6/16 Sunday in Viterbo

Built out of grey volcanic piperino, the 13th Century walls with tall dramatic towers are some of the best preserved in Italy.

Quiet day.  Easy day.  After a few days of relatively few responsibilities I caught myself getting very stir crazy today.  Course, I’m sure in the middle of the day tomorrow I’ll be wondering where my Italian lunch with my nap is!  Into Rome tomorrow, we are to be at la stazione no later than 6:45.  Yeah, I’ve been normally fast asleep at that time!  However, there is a cute bar right next to the station, so I’m looking forward to my caffe and cornetto.  

Today we spent more time wandering around San Pellegrino.  Those buildings still astound me.  All the peperino stone, the arches, the beautiful doors...  I could spend hours in that area and constantly see new things.  It’s just simply amazing.  It really makes me think about our buildings at home and wonder why we don’t put such  character into our architecture.  We have nothing that compares to these.  The photoes are of the remainder of the medieval quarter, the part that is left after the WWII bombings.  I tried to look up some history of the bombings, but the internet is really slow.  Sooo, if you are bored, and would like to do that, be my guest!  I found something about the 301st Bombardment Group Mission with pictures from the planes, but I can’t find much more than that.  Enrique, the gentleman that drove us to Viterbo from Rome, said it was because there are railroad tracks that run along side Viterbo.  So find me info you people with reliable internet!  Lexy and I are going to be at the university later this week, so I’m hoping to find some history books that are written in English.  I’m also curious about the history of the wall that surrounds the city.  Hopefully I can find something out and get back to you on that!

Other than that, I spent some time admiring the plants around here.  Some are really easy for me to identify, there are some smoke trees, Ashes, Olive Trees...  We spoke to a lady that is making replicas of some pottery that says that Oak trees are sacred, so I’m surprised I don’t see many of those.  The Palm Tree is the symbol of Viterbo, so we’ve been hunting those down quite a bit.  And yes...  This was a major freak out...  Lexy thought I was having some kind of crazy heart attack/stroke.  THERE WERE TWO MONKEY PUZZLE TREES!!!  OMG they are soooo cool.  Whoever thought to plant them here is amazing!  Wonder if they had a statue somewhere in the garden...  There were some people sitting in the shade of them, I think it's safe to say there are at least three Italians that think the crazy American in the red tank needs to get a life.  Oh well!  IT'S A MONEY PUZZLE TREE!

Araucaria araucana, commonly called the Monkey Puzzle Tree.

Anyway, dinner tonight consisted of gelato first, then pizza.  The gelato flavors today were Crema, and Rum.  (Yes, there is a fancy name for it, but I can’t remember!!!)  Both were very good!  I’m starting to have a hard time deciding which is my favorite...  Pizza was sausage and potato.  I wasn’t exactly sure what it was, but it looked good.  I was not disappointed!

Alright.  Rome early.  Can’t wait to share that with you!!!