7/6 Lago de Bosina

I’m really sad to think that tomorrow is the last day of Caffeina.  I’m even more sad to see that I think I missed Joe Bastianich last night.  Looks like he was at Parco Del Paradosso.  I was totally wondering why I was seeing his books at the stands!  

Instead of basking in the glow of Joe, I was at Giardino Porta Fiortia where there was a nice set up for the bands playing there.  Felt like a genuine concert!  This isn’t like the piazzas where I’ve been watching the other bands, there was a little walled off area right by the larger wall set up with a stage.  Kind of had a Warped Tour feel to it.  Anyway, the first band, The Blue Cookies was ok.  They came out playing a cover song, one by a band I don’t like, so instantly I didn’t pay much attention to them.  Claire and I went for a small walk, found her a beer and me a bagno.  The next band, Mad Harms, was a bit better.  Still opened with a cover song.  I’m not sure why both of these bands chose to do that, instantly I was comparing them to the originals which they were no where near in ability.  Luckily I wasn’t alone.  Before venturing out to the concert Lexy, Claire, Negar, and I met up with Alfredo and his friend Hector.  Hector is from Ukraine and has been stuck working with Alfredo in the past.  Poor guy, he seems far to nice to be subject to Alfredo  :)  We had all gone over to the concert, and met up with some more of Alfredo’s and Claire’s friends from hiking.  At this point there was quite a group of us, so finding someone to talk to while the band played was not an issue.  The last band was Sunday Recovery.  The lead singer, Fabio, was a super nice guy, and also a long time friend of Alfredo’s.  He came over and spoke with us for a while, which I enjoyed cause he had the cutest British accent!  When his band was up, they were very good.  No cover songs, just good rock music.  More typical of four piece types of bands we see, no box players in this group!  Most of our group faded out at this point, but me and a few of them lasted till the end.  Afterwards we went and spoke to the band a bit, then journeyed out for a late night walk.  I made it home about 2:am.  I’m fitting in way too much for this!  But the problem is that I still can’t sleep in, I was up at 6:30.

After a pot of coffee, plus a bit more, we decided to go to the lake today.  Hector drove Nakor, Lexy, Claire and I over to Lago de Bosina.  Nice little stretch of sand with some huge trees growing over a grassy area right on the banks of the lake.  Beside us there were several tents set up with some computers, and some very large fishing poles.  Apparently there was some fishing competition going on, and most of the participants seemed to be American.  Silly Americans and their fishing!!!  While we were there we watched this small blonde lady catch three of these crazy large fish, and one got away.  They seemed to be weighing and measuring these fish, then sending them back out.  All I can say is I really want some nice grilled trout...

Aside from the awesome fish spectacle, there were hundreds of sail boats on the lake.  There must have been some kind of competition, in these large groups they would said out across the lake then back.  Looked like a busy sail boat freeway across the lake.  There was also a gaggle of Canadian geese gracing the lake with their presence.  Alfredo didn’t know if they were really Canadian geese, and he hasn’t made good on his promise of finding me a bird book, but they looked the same.  Very surprised at the lack of different birds here...  I’ve seen house sparrows, magpies, starlings, pigeons...  Not surprising I guess, those are invasive species anyways.  

Almost forgot the other good lake past time!  There were lots of little kids that would comb the beach with their little buckets picking up treasures along the beach.  It would have been so sweet, if they hadn’t been picking up little dead fish.  I really want to know what was wrong in that lake to yeild so many of these.  We saw larger ones, probably about 6 inches long at most also washed up on the banks.  The few times we ventured out in the water we all went quickly past the “dead fish zone.”  At one point Claire saw a stick in the water and thought it was a dead fish and freaked out.  Very entertaining!

For lunch we munched on fruit.  I felt very American as I pulled out my half a watermelon and dug into it with my pocket knife.  Yup.  That’s the way we do it.  Around this point in our day Alfredo showed up with some more fruit and some pizza.  I had been so wrapped up in the end of my book I missed it, but I was full of watermelon anyways so I was a happy girl.  It was surprising to see Alfredo, until Hector told us some news that made me very grumpy.  He was leaving to go see Muse!  They are playing tonight in Rome, Lexy and I had thought to go but the tickets were sold out.  I tried to steal Hector’s ticket, but that man is crafty.  Sooo, our ride left with Negar, and that left us three girls with our back up ride.  I suppose it’s better than the bus!

We stayed for a while more, as the redness on my legs can show, then we headed out.  Riding home in Alfredo’s car I noticed something.  Alfredo drives a new VW Golf.  VERY nice little car, I wonder if I could fit it in my luggage...  Anyway, we were driving along and I realized I could read all the little buttons and labels in the car.  Why are they not in Italian!?  Aren’t these labels important!?  All Italians don’t read English!  Some things will never make sense.  

Well, that brings us back to now.  I made some munchies cause that watermelon is long gone, had some ricotta and honey, and now us girls are prepping for a little Viterbo shopping trip.  Yes, it’s almost 7:pm, and we are going out soon.  How crazy is that?  Most of the stores will be open, and on a Saturday night this is one of the more prime times to go shopping here.  I’ll never understand Italy!

7/5 An Educational Experience

Slept great last night!  Couldn’t even hear the band over in San Pellegrino.  After 9 hours sleep I’m feeling pretty good!  Today Frankie, one of the ladies from the USAC, set up an interview with one of the local teachers, Roberta.  She was great enough to find an English teacher.  This seemed silly at first, till I realized that I couldn’t really talk to a science teacher in italian...  

Poster in English Classroom

First off forgive me if I have some major holes in what I’m going to tell you.  Between Roberta’s accent and Lexy’s shuffling feet I had a hard time hearing (I suppose that’s the joy of the acoustics in older buildings).  The schoolhouse here in Viterbo is actually a converted monastery dedicated to Santa Rosa.  They still have the original statue of her in the front entry way.  The feel of the school is just like that of any older school, it made sense to hear that it was a monastery but it seemed to not have many differences.  Roberta met us on the front steps.  Her first question was if Lexy and I were students, or teachers!  Looking around at some of the students on the steps, it was totally a legit question.  This is the time of the year that the students are taking their exit exams.  “High school” here lasts 5 years, students attend from ages 14 through 18.  At the end of their time they take a verbal exam.  All six subject teachers (not necessarily their teachers) and the president sit on a panel.  The student prepares a project that incorporates all of the subjects.  They give their presentation, then each teacher questions the student from their discipline.  The first stop Roberta took us to was to one of these exams.  We were lucky enough to be able to sit in the back while a young lady took her exam.  These can typically last an hour.  The exam is given in Italian, so other than tones I didn’t follow a whole lot of what was happening.  I was very surprised by the girl though, she seemed so confident.  Bit nervous, she was talking pretty fast even to my untrained ears, but her posture was pretty relaxed and she wasn’t fidgeting.  There was one point where a teacher asked her to “describe a male who is her hero.”  Yup, this was in English.  It was funny to watch, I think she struggled more with trying to think of someone then with the actual language.  The teacher fed her some people, saying father, brother, then told her she cold pick a female if she wanted. The student jumped on the father idea after a moments thought.  

Auditorium

We ventured out of the room, Roberta continued a tour of the school.  She took us to a gym, pretty small by our standards.  She explained that space is hard to come by, so they are lucky to have what they do.  We saw a computer lab, which is used just like ours are back at NVHS.  Pretty much any class will come in to use the computers.  There was an “auditorium” where they have speakers come.  It was full of chairs, however it was about the size of my classroom at home. 

While we toured, Roberta told us about the school and how it works.  First off, the students go to the same room, then the teachers are the ones that rotate.  Instead of “periods” the students are exposed to a certain number of hours of each topic, totaling 32 hours in a week.  The teachers rotate between classrooms, and even between schools.  The students start school at 8 in the morning, then are released around 1 or 2.  Now before my students start getting all excited, let me point out they attend school six days a week.  Depending on subject they even have homework.

Teacher Record Book

At the beginning of the year the teachers have to create a record of what they intend to cover.  A syllabus really.  Then at the end of the year they write a paper about what they covered, and how the students behaved.  Both of these are kept in a file in the office on the chance a student who had failed needs the information.  Teachers are also given a record book where they keep the names of their students, record their grades, and the attendance.  Sooo, just like us, however ours are on the internet.  There is supposed to be computers for the teachers, but Roberta says there just aren’t enough.  I suppose some things are world wide.

School Hallway

Santa Rosa was recently converted to a music school.  Last year was their pilot year, and 27 students were included in this program.  The students have to audition and then they are chosen based on that.  It was a huge success last year, the students just played a concert up at the university not too long ago.  I found this interesting, and familiar.  Sounds an awful lot like our academies we’ve started in Washoe County.  

Becoming a teacher is somewhat more interesting here in Italy.  You study to become one, just like in the US, however then you are put on a list.  When your name reaches the top of the list and a school needs a teacher, they call you.  Teachers are underpaid here as well, so it really surprised me to hear that Roberta was on the list for 10 years.  Talk about really wanting to become a teacher.  There is no interview process for teachers, when your name reaches the top of the list, the head of the school that needs a teacher gets that top name.  I asked Roberta if it was hard to fire teachers, and she said only if the enrollment is down.  She’s never heard of a teacher being fired.  I was very shocked at the parallels in systems hearing this.

Overall there were lots of differences, and lots of similarities.  I really liked the verbal exams, that’s something I’d like to incorporate more into my classroom.  It’s nice cause it takes away that reading comprehension part of the exam, and you can really find out what a student knows.  And lets face it, our students really need to work on their verbal skills.  It’d also be a great way to bring in other topics, well, the good ones anyway.  Like math and history.  (Love you Neer!)

Lunch!

Tired of hearing about the school?  Well, let me tell you.  I’ve discovered cheese.  Made it to that cheese store this morning and picked up way too much ricotta.  Cost me a whole 1,95 euros.  I wondered around Viterbo looking for a small market where Claire had bought some pesto that was fabulous, but I got totally turned around.  I found a different little market and picked up some honey.  That sounds so simple...  Honey is not simple.  I walked into a shop I’d been in before, and the cute shop owner speaks about two English words.  I asked for good honey, and that just didn’t work.  He wanted to know what it was for, what type of plant I wanted it from, how much, which I liked...  Twice he tried to get his neighbor to help translate, but he was busy.  Finally another lady that was in the store piped up.  She was the sweetest lady I’ve met!!!  She is from Germany, and spoke pretty darn good English.  She didn’t translate a word I said to the poor shop keeper, but keep educating me on the honey.  She walked me through about six different types, telling me what they were good for.  She picked up the one I got and said it was for cheese.  (Course when I got to the counter with it she then specified “hard” cheese...  like a peckerino- good spelling, I know, these people don’t come with subtitles)  While I was getting the honey, the two decided to educate me on other types of cheese.  They really like mozzarella here, and they were telling me what kind to get.  Apparently some kind that starts with “c” is made “dangerously” (I love their lack of English, they come up with the cutest things!) and to get the one that starts with “b”.  Of course they used the actual names, but that’s about all I remember.  I picked up some stracciatella while I was there.  This stuff is fantastic.  It’s the inside of a mozzarella ball that’s not completely solidified.  Alfredo had this or something like it one day at the university, and I really wanted to have some again.  I also think the way Claire says it is adorable, so I figured I couldn’t go wrong.  The sweet German lady then told me to try some figs while I was here, and that they go great with ham.  I’ve never tried that, maybe that will be next on my list.  They certainly have lots of pork here.  So, armed with ricotta, stracciatella, and honey I headed home.  But didn’t make it.  Stopped by the bread shop.  If you go early in the day they still have lots of good bread!  I got some panini con sala, these nice little round bun-like rolls topped with some olive oil and spices.  I take back what I had said about the bread here not being good.  I’ve had some good pizza (bread, not American pizza) that was topped with salt and rosemary that was fantastic too.  This all composed my lunch today.  With some left over pizza.  Pure heaven.

Not sure what’s on the bill for tonight.  Claire is up at the University so I’ll hunt her down later.  This is the last weekend of Caffiena so I imagine there is lots of music in my future!  I’ll keep you posted!

7/4 Watermelon, Ricotta, and Police Cars (Get it? Red, white and blue!!!)

I always write these starting at the morning.  Most of the time I write these during the day, before I go out.  How many times have I ended with, “Time for dinner!”?  Well let’s break that cycle.  So last night Irene, Rachelle, Naker, Claire, Lexy and I went out to dinner.  Emmanuelle joined us, then Alfredo showed up.  Huge party of us!  We went to a pizzeria right by Lexy and my apartment.  There is another pizzeria around there that sells pizza by the slice that I frequent for dinner (like I did tonight).  That one is run by the son, and the one we went to for dinner is run by the dad.  Really neat how small town this place is.  We had enough Italian influence in this crowd, so we went for three courses.  The appetizers were awesome.  There was one with meats on it (I was one of two non vegetarians, so yeah for me!) with some fried veggies, another with bread with different toppings, and my personal favorite, ricotta and honey.  I was so hesitant to try this, I’m not a big cheese lover.  But Emmanuelle asked in his sweet broken English voice, and I couldn’t turn those blue eyes down.  That man is awesome.  That’s my new favorite food.  Pizza for dinner, I got a proscuitto and mushroom pizza.  Super good.  I really like proscuitto, I better be able to find some good stuff in the states.  Then a few deserts got passed around.  One thing I’m really noticing about sweets here, they aren’t that sweet.  Extremely good, but not all that sweet.  I can see why they don’t have such an addiction like we do to sweets, the less sweet stuff I have the less I want.  Everything just tastes so much better.

After dinner we went for a small walk.  I eventually found a little three piece band to watch while the others got some drinks.  I love the differences in these bands.  This set had a guitar, a tambourine, and a box.  Yes, a box.  This is the second time I’ve seen someone playing a box.  He did get out a kazoo once.  Alfredo tried to explain to me that it’s an old “instrument,” a more basic drum.  He also explained that this is native music, which made sense with his earlier explanation of the Rome area.  Not as over the top as the southern Italy music, but certainly not acoustic as I tried to explain to him.  I stayed till about 12 (crazy, I know!) then went home.  It was a good night.

Today was another lab day.  However after the typical morning of cleaning cores and putting the organic material in vials, I got to do something different.  So far the majority of what we’ve been doing is looking for organic material in order to find a date.  Scott also wants to look at the samples and find out how much carbon is contained in them.  To do this we pulled out the “archive” side of the core.  You may remember the core is divided into two, one with a U channel cut out that was sent to the Magnetic guys and the rest is sifted out, and the archive side which is kept just in case.  We measured this out, then at every 10 centimeters we took out a 1.25 mL sample.  This was funny, Scott said he has to bring the measuring spoons from home cause you can’t buy them in Italy.  They don’t measure when cooking.  So this sample was put into a crucible.  Crucibles are little dishes that are heat resistant, so just think of it as a mini casserole dish.  The crucibles are weighted before the sample is put in it, then after.  This gives just the sample weight before  the next part.  

Next the sample then goes into an oven where they sit for a few hours.  I’m not sure the temperature on this oven, I’m getting so lost in Celsius vs Farenheight .  The job of this oven is to dry them out, and since the Italian sun isn’t as hot and dry as the Nevada sun, they use an oven.  After the drying process they are then put into a much hotter oven for approximately and hour (depending on when they can open the oven, it’s got a silly safety feature!)  This burns off all the organic matter, so all the carbon.  The samples can then be weighed again, and the resulting difference is the weight of the organic matter.  So far Scott and I have only created 22 samples, they were in the first oven when the go bell rang.  I won’t be around tomorrow to see them be finished. 


After the samples I got to Skype with Drew.  He was so perfect this morning!!!  He asked me why I was here, which of course was hard to hear.  I told him I was here getting stuff for him, and I asked him what he wanted.  That little boy always surprises me when he comes back with perfectly formulated sentences.  He asked, “What do they have there?”  I gave him a few ideas, and he wanted the last suggestion.  I said I’d get him a hug.  So we ‘hugged’.  Hard being away from him.  Told him I’d be back in 7 days, so he showed me on his fingers how many that was.  Then he got excited when I told him we’d have two solid weeks together when I get back.  Not sure if that’s enough time with him, but it’s all I have!!!  He blew me some kisses, then had to get ready to see Despicable Me 2 with his cousin.  Love that he’s having so much fun.


Claire and Lexy were waiting for me when I finished.  We had a shopping trip home.  Lexy ran to a soccer shop while Claire and I went to Polozzi’s.  Polozzi’s is one of the best bakeries in Viterbo.  There is another one I like too, but different types of pastries.  Claire and I picked up these AWESOME cookies, they are gluten free made of almond flour, pine nuts, orange zest...  Remember when I said their stuff here isn’t all that sweet?  They are still absolutely delicious.  Starting to feel that all that sweet stuff really hides the flavor.  We hit a couple other shops, one being a small “toy” store.  It’s not really a toy store, but there’s lots of toy cars.  I picked up a police car for Drew (that’s a surprise!  No telling him!!).  As I was walking out that exact model police car drove by.  Too funny!


Lexy decided to go home at this point, and Claire and I were going to hit up a produce store and try to find some cheese.  I love the produce here.  It’s all fresh, local, and not modified.  Sure, you aren’t going to get strawberries you can live in, but these are sooo much better.  She got a bag full of produce for three euros, I picked up some cherry tomatoes and a watermelon.  I ate the tomatoes as we wandered around the city.  That watermelon is sitting by my feet.  Love watermelon...  The cheese shop was closed, so we just kept walking around.  I love how it doesn’t matter how many times I walk down a street it still takes my breath away.  I’m really going to miss the view and the walks when I get home.  I’ll have to find a substitute.  But anyways, cheese!!!  I have to get some Ricotta and honey!  Thinking I may go tomorrow morning.  It was amazing at that restaurant.

So, now that brings me to now.  I’m not going to say I’m going to get dinner, cause I’ve already eaten.  I got a piece of pizza at the son’s pizza by the slice place.  Watched a little Jazz band for a bit in Piazza del Giseu, and then came home.  I’m looking forward to some sleep tonight.  Tomorrow Lexy and I are meeting Roberta, an English teacher here at the local high school.  We are getting a tour of the school.  I’m so excited!!!  I should have lots to report then.  (Not like this is really short!)

7/3 Wednesday in Viterbo

Holy whisker biscuits I forgot to take any pictures today!  That’s a first!!  I’m at well over 2k on my computer, most of them pretty good.  Don’t remember what most of them are though...  Oh well.  

Alfredo dashing my hopes

So today was another lab day.  Not much to tell you there.  Went through another 7 samples, very fun stuff.  I guess there was one deviation.  OH!  AND ONE PICTURE!  Let me recap before I dive into this.  Our process of cleaning cores goes like this:  We soak 5cm of sediment in a solution, then we sift it to collect all the larger particles.  These particles are put on a petri dish and examined under a microscope.  Then all terrestrial leaves, twigs, or other interesting things are removed and put in a vial.  The remainder of the stuff goes in another vial.  Turns out it runs about $600.00 to do one carbon dating sample.  I’ve done over 40 cores so far, creating about 25 vials of potential stuff to carbon date.  Basically if it’s not good stuff, there is no point in waisting the money on it.  So here I am, a basic biology teacher, pulling random things out to spend $600.00 on!  GAH!  I have to comment Scott here, he did tell me that I’m an expert on this now.  Out of everyone on the project I have the most experience, and he said I was doing a good job.  Yup.  I glowed at that point.  Anyway, I have all these vials, and Scott wanted to take a look at what was there.  After glancing at a few under the scope he had Alfredo come in.  Not sure I ever said what Alfredo did, he’s the resident plant guy, a professor that the University that teaches all the ecological botany classes and such.  So Scott defers to him on his knowledge of plants.  Mean Alfredo turned down quite a few of my samples.  (I kinda figured this would happen, there isn’t much to work with)  That was about the only deviation in my day...

Pasta.  With Olives.  In a vending machine.

I really don’t have much else to report.  And I don’t have many pictures.  So this would be a great time to tell you about after hours shopping!  Actually shopping in general.  So strange here.  At 4 when we are coming home, the stores are closed.  At 10 when we are going out for gelato, the stores are open.  If you want to buy shoes at midnight, sure thing!  But don’t want bread.  Shopping here is so hard...  Now, for the people like me that can’t figure out the schedule, they have lots of vending machines.  We even found one that sells pasta and sauce.  So next time you forget you are having company and need more food, just visit your local vending mall!  Crazy stuff.  

Ok, this is a short one today.  I think I’m going to crash.  And I have some yummy cookies and a book calling my name.  Tomorrow is another lab day, but I’ll brainstorm as I clean cores about something new and snazzy to tell you.  I’m open to ideas!!!

7/2 Rome and the Nerd Tour

 ROME!  Again!  Third time's a charm, right???  So today wasn't a pleasure trip per say, it was intended for work.  I must say, I love Scott's version of work.  The agenda was to go to Rome, find the flood markers and see the areas these floods would have effected, visit Richard at FAO, grab some lunch at a bakery that Scott has been talking up, then finish the day at the archives.  This is probably the first time a plan of Scotts has happened flawlessly.  Turned out to be a very good day.

Typical Italian car

Day started with the sun, Lexy and I met everyone at the train station at 6:30.  Just enough time for a cappuccino and cornetto, then we started our two hour train ride to Rome.  Once we made it to Rome, Scott brought us to the Piazza Del Popolo.  Still amazing this second time, staring down each of the streets to the different iconic Roman buildings.  Scott led us down the one angling towards the river, which makes sense if you think about flooding.  On our way there, we passed this little car.  Ok, jumping subjects for a moment.  Do you have any idea how many young kids I've seen sitting on their parent's laps as they are driving!?  This was no exception. The little tyke in this one actually had his head sticking out the sunroof when we walked by.  I also adore the tiny cars.  I swear I could fit four of them in my luggage.  Ok, back to Rome.

I really wish I could remember all the street names for this part.  So bear with me.  We traveled down Via De Ripetta to the San Rocco's Church.  We were able to locate our first flood marker.  This was so cool!!!  It's basically a large ruler made of stone, then they marked the heights of each of the floods with the date traveling up the side.  The dates for the floods started in the 1400s, and the most recent one was 1870.  These floods ran from 15 meters to almost 20 meters above the Tiber river's normal banks which is about 6.5 meters.  The entire area we were standing in would have been so dramatically submerged under water.  In the 1800s they built a wall along the banks of the Tiber river to hold back floods under 15 meters.  The picture to the right is Scott standing next to this flood marker.  This is not the original location of this marker, so keep in mind it doesn't start at zero.  They accounted for the elevation difference, I believe it started around 3 meters.  The majority of the floods happened around where Scott is standing, but there were quite a few at the very top of the hydrometer.

Our second stop took us to Santa Maria Sopra Minerva beside the Pantheon where we found another set of plaques showing floods.  These were a bit more "fun," they had the "hand of god" pointing to the water height.  Again in the picture to the left Scott is standing right below them.  Since Rome is such a historical city, it has undergone several rebuilds.  They don't demolish what they build on, they simply build on top of it.  The ground Scott is standing on is about 9 meters higher than it would have been during these floods.  Around the outside of the Pantheon you can actually still see the original ground level.  The amount of water that would be needed to fill this area is just astounding.  I suppose it's good they didn't use a lot of drywall and carpets like we do now, having dealt with a soggy house recently I know its no fun!

Ok, so I mentioned the Pantheon.  Yup, we checked it out.  Very cool!  I still can't get over how impressive these buildings are.  Claire and I wandered around the building, and at one point we were standing by a small group of people.  I questioned her why they had the center of the room roped off, and she said she didn't know.  So, the gentleman behind her said it's because there is a dip in the floor.  Above that area there is a round opening in the ceiling, so when it rains the water is collected there.  Then they are able to bottle it up and sell it as bottled water.  Yup.  We both stared at him for a moment before he started laughing.  They do use it to gather water, but it's not for bottled water.  This group was from Australia, and it was their second trip to Rome.  I can't imagine the plane ride they had to endure to get there.  But anyways, we stopped and chatted with them for a bit, then headed off to our next spot.

Solar Calander

From here till lunch it was a typical sight seeing tour.  We stopped outside the diplomatic building to check out the solar calendar.  This was awesome!!!!  In the picture you can see scott pointing to it.  It was far to large to get into one shot, it was crazy tall.  The way it works is if you are there on a sunny day at noon where the shadow lies will be on a plaque that tells you the month.  Well, it tells you the astrological sign.  We weren't exactly sure how to read it, but still, this was totally awesome.  At one point I was so focused on those little plaques on the floor I walked right up to a building.  Then I noticed the large man in uniform right in front of me.  The last few plaques are right at the front door, and they didn't want civilians in there.  Meany heads.  I wanted a picture of the top one!

Trevi Fountain

Next on our journey was to Trevi Fountain.  I have to say, Scott didn't really tell us where we were or where we were going.  I was just walking along following like a good little puppy, then we turn this corner and POOF!  Beautiful fountain.  Totally wasn't expecting it.  You know you see all these pictures of all these beautiful things in books, then people like me don't bother looking at where they are cause they never think they'll make it there.  I've seen pictures of this fountain, but had no clue it was here.  Absolutely beautiful.  Scott told us that if you throw a coin over your shoulder into the fountain you will come back.  So I threw in two.

Spanish Steps

Next!  Spanish Steps.  I don't know a thing about these.  Pretty impressive. I climbed up to the top, nice view of the city.  I think if I hadn't seen so much other stuff this day I would have been more impressed, but around this time we were all getting hungry.  These Italians eat so late in the day!  We ate breakfast at 6:30, then we have to wait till 1 for lunch?!  That's tough stuff.  Especially for two teachers that are used to eating in 1.3 seconds at 10:32 on the dot.

Standing on top of the FAO building

So one more stop before we were able to go to lunch.  FAO.  Richard, Scott's friend and the owner of the apartment Scott rents over the summer, works there and offered for us to come see the city from the top of his building.  It was pretty cool!  We had to give them our passports, get a visitors badge, Richard snuck my knife in for me, then through the metal detectors, then we were in.  On the way up to the terrace Lexy and I walked into a courtyard full of pamphlets.  We both stopped dead in our tracks immediately drooling at all the materials.  She timidly picked up a poster and looked hopefully at Richard.  He told us we could take one.  Yippy!!!  The next table had all sorts of books on food production.  Again, hopeful stares at Richard.  At this point Scott stopped us and said we were coming back through this room, we could go "shopping" then.  The top of the building was amazing.  We could see the Colosseum, the Forum, the old community baths, everything.  At this time we were all so very hungry, which kind of took over from enjoying the view.  After a short visit we went back through the buidling where Lexy and I quickly grabed so many of those little pamplets.  Walking out I joked to her that this was the highlight of our Rome trip, teaching materials.  We both laughed, however there was a nerdy truth in the statement.

FINALLY we got to go to lunch.  Scott took us to a nice little bakery/pizzeria.  I of course got mushroom pizza and a coke.  Best stuff ever.  We were silent as we ate, the food was so good.  (Are you really still reading this?  I'm only half way done with my day!  Crazy.  Let's just move on)

Church at the Archives

The second half of our day took us to the Archives.  Susana and Gabrielle were there prepared with all sorts of stuff for Scott.  Ancient maps, records of sales for certain areas.  First they gave us a little tour of the Archive building.  The two flanking buildings were built at one time, then the church that completes the courtyard was built 100 years later.  It's apparently unique for the baroque style because of the concave face, they would normally have made it straight across.  Inside the building were all these incredibly old books.  Many of them of course they wouldn't let you touch because they are so old, and they can't handle being shuffled through.

Claire, Scott, Gabrielle, and Susana

Susana and Gabrielle are both Italian speakers.  They did try to speak English on occasion, but it was clear they were struggling.  At one point they pulled out this incredibly large map which showed the landscape in the 1700s I believe, and it contained all of our lakes!  There were little plots of land with numbers.  These numbers corresponded to a book that told what was being grown on that plot of land.  Scott was more excited about this than I've ever seen him.  It was so fun!

I could probably go on about the archives, the church, the ride home, but I think that's about good.  Tomorrow we are back in the lab.  Only five more lab days left.  I can't believe the end is so close.  But I'm not thinking about that right now!!!

Ancient Internet

7/1 Caffeina

Happy Monday!!!  Today ended up being another lab day.  I think I’ve walked you through that procedure enough, so rather than bore you with those details I’m thinking it’s about time I explained Caffeina and what I’ve gotten to see so far.  Now before I dive into this, I may have some details a bit skewed.  I’m working out of an italian program and my internet isn’t fast enough to run google translator!

Caffeina Tents in our Piazza

Caffeina is a two week long festival unique to Viterbo.  It’s described as global cultural, with books, movies, art, music, and food.  Along some of the more well traveled streets inside the walls they have set up tents, stages, information points, and road blocks.  They set up for Caffeina started a week in advance, leaving Lexy and me more than curious about what was going to happen.  The festival location starts basically in the center of Viterbo traveling down Via Roma down to Piazza del Plebiscito.  (You’ve seen pictures of this piazza, it’s where all the official buildings are)  Then it travels down Via San Lorenzo, past Piazza del Gesu, down to Piazza della Morte.  (That one should sound very familiar.  I can see tents outside my window)  From there it takes a turn to the east to continue in the medieval quarter down Via San Pellegrino.  There are about 25 event areas, and over 100 booths throughout that area.  This is a serious festival.

The festival started last Thursday.  That first day Lexy and I just wondered around our piazza checking out the booths.  We have a few of the Slow Food Italia booths right outside our door.  The Slow Food movement is a movement that was started here in Italy where they get all the ingredients for the food as locally as possible.  Simple food, with simple origins.  I’ve heard about this in the states, however it’s much larger over here.  So, we have a gelato booth, a fruits and veggies booth, wine, olive oil, honey...  One had bread the other day, but that seems to change on occasion.  

Saturday night's band

My first real taste of Caffiena was on Saturday night.  After our beach day Lexy crashed hard (silly sun!) so Claire and I met Alfredo and Stefano in the Piazza del Gesu.  There was this crazy band playing!!!  Organicanto & Progetto Danza DNA.  At least I think that’s the name...  It may be the second line of Conderto Folk. Danza, pizzaca e taranta.  I still have a lot of Italian to learn..  Anyway, this was absolutely crazy to watch.  Alfredo explained that the type of music they were playing was from Southern Italy.  Apparently the closer to Rome you get the more influence the Pope has on music, and this type of music is discouraged.  Rome music seems to center around more of a singer and guitar.  I tried to ask if it was acoustic, but I couldn’t adequately explain that to a non native speaker..  So anyways, this music.  I know when I think of a band I’m thinking guitars, bass, drums, you know, ordinary stuff.  Sure, that was there.  Although I’m not sure I saw a guitar...  They also had and accordion, bagpipes, a flute, an oboe, recorder, piano, violin, banjo...  I’m sure there were more, but I simply can’t remember.  Some of the songs had vocals, some did not.  All were very up beat, easy to dance to.  In front of the stage there were these two young ladies that were dressed in white skirts with white tank tops and a red sash around their waste.  They also had red scarves they were dancing with.  You could see these girls dancing with each other, then they would get people from the crowed up to dance to.  Several other girls appeared with their own personal scarves and would try to imitate the professional dancers, it was so fun to watch.  Stefano explained the scarves like the woman were spiders and the scarf their web to catch a man.  Love italian metaphors!

The Parade

Sunday Lexy and I stayed home, so when dinner time rolled around I was ready to get out of the house.  Lexy opted for a quiet evening, so I ventured out on my own.  It was so much fun!  I followed the festival all the way down the medieval quarter where I hadn’t been before.  At the very end of the festivities, there was a large group of people congregating.  This turned out to be the beginning of some kind of parade through the Caffeina.  They were all probably high school age kids broken up into groups.  Naturally I couldn’t read the signs, so I’m totally guessing...  They had banners and the Italian flag out front, some brass players, then came all the students.  Took two minutes for the entire group to pass my location on the side lines.  Then the whole crowed I was with followed them.  They traveled all the way through the area to Piazza del Sacrario where they all gathered in an amphitheater type area.  I wandered away at this point, not sure what they were doing.

Sunday's band.  Note the
cute little groupie!

I made it back to Piazza del Gesu knowing there would be music there.  I found a good spot by the fountain there, easy to find since they were just starting to set up.  For the first nearly hour they had a lady on the stage with two gentlemen interviewing her.  Occasionally a blonde haired lady would sing a short song with a piano accompaniment.  I believe they were interviewing the first lady about her life and influences of music, that’s about all I could figure out.  The stranger part of it all was on the TV on the front of the stage they were playing a video about making cheese...  Ricotta to be exact. Not sure why they were playing that.  Anyway, as i was sitting there Scott and Donica walking into the PIazza.  They sat down at a table with two of their friends.  A short time later Scott came over to me and informed me they were giving away free gelato, so naturally I indulged.  Scott adopted me at this point, and I joined them at their table.  By this time the original lady had taken the stage with her band.  This music had a very latino feel to me, nothing like the music from the night before.  She was a beautiful singer, and on occasion a few people got up to dance.  I found it amusing that one of her accompaniment players was literally playing the box he was sitting on.  He must have been bored.  I’ve also noticed that they are very fond of smoke machines.  The band the previous night had one, and so did The William Band from a week ago.  It’s so funny since they are outdoors that smoke never goes where they intend for it to go.  Wonder how the photographers like that...

Didn’t venture out tonight to the Caffiena.  Instead we went to the hot springs that are all around this area.  Some of them you have to pay to get into, these ones were free.  Nate, one of the USAC students, told us about them.  Alfredo and Emmanuelle brought us to some pretty close to home where we hung out for about two hours.  So relaxing.  And surprisingly comfortable, you’d think after being in the hot Italian sun hot water wouldn’t be so nice.  

What I want for breakfast

What I had for breakfast.
Still good, but I want sausage
and regular bread!

Rome with Scott tomorrow, so I’ll have lots to report then.  We are taking our flood walk, so looking at all the different locations of flooding that there are records for in the Rome area.  Then we are meeting with the historians.  I know some of you will love that part, assuming I can understand what they are talking about...

6/30 Sunday’s History Lesson: The Etruscans

Etruscan Territory, image from Wikipedia

Since everything in Italy is closed on Sunday it’s a great time to do some reading and report back to you. Today’s topic of choice is about the Etruscans.  This morning Lexy and I traveled to the San Pellegrino Quarter and got a history book on Viterbo that also covers the architecture, piazzas and other places in the area. The first three pages of the book review the history of Viterbo.  Not normally being a fan of history I would think three pages of solid text is overkill to explain the history of anything, but then again I’m from the western part of the United States where really three pages can cover about everything. Viterbo however needs much more to cover it adequately. Italy is so rich in history, its just astounding.  I’m not used to having to pay attention to “BCE” or any of those identifiers.         

I know that was all choppy, so let me bring it back to my initial topic:  The Etruscans.  On one of our first days here Lexy and I wandered into a courtyard where Paula told us the “benches” were actually sarcophagi from Etruscan tombs.  The Etruscans were the people here before the Romans.  All around Viterbo are artifacts of the original inhabitants.  Huge stone sculptures the Etruscans carved from nenfro, a volcanic rock the Etruscans favored for sculpture still dot the area. For example in the Palazzo del Podesta there is an Etruscan nenfro lion sculpture still looking down on the piazza from atop a column the Romans built.

Italy’s history is just a crazy patchwork of constant war with territory changing hands between groups at regular intervals. The Etruscans gave way to the Romans, then the Goths, Byzantines, Franks and Papal States, among others, controlled the area at one time. I realize history books don’t include lengthy chapters on peace time, but it still seems a bit crazy.

The origin of the Etruscans is still up in the air.  I read that they may have come from Lydia in Asia Minor as described by Herodotus in the 5th Century BC.  Herodotus describes a city that was plagued with famine for 18 years.  The king then decided that something needed to be done, since nothing was getting better.  He divided the population into two, he stayed with half the population in their city, then sent his son, Tyrrhenian with the second half to migrate which is how they may have arrived in Italy.  Not all of Herodotus’s accounts have been verified so this story may not be accurate.  Other people feel that the Etruscans may have been indigenous to the area, however there are some problems with that idea as well.  Etruscan pottery and artwork found in Italy are similar to those found in Asia Minor. This may be because the Estruscans originated there or from trading with the native peoples.  The Etruscan language predated and influenced Latin, in fact Rōma the Latin word for the capital city, Rome, could have came directly from the Estruscan Ruma (that is if the Romulus and Remus story is incorrect!).

Recently DNA testing has been used to try to find the origins of the Etruscans and they’ve had some interesting results.  The Etruscans have no DNA similarities to northern European people.  There are however some mitochondrial DNA similarities to the inhabitants of Asia Minor which supports Herodotus’s writings.  (On a side note for you non-bio people, you always get your mitochondria from you mother.  It contains it’s own DNA, so since it’s never shuffled with any other DNA it remains pretty pure with the exception of rare mutations.  Because of this, a woman can trace her lineage back however far she has the mitochondrial DNA for.  Just like a man can trace his through his Y chromosome on the male side).  
      

The Etruscans were miners, mostly copper and iron, which helped enrich their people so they were able to expand to the southern peninsula of Italy.  They eventually allied themselves with the Carthaginians against the Greeks in the 6th century BC when the Greeks started creating colonies around the Italian peninsula and dominating trade in Italy.  Previous to this the Greeks held trading posts in Africa, and Sicily, starting their monopoly on trade.  They new colonies in Corsica, Sardinia and Iberia finally causing the tension to erupt.  The B

Battle of Alalia, image from Wikipedia

attle of Alalia (540 BC) caused a shift of power between the Greeks and the Carthaginians.  The Etruscans were defeated by the Greeks, causing the Etruscans to lose their southern provinces.  This marked the beginning of their decline.  In 474 BC the Etruscans tried to regain their southern provinces, but were defeated in the Battle of Cumae. This was another naval battle, between the allied Syracuse and Cumae troops and the Etruscans. The Etruscans lost much of their influence in Italy, and after a few more losses on the battle field they were officially conquered by the Romans in the 3rd century BC.     

Not much of the original Etruscan Viterbo remains.  When the Romans first invaded and dominated Southern Etruria the Etruscans resisted.  Viterbo is located in a very strategic location for travel by way of Via Cassia, a main road through Italy made by the Romans after their conquest.  So basically there are some artifacts, but not much else.  The Etruscans remain a mysterious people to this day.  Next weekend Lexy and I want to go to Civita di Bagnoregio, which is also an old Etruscan city.  Earthquakes have caused much of the town to fall down the cliffs and today the population is a staggering 15.  It’s known as il paese che muore, or “the dying town.”  You have to travel across a long bridge to get to the city.  So excited about that!      

Oh my gosh...  Light bulb!!!  In yesterday’s blog I said that we went to the Terranean, thinking that was the spelling since we were so north it wouldn’t be the “middle” terranean.  The northern part of the sea is called the Tyrrhenian Sea, in reference to the son that was sent from Lydia to migrate his people.  Wow, I feel like an idiot...        

Alright, heading over to Scott’s place in a bit to get him some of these pictures.  Now, what should I do for dinner tonight...  Love Italian food!