6/12 First day in Viterbo

Morning!  Or afternoon...  Depends on what clock I look on.  So we obviously made it into Rome just fine.  Course getting out of that airports was certainly a task in and of itself.  Have you ever heard of a hotel being too close to their airport so a taxi wouldn’t take you there?  Yup.  Now I have.  We finally found one, nearly two hours after landing, and we were over charged, but I’ll tell you, at that time of night I would have paid double.  We stayed at the Euro House Hotel.  Very cute!  The elevator was a hoot, you got in, and you held down the button till you were on the right floor.  I could just imagine Drew having a blast with that.  Then in the room, you have to put your key in a slot in the wall, otherwise your power turns off.  That was surprising in the middle of the night when we were both crashed and exhausted.  

We were picked up this morning from Fumicino then brought over to Viterbo.  Beautiful ride.  Saw some really cool large black bird that wasn’t like something we have in the states that I’ve seen.  Turns out they have lots of hazelnut farms between the two places, however they don’t make Nutella.  On the ride I also discovered the next time I see someone driving like a maniac, I won’t call them a California driver anymore.  If you put a Californian in the middle of this traffic, they won’t last.  Italians seem to think things like turn signals, the lines on the road, and turn lanes are just for fun.  Absolutely crazy!

Coming into Viterbo was impressive.  We came in through the Rome Gate, and yes, it’s an actual gate!  I’ll get outside to snap a picture of it sometime.  Viterbo has a wall around it, well, around most of it, and there are four main gates that people come in and out from.  It was a quick drive once we got into the city to get to a fellow worker’s apartment.  This is totally not a place I would want to drive in!  It’s exactly what I expected from a small Italian town, the buildings are very close together, streets made of cobbles, not really made for cars.  The buildings are beautiful though.  Lots of them have the stucco on them that’s falling off to expose the brick.  Lots of them built with this gray stone that’s native to the region.  Lots of plants and laundry hanging out of people’s windows.  For the record, that family over there has the cutest cloths for their son!  It’s difficult to get around so far, so easy to get lost.  And as most of you know that’s something I’m notorious for.  At one point I thought to myself as we were walking around that it’s like San Francisco on steroids.  Not as hilly, but so many buildings close together its very discombobulating!  

The little shops are so adorable.  Passed several fruit stands I’m dyeing to revisit.  Scott Mensing, the man in charge of us, showed us where the best Gelato is and all sorts of places we should visit.  Not that I could find a single one of them again...  Most of the shops are tiny little things, and they are all very specialized.  It’s intimidating to walk into the shops, most of them had little beaded curtains, so it’s kinda a surprise what you are walking into.  I’m really nervous ordering stuff from them, I’m sure I’ll get it down, but right now it’s just so overwhelming!

La casa just off the Piazza della Morte

Entry hall to our apartment

It's a genuine split level!

After wandering around town for a while we met up with the landlord for our apartment.  It’s a cute, basic apartment.  It’s in a building with two other units basically on the same floor.  At least the front doors are on the same floor...  Ours is like a split level.  You go downstairs to go to the two bedrooms and restroom.  Upstairs is the kitchen, dining room, and living room.  Not much of a view out the windows, no vertical ones upstairs, only three skylights (which are really cool).  All of the rooms have exposed beams in the ceiling, and they aren’t even milled!  Lexy’s room has an exposed stone wall.  We have a small fridge, strange oven, cloths washing machine right under the stove, and a sink.  Overall it’s so cute, we just have to stock some things in it, it’s kinda bare right now.  Oh!  And even cooler, in one of the other rooms someone is playing a guitar!  Very neat.

So game plan for the next few days, we are going to get some shopping, settling in, and rest done in the next two days, then the works starts!  Ok, not really, but that’s when Scott gets back from core samples.  They are leaving tomorrow, and though Lexy and I could use some time to get acclimated.  Monday we are venturing into Rome to meet with some of the other scientists working on these cores, Tuesday through Thursday back in Viterbo to help out, then Friday we are going to tag along with the USAC students on a field trip somewhere.  Frankie is going to try to set up some meetings with some high school teachers over here, and hopefully we can see the schools.  Today was the last day of school for them, drats!  Would have been neat to see them actually in session.

Alright, I think it’s time to do some more wandering.  :)