overlook the wide plains of another part of Arezzo. But then it was time to go. We checked in a highway hotel Park Hotel - Arezzo.

The next morning we departed to Siena. We received a guided tour of the town and then had about 30 minutes to ourselves. I got pizza and this amazing delectation called frittelle sevilli that was basically a fried rice ball with orange inside of it. Initially it didn't sound too good but I decided to give it a try. I was so surprised because it was mind-bogglingly good! I wish I had more and I miss it now. I would go back just for those.

We departed Siena for the baths. That's right, baths. We were all looking forwards to this part of the trip! We had the amazing opportunity to visit a spa/mineral-thermal bath outside Siena. It was a really nice treat especially to be able to relax before what would be for me a really stressful week!

I didn't really take pictures since I was busy the entire time! We only had three hours at the bath so I tried to use my time wisely. I booked a massage (€40 extra) for 30 minutes and then ducked in the thermal bath! The massage was way too short for my liking but it worked even though I wished the masseuse focused more on my shoulders. Once entering the baths room (there's an indoor and outdoor one) I was bombarded by the stench of sulfur. The smell of sulfur was so overpowering - it's like being a room full of eggs. But it was really nice and I am so glad I got a last-minute bathing suit the day before I left on this trip.

Speaking of, did you know that bathing suits are only found in lingerie stores? I was lucky enough to find one out of season and get help from a nice employee (Italian shop workers are usually known for rudeness but that wasn't the case for me).

I smelled like sulfur after leaving the baths. Not even a quick rinse in the locker room helped. It lingered until the next day! So then we all left the baths and headed back to Rome and watched the sun sink behind the hills of Tuscany.

As I said before, the week was really stressful for me. Classes were harder. My professor for financial accounting had to take a leave for pregnancy (she was pregnant??? I didn't see a bump! she's so thin! I guess it's Italian culture to take long leaves.) and another professor stepped in. He was nice but he had a different approach to teaching and was really hard. But he's pretty cool because he's like a hard-rock biker and not your stereotypical financial accounting professor. He had tattoos all up his arms and was clearly a member of the Hell's Angels (Italia Chapter) since he wore leather jacket with it and had other sweatshirts too. 


And then midterms hit and I struggled during reviews because it was hard to keep up and know what's going on. But I finished management midterm exam on Thursday and I feel good about it! I'll be concerned about financial accounting and art history that's upcoming. And philosophy but we'll see how that goes. Drawing midterm should be alright - we might be drawing something particular for that midterm.


And then I tried to plan spring break! I found a person to go with and we planned everything right down to the budget. We were going to go to 4 countries in 9 days. Unfortunately, because of a student that died the previous weekend in Rome, their parents could not let them go. Which is understandable but really, the student died because of alcohol. He was drinking at the bar and his friends left him there. He ended up inside of a train tunnel and probably got run over. It was alcohol related and at the cause of irresponsible friends. Not travel related! It is fact that 99% of the problems that occur while abroad are alcohol related.


I was really upset and struggled to find someone - anyone but I realized how many people I knew (a lot) and how many I really knew (not very much). But eventually I figured out a new plan! And its with the best person in the world: Taylor. :) We decided to go on weekends to places. I will talk about my spring break plans in a later post! 


Today is the last day of February: February 28th. It's another reminder how quickly time is flying. I miss home and all the people I know but I know I will miss being here the moment I step on the plane back to Boston. I really want to love every single minute. I realized how important it is to make the most of my time being here. Even so, I feel incredibly guilty for traveling to so many places (in March, I am going somewhere every weekend!). But my amazing parents insist on making the best of it. I couldn't do this without them and I appreciate them so much for letting me have this opportunity.


Today, I had a mandatory field trip for my art history class. Where you ask? Pompeii! I'll post about that next week along with the upcoming trip this week which is...


Athens! Tomorrow morning Taylor and I are leaving for an overnight in Athens, Greece! Initially it was for two nights but I forgot about the Pompeii trip so I had to change flights and cancel a night for the hostel. No big deal! If anything, everything is cheaper now. I have been dubbing this trip "24 Hours in Athens" because we're literally gonna be there from 2pm Saturday and 2pm Sunday.


Next weekend is the weekend trip to Interlaken, Switzerland where I'll be jumping off cliffs paragliding! The bus is a 9 hour drive and we'd arrive in Switzerland at 4 AM. Hope I didn't give you people who are reading this heart attacks! :)

I'm exhausted and I need to pack for Athens! So buonanotte. :)

Ascoli Piceno

On Friday and Saturday, I took an overnight trip to Ascoli Piceno, which is a small medieval town two hours out east from Rome. I went there on a note from my uncle that it was the town where my grandmother, Nina's family was from. I wanted to surprise the family that I was going there because it was a completely spontaneously planned trip. Taylor came with me, which in hindsight, was a good idea of mine to invite him because I don't think I could have gone through this alone!

I must mention that Alessio from API had helped me so much and I really cannot thank him enough for all his help. He booked the bus reservation and the B&B reservation for me. He also went out of his way to find a list of names in the city cemetery (and surrounding countryside cemeteries), which one of them could have been my great-grandfather, or "bisnonno".

And so, I went to Ascoli Piceno thinking that I may or may not see the correct relative's grave and see a small medieval town... but this trip turned out much more than that.

The 3-hour bus drive to Ascoli Piceno was and still is one of the most beautiful views I've seen. It's more mountainous and picturesque than the train to Pisa or the bus to Florence. There were even little towns situated or built in the mountains or between valleys. Every 5 minutes, I felt like pinching myself. It's really beautiful out there.

 The Adriatic Sea. :)
I realized then that I've been on both coasts of Italy (west up to Pisa, east up to Ascoli).

Exiting the station. When we arrived, the town was very empty and quiet. I felt like Taylor and I were the loudest one there no matter how much we lower our voices! I think everyone was at work or with their families and all the stores were closed.

Our B&B - Language And Arts' door. It's in the same building with other apartments. After ringing the intercom and no one answered, we had to call the "owner" to let us in since she was out when we arrived.

 

Piazza del Popolo.

Wasn't kidding when I said the town was a bit empty when we arrived/toured around a bit.

Everything was closed. Even restaurants. Italian shops close after 2 PM and reopen in the evening which is the norm, but it's more prominent here than in Rome. Restaurants here only serve until lunch or "pranzo" - no dinner! We only found this out until much later that evening. It was interesting.

One of the oldest cafés in Italy! The author, Hemingway visited here before. Really nice and the baristas were sooooo friendly and patient with us figuring out the correct way to say something in Italian.

Taylor and I walked to to the other side of town, towards where the cemetery was. It was about a 15 or 30 minute walk from the center. The cemetery is near the area called Borgo Solestà, and the cemetery itself is not like our usual graveyard back home. It felt like a mini-town of the dead, or something. I bought a bouquet of flowers to be respectful.

I snapped this photo for Dad to confirm if it's him.
I honestly didn't expect to see a photo. But I got a response from Dad almost immediately and sure enough, after all this searching and speculating, it's HIM. After going to a cemetery on a whim and not being 100% sure if he was even the right person! I got to FaceTime with my parents so they can see it.
(Thanks for Taylor for letting me use his phone's hotspot wifi!)

 

After that, Taylor and I went back to town to find the municipial, or town hall. I asked probably 10 people on the way to the center, "dov'è il municipio?" or "è il municipio vincino alla piazza del popolo in il centro?" so on and so forth. It worked and when we got to the piazza, we asked a couple to direct us to the town hall, and they were nice enough to walk us there! it was more of an information center than a town hall. There were two women at the front desk who helped us out. 

Did I mention virtually nobody in Ascoli Piceno spoke English? Well, no one did! There was a huge language barrier and Taylor and I's poor Italian hit a roadblock here the entire duration of our stay. Even our B&B host didn't speak English. 

Despite that, at the information desk in the town hall - we still managed to get across that I was looking for relatives of Vincenzo Orazi. The women called three families in Ascoli with the "Orazi" last name that could possibly be related to Vincenzo, and by extension: me. Two of them didn't know Vincenzo and that last one was not home. Finally, the women showed me a building that held cemetery and family records, so I could go there to see if they had more information about my family. I went the next morning on Saturday but sadly it was closed, and they were only open on weekdays. I don't know how likely it is for me to come back during my stay here since I have classes on weekdays. But we'll see!

Ascoli Piceno is known for it's olives. There's a specialty food they have: fried (usually green) olives with meat in the center. It's interesting....... I don't like olives too much and prefer the black ones. But it was cool to try them. I bought olive cream that's handmade from Ascoli as a souvenir!

Since that next morning's trip to the family record place failed, Taylor and I spent the rest of the day walking around and eating, basically. We found that the entire town converted into one open air market! It was fascinating. At the end of the afternoon, we walked to this area near the station and saw a statue. There was a group of college-aged guys there eating and we wounded up talking to each other for a bit. We then bumped into a family (they laughed when I was struggling to jump down from a wall - hey, you try doing that with a big backpack on your back!). The family was pleasant, but imagine my surprise when the eldest son (16) was DEAF! We tried to sign to each other, but found that there was differences between English and Italian sign language. But it was clear that we were both blown away by this meeting.

We then walked further into a residential neighborhood, way past the train station on the other side of Ascoli Piceno. We walked up a hill and back down and stopped at this café. We relaxed outside since it was nice out. The barista lady was super talkative and friendly and often stepped out of the bar to talk with us. (OK, seriously though - the ENTIRE town is so overwhelmingly friendly) This café was also full of really old men and they all were playing card games and such. And the outside seating area was also full of old men because there was a football game going on. It was pretty cool. One man stepped up to us and us four (me, Taylor, the old man and that lady barista) just talked and talked. At one point, the conversation steered to the fact he was in both the Italian and American army (I think for UN and NATO) and he wrote a book about the wars for peace in the late 90s and early 00s. He gave one for me and Taylor for free. The barista lady insisted the guy to give it to us, haha. I was again overwhelmed by this.

Click here for Day 2 Photos

My stay was really nice and I was sad to go. It was tourist-free (I saw maybe one tourist couple) and while the language barrier was difficult and my Italian capabilities hit a road block, it was still amazing. I'll never forget this weekend. It was definitely an experience to remember. :)

This upcoming weekend's trip will take me to Tuscany where I will see the towns of Siena and Arezzo and get a chance to taste "typical Tuscan products" and visit thermal baths that's been around since the Etruscan Age, although I'm not sure how that's going to go since I don't have a bathing suit. Nevertheless, I'm looking forwards to the trip!