Crazy thing happened last night: I slept! So far I haven’t had a problem with jet lag, let’s hope its not something that will be late set. (At least that will be my excuse next time I’m tired in the middle of the day). It’s been a great day so far! Rolled out of bed at about 8:30, I’m really liking this Italian way of going about my day. Lexy and I then decided to hunt down something for breakfast. We ended up in a little cafe where there was a very cute barista with one amazing quality, he spoke English! Not well, but between an assortment of pointing and his broken English we were able to order two coffees and get two awesome croissants (cornet?). The coffee was actually pretty good! I’m not a big one for straight coffee, but I would certainly have one of those again. The croissant (I’ll figure out the Italian word soon!) was filled with some awesome cream filling, totally breakfast food, right? Lexy had one filled with Nutella.
After that we spent the next two hours seeing the city. It was very interesting without a tour guide, luckily Lexy has an amazing sense of direction. We wandered outside the wall for a bit, found the new McDonalds that is all the talk (complete with kid-pen, their term!) and made it back in another gate on the other side. From here we were in the oldest part of Viterbo, the medieval part. During World War II a lot of Viterbo was bombed because of the location of the train tracks just outside of Viterbo. There are sections of the wall missing because of this. It’s interesting to see how passionate some of the people still are about WWII. Understandable, and I wish I could talk to some of them about it.
We walked past many of the cathedrals as well, found a few more of the fountains, and walked on some amazing streets. I’ve probably mentioned this, but all the streets are cobblestone. Yes, I’m sure many of you knew that, but saying it and seeing it are two different things. The crosswalks are amazing, they have some type of quartz cobble stones showing them rather than paint. Wonder when those were put in, I have a hard time believing they’d have crosswalks in the medieval period...
Lexy and I eventually made it to the “green space.” Odd place, there is an old building that looks like they may be restoring. Next to that is a giant silver piece of art that looks like Zeus being sucked into the ground. (What’s the Roman version of Zeus?) In that picture you can only see his head, but he had two hands and a leg sticking out of the dirt. From this spot you have an excellent view of the Cathedral where they used to choose the Pope. (On a side note, you can all complain I’m not calling things by their correct name. But let’s face it, my Italian is really rough and I’m sure as heck not able to spell their words correctly. I’ll get there!) It’s absolutely astounding. The architecture and the little details in the stonework are so incredible, and it’s crazy to think how old that building is. We hope to get a tour or at least a closer look, so I’ll get more pictures of that.
After our little adventure we then decided to pick up one of our favorite tour guides, Donica, Scott’s wife. She offered to take us to some of the shops and help us actually talk to the people there. Lexy and I both have a background in French, so naturally when we ask for something we both burst out with our “Je voudrais” (don’t pick on my spelling!). Donica helped us order, I got to order some prosh... GAH! Some really good thin sliced meat. (Alright, that’s it. I have a horrible Italian dictionary, but if you can’t spell the damn word you’ll never find it!!! I should have done a verbal blog...) We then visited a cheese store and got some Feta. They are nice when you order cheese, they hold the knife in a spot then look at you. If it’s good you say “basta.” That apparently means enough. I hope... We then got some fruits and veggies. I love the produce shops here, the fruits aren’t all polished. They look exactly like they do when they come off the plant. I saw some lemons yesterday that even still had their leaves on them. It’s totally like being at a farmer’s market. Much nicer.
Course, now we have all this yummy food, but really no way to eat it. One major downside of our apartment is there is no way to clean anything, and the dishes they’ve supplied are questionable... Not sure what that film is. This evening Donica has offered to take us to a market so we can pick up some of these basic things. I’m looking forward to trying to decide what a product is. Hopefully they’ll stop me before I buy bug spray to clean my dishes with!
Dinner at Donica’s, we are having freshly made raviolis. Literally fresh. We picked them up just after the produce store. Loving the food here so far, haven’t touched anything greasy yet. :)
The amazing thin sliced meat is prosciutto, dearie. Pro-shoot-o is how you say it. I happen to have known an Italian, so some of the food words I know. If you find a cheese called piave vecchia (pea-ah-vay ve-key-ah) it is some serious amazing. Like parmesan, but with more depth.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you're having such fun so far! Eat well for all of us!
Oh, the Romans called Zeus by the name of Jupiter. :)