Cortona and Bob Marley

Today was a "free-day," so after sleeping in a little bit a group of us took the bus to Cortona. This was probably the best deal I've taken part of since we've arrived: a 30 minute bus ride only cost 1.6 euro.

Our group getting ready to take the bus.

Cortona was pretty amazing. If you've seen the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" you would probably have an idea of what it's like, but no pictures or movies can prepare you for seeing a place like this in person. One major reason for that is the lack of depth perception in pictures or videos, and the inability of the camera to view both a dark foreground and bright background at the same time.

To give you an idea what it's like, the bus winds up the side of the mountain on which the city is situated for about 10 minutes, which gets you nearly 2/3 of the way up the height of the mountain. The drop off point for the bus is at the bottom of town. As I mentioned in my Arezzo post, the towns here are so vertical that you can give directions in terms of height easier than any cardinal direction.

So we dropped off at a circle at the bottom of town and headed in the main road, the Corso Nationale. Walking down the Corso you find a collection of nice shops, cafes, and restaurants - most of which are overpriced due to the high wealth of the city. In addition to the locals who have lived in the city for many generations, the emerging elite of Italy have chosen Cortona as a favorite place to settle down, and it is especially well known as the vacation home of Italy's President.

After about a block on the Corso Nationale you reach the Cortona civic building, which is a very large clock tower in front of a piazza. In this plaza there are a few shops and some merchants who vend goods out of a cart. Walking a bit behind this is the Teatro, which is also situated on a Piazza. After looking around for a bit we went from the Piazza Teatro uphill a bit and ate lunch at a nice pizzeria on one of the significant streets.

The view of the Cortona Civic Building as we approached on Via Nationale.

The Theater of Cortona.

Apparently Coca-Cola is a luxury in Italy. They charge for it at least.

After lunch we decided we would go see the big church, or "il Duomo," as they call it. Little did we realise we were going to need to ascend over 500 feet up the mountain.

A picture of me about halfway up the climb into the park atop Cortona.

We began hiking up and around every corner we found a new staircase or ramp, ever more amazed at how far we had climbed yet equally impressed by the view from our new height. We kept on climbing until we began to emerge from the city into a large park which was so much higher than the bottom of town that the snow had not melted here. As we entered the park we realised we still had several hundred feet to ascend to reach the piazza at the top where the church was situated.

The view from the walls just below il Duomo.

Il Duomo at the top of Cortona.

Finally we reached the church, and we weren't disappointed. I think this was probably one of the most colorful churches we will see. On our way in we were faced with a grande vietato fotografia sign but we did buy a postcard with a great picture of the cathedral on it. Courtesy of somebody elses website I have a picture:

Interior Sanctuary of Chiesa di S. Margherita, Cortona

As for other pictures... well still nobody has let me on a laptop. So... Well I think IK will get some eventually but it will take a while. If nothing else I'll eventually return to the US with all my pictures safely stored away on my iPod, so you'll eventually get to see it.

After we went to the cathedral we bumped into a guy from New Orleans who told us a lot about the town since he had lived there for a while, and he told us about the University of Georgia Campus which was just beneath the cathedral in Cortona. I have to say, after we saw that we were a bit jealous. A&M's facility isn't really as nice, but then again I like Casiglion Fiorentino and I'm glad we're not on top of that big of a hill.

We went up to see an old Medici fortress which was at the very very top of the hill, maybe 75 feet higher than the church, then we headed down the old city walls until we got back to the bus station where we had originally been dropped off. It just so happened that there was a bus present at the moment we entered the piazza, so we had been hoping we would be able to take that bus back since we felt satisfied with the ammount of town that we had seen thus far. After I asked the bus driver, however, he told us that the bus wasn't going back to Castiglion and we'd have to wait another hour for the next bus headed north.

A view of an ancient ETRUSCAN (1000 BC?) cemetary

The view from the side of the city walls on our descent back toward the bus stop.

So we killed time in town, went and got pastries and succo di pere at a cafe, then I tried Canoli (I think?) which was possibly the most amazing desert I've ever had.

Finally the bus came, but not before we sat at the bus station for a good 20 minutes FREEZING our butts off. The ride back went by pretty fast, and we got home in time for dinner. We goofed around for a while, went to see a Bob Marley impersonation band at the Velvet Underground, and then headed back to the center - which brings me to the keyboard now.

Now then, as for pictures...

I would really like to post a bunch of them, since I've taken a good 200 or so already, but nobody has let me use their laptop yet, except Lauren who gave hers to me without charging it and so I wasn't able to actually use it.

I think there are enough people here with laptops that I'll eventually be able to put pictures online. Until I get access to that, I'm going to go ahead and write what I'm doing and stuff on here, and I'll link pictures that I can find of places I'm not allowed to photograph. Eventually I'll be able to add pictures in massive doses, so just keep checking back from time to time, and until then, ciao!

EDIT: THANKS CHRIS!!!! I FINALLY GOT TO PUT PICTURES ONLINE!!!

PS: Don't hesitate to email. In the afternoons here the Italians take a massive siesta and for some reason most of the Americans in town have decided to embrace this tradition. Meanwhile I don't like naps, and probably couldn't fall asleep in the afternoon anyway, so I am often bored during the siesta and would love to read some emails. The address is burlesona@tamu.edu, or feel free to give me a call on the cell phone. The easiest way to phone is using 10-10-987. To call that way dial 10-10-987-011-39-338-731-3904. That's a lot of numbers... Or you can call normal by dialing 0039-338-731-3904, but you'll probably be charged about 25 cents a minute or something. If you send me a really nice email I can call you using one of my "happiness cards" which get about 30 minutes for 5 euro. Ok, for real this time, ciao!

Arezzo

Yesterday (and I would have written about it then, but there were technical difficulties) we went to Arezzo [Ah-ret-so]. It's less than 15 minutes by train, and its a really awesome town.

We came out of the train station into a large plaza with a big traffic circle that forms one of the largest intersections in town. There was a big old statue in the middle of the plaza, and all together it formed a pretty amazing central hub for the city. We went down the stradas and up past a ton of really fancy boutiques on our way up the mountainside to il Duomo at the top of the city.

Us entering the Castiglion Train Station.

Apparently Katheryn wasn't as excited to be in Arezzo as I was...

Our first view of Arezzo leaving the train station.

The central hub with a statue in the middle.

One of the cooler buildings on the main strada.

This is basically what the streets of Arezzo look like. This is the strada leading up to il Duomo.

One thing I've learned about Italy is that the cities are very very vertical. So far the oldest churches and cathedrals form the top of most cities, with the shops filling out the lower portions and the residential areas forming the bottom of the city. This is the case in Castiglion Fiorentino, and also Arezzo and Cortona (see the next post for Cortona).

Our next stop was a late gothic church, built between 1300 and 1400 AD, in the middle portion of the town. There was a big sign at the front which read "Vietato Fotografia" [Photography Prohibited] but since I'm the only one who can read Italian everyone walked in and started taking pictures which really upset one of the nuns/stewards inside. She nearly took away some cameras before the "Professore" Paulo Biuccieri (one of the teachers from the center) was able to convince her it was his fault and that the students would stop.

A late gothic church built about 1400 AD.

On our way up the city we passed one very old Romanesque Church (about 1000 years old!!!) which was HUGE, but it was closed and we couldn't visit the inside.

An ancient Romanesque Church (1000 years old!)

Next we went to the very top of the town (500 feet or so up from the central hub) to il Duomo [Italian for "The Big Church"] di Arezzo. This cathedral is the largest I've been in yet, and was one of the most impressive. This one allowed photos, and I managed to get a few good ones.

Ara in front of il Duomo.

The baptistry inside il Duomo di Arezzo.

After visiting il Duomo we had Pizza at a local Pizzeria, and once again I was the only one who was able to ask the waiter any questions or anything (grazzie Sr. Cangelose for the Italian lessons) but we managed to get a couple pepperoni pizzas (their pepperonis are really different from ours) and some lemon/orange sodas.

Its been pretty strange, but the food here is really cheap and the drinks are incredibly expensive. As a result I've been pretty full but pretty thirsty the entire trip. You can't even get free water in Italy, and usually the beer is cheaper or the same price as the water.

After lunch we went up to the Duomo again and visited the park on top of the mountain of Arezzo. The view from the top was amazing, and I filmed some panoramic movies of it to show people when I get back. I've found there have been many places along the way where taking a picture doesn't really explain very much and the movie mode on my camera is much better for capturing the full breadth and depth of the views we have experienced.

The statue in the middle of the park on top of the city of Arezzo.

Ara posing with the statue in front of il Duomo on our way back down to the station.

On the way back we went down main street and found a Blockbuster Video store which was just about the only thing open, since the Italians take a siesta from about 12:30 until around 4:00 every afternoon, then reopen their shops from about 4:00 until 7 or 8 in the evening. We went inside to get away from the cold for a bit. It's been about 25-30 degrees with strong winds the entire time we've been here, so it feels even worse, like 10-15 degrees.

I can tell you, we're getting a major workout every day in this country. The hills are so steep, its like mountain climbing more than just walking. In the evenings dinner never comes fast enough because we're all tired from our major hiking we've been doing during the day.

The night after Arezzo we went to "Pub Velvet Underground" which is a pretty cool bar here in town. Everything is really expensive, so nobody wanted to buy any drinks. For purposes of comparison a 12 ounce beer was 5 euro (about 8 bucks) whereas at school they sell them for 1 euro. For 4 euro at school we can buy a big bottle of wine, the same would be about 20 euro at a bar. Kind of ironic that the cheap booze is at school.

For the first Saturday it was pretty awesome. Again pictures will be coming as soon as I can get a computer to let me upload, but that's a long story for another day. Ciao!

I have a phone!

Courtesy of Trans Italia Mobile I have a cell-phone which gets free incoming calls, yay! The country code for Italy is 0039, and my number is 338-731-3904. If you call using 10-10-987 the call is 37cents for the first minute and 3 cents a minute after that, which is WAAAAY cheaper than any other way that I've heard to make a call so far. They sell "happiness" cards here which get us 20 minutes call time from Italy to US for 5 euro (about 8 bucks), and that's the next cheapest thing.

Lunch was good, but now we have a sort of siesta time where everyone is pretty bored. The snow is coming down as hard as I've ever seen it in my life, including when I lived in Illinois, which I think is pretty awesome. All the local people we've met are appologizing for the whether, saying "it doesn't usually snow like this in Tuscany" and so on, but we all say "Hey we're from Texas, we've never seen snow before so this is great to us!"

Hopefully I can find a netcafe or something soon and then pictures will go online, until then, ciao!

Edit! Here are some of my first pictures from walking around town:

Our street, so tiny!

The Church with a small parking area which is next to our building. Our building is on the right side of the image.

The view of the countryside estates from near the old town park.

A view of the city from the central district.

Neve in Castiglion!

Well I made it to Italy safe and sound, and to my great delight I woke up this morning (at 6am... oh well.) and found it had SNOWED (Nevica) all night! Crazy! I spent the early part of the morning walking around town and talking to people I passed on the street. Mostly the conversations consisted of me saying "Buon Giorno!" to which they would reply "Ciao." Some of them would begin saying something that sounded like, "blah blah blah blah blah nevica!" to which I would respond "Si! Fa freddo!" which means "yes, it's cold."

Now... to recap the trip over.

First of all we flew over Manhattan at night, which was amazing. We also flew over London at night, and it was so much smaller... it was really surprising. The sun began to rise as we descended through the cloud layers into Paris.

The view of the sun rising between two cloud layers as we neared Paris.

My first view of a foreign country, Paris appears as we emerge from the clouds.

The Paris airport was pretty decent, and it was the first time I'd ever set foot on foreign soil! Unfortunately we had to take a BUS from the airplane to the air terminal... wierd.

Thanks!

The terminal where we waited for our flight and listed to silly French people.

The flight from Paris to Rome was delayed about an hour, but the flight took us over the Alps, which was possibly one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

The Alps! One of the most amazing sights I've ever seen.

The airport in rome was not that nice, honestly, but when we were at the baggage claim a lady tried to speak to me in Italian about her baggage, and although I wasn't able to answer her question I did catch that she was from Argentina and was wondering if I was also from South America and could I speak Spanish.

It turns out I speak Spanish better than Italian as I was able to have a brief conversation with her about being from Texas and learning Spanish there because so many people speak it. She told me my Spanish was much better than my Italian, but hopefully I'll be able to change that by May.

From there we drove to Castiglion, which took about three hours, and gave me a chance to talk to the bus driver in Italian, which was pretty cool too. I was kind of disapointed with how much its the same as the US. Rome wasn't that awesome, but the old part of Castiglion is awesome, and the people are really nice. The radio stations only play American music, so you'll hear U2 playing Vertigo, then somebody talking about traffic jams in Italian, then Green Day and Boulevard of Broken Dreams. They're big on Avril Lavigne too.

One of the many hilltowns we passed on the way to Castiglion.

Our room in the Santa Chiara center, and Marcus dropping off his stuff.

My first view of town and it was snowing!!!!

The central courtyard of our building.

I'll add pictures to this post as soon as I get a chance to log into a computer that can do photoshop, they provide "email only" computers at the center but apparently there are computers which can do the other stuff around town for a small fee.

EDIT: I finally got to add pictures!!!

Well, I hope everyone is doing well back in the US, I'll talk to you all later!
-Ciao

Final Preparations

Well, I should be on the plane in 24 hours, and nicely settled down in Italy in 48. My final preparations have been hectic with the mess between A&M's business office and Wells Fargo, seems A&M decided to put my entire financial aid refund into some other shmoe's bank account.... but that is taken care of now and all I've got left to do is get myself to Italy! I figure the picture below is a pretty good illustration of what I've got ahead of me: almost four months of living has to fit in just these three little bags!

Getting Ready

So now there's three days and counting... Today I went and bought a few more things for the trip, a new pair of jeans and a case for my iPod. Then I spent the afternoon walking around downtown Austin practicing with the settings on my camera to make sure I get good pictures. I figure this one came out pretty good... and I'll need lots of good pictures of the duomos!

Finally

So it seems I've worked out the basic technical challenges that are going to make this website work. I like the template so far, but I may experiment with some other styles. I wish I could get on to Italy, fooling around waiting to go is getting really boring.

Second Image Test

Ok, well it seems I've now figured out how to get an image to appear. My domain name has propogated also, which means I can use the FTP server the right way. This time lets see if I can make an image clikable and have it take you to a blown up verson of the same image...

Image Test

Frustration

I've been working on getting a place to store pictures that I take while I'm in Italy. It's been really frustrating so far. All I really want is to find a place that I can upload files easily, and where I can store some basic stuff. I was going to buy my own domain name so that I could get this without ads or having to link to some photo browse page, like a yahoo photos page or something, but so far no luck. I wish I could find a really good image hoster that would not charge me, or a free / cheap website hoster that wouldn't put ads on the site...

First Post

This is pretty basic, I just am testing to see if this would be a good way to host images and a sort of online journal while I'm in italy. I have to figure out how hard it would be to upload pictures before I'm going to decide for sure.