A Semester in Italy and A Summer on The Mountain

July

2010-07-03T23:14:00.007+02:00

Sand Turn

2010-06-05T21:27:00.007+02:00

The first couple of weeks with the Forest Service have been exciting and I have learned a lot. The more I learn the less i know. My first project is Sand Turn scenic overlook. Sand Turn is off of the highway and my job is to design a pedestrian friendly area for viewing the panoramic landscape. There are views out to the Tongue River Basin, to the Buffalo Tongue rock formation, and the Fallen City rock formation. Tomorrow I am going to try and go hiking, depending on the weather. I'm shooting for either Bighorn Canyon, or Tongue River Canyon. The images below are views from Sand Turn, and the Forest Portal sign which is going to be moved to Sand Turn from another location on the highway.

First Weekend

2010-06-02T18:14:00.004+02:00

Over

2010-05-11T19:12:00.001+02:00

I am home. Maybe I should continue the blog and rename it "A Semester in Italy and a Summer at Bighorn." Thoughts?

Out With A Bang

2010-05-07T13:00:00.014+02:00

It is now the last weekend before I return home to Kansas City. I'm getting excited but at the same time there is so much more to see here and no more time. Last weekend Alyssa and John visited here from Prague so I went back to some of the cities I've already been to with them. On Thursday I met up with them in Rome and we went to the Vatican. On the way back to the train station we saw the Spanish Steps and the Trevi fountain. I was amazed at how much it has changed since the first couple weeks when I was there. The Steps and Fountain were very crowded in February but nothing compared to what I saw that day.

Friday we stuck around Orvieto for most of the day and then took a train to Florence where we stayed the night. We wandered around Florence in the evening to the usual sites, Duomo, Ponte Veccio, etc. When we got to Santa Croce we found that they were having a huge market of Italian foods in the piazza. Alyssa and I had artichokes and olives for dinner which was amazing. That night in Florence turned out to be something special. It was The White Night which is the May Day celebration of Florence and is the biggest Florentine party of the year. Everyone stays out until the wee hours of the morning no matter how young or old they are. There were concerts and bands set up all over the city. Every piazza, no matter how big, seemed to have a stage set up for a band. There was even a band playing on the Ponte Veccio. We wandered around for a while trying to avoid getting run over thousands and thousands of people. When we got to the Piazza Santa Maria Novella we heard the most awful noise coming from the stage of what seemed to be a large concert. Neither Alyssa and I knew what was going on but we knew that the music was awful and that people were really excited and cheering. The noises were high pitched screeching combined with the sounds of a sick whale. I don't even know. I picked up a flier on the ground and found out that it was the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra. All of the music was being made using only vegetables; eggplants, carrot horns, squash drums, and beans being thrown everywhere. I was actually somewhat impressed and I got some great video documenting it.

On Saturday we wandered around Florence again and saw pretty much everything we saw the previous night. Again, we stopped by the food vendors at Santa Croce and got the antipasti which may have been the most flavorful thing I've had in Italy.

Sunday Maxie, John, Alyssa, and myself went to Siena to see the St. Catherine's Day celebrations. We went to the church of San Domenico to see the opening of Mass where some of the Contrada members where dressed in their traditional costumes. A Cardinal also attended the mass and went over and talked to the head of St. Catherine. I bet that was a one sided conversation. We just walked around Siena the rest of the day. It was rainy all day so the festivities where a bit dampened. We went into the Duomo which may be the most impressive church I've seen in Italy. We also climbed an incomplete part of the Duomo to look over the Campo and the Duomo.

I have the rest of this weekend to pack and get ready for my return to America. I have been going out to a few of the local restaurants and having traditional Orvietani meals. For the most part, we have not eaten out in Orvieto all semester since we have learned to make such good dishes for ourselves. Now that I am going out to eat I am realizing why those people are professionals.

Florence 3

2010-05-07T12:07:00.007+02:00

We went to Florence for the third time as a group but this time it was only with Carol's seminar. We went underneath the Duomo to look at the historical layers and the development of Florence through time. After we were done as a group, I went to Santa Maria Novella and the Boboli Gardens by myself. These gardens were nice but nowhere near as well kept as some of the villas we have visited. After the gardens I walked back down the hill to the river and then walked back up it to get to the Piazzale Michelangelo which has a bronze replica of The David. The piazza is much higher than the city of Florence and has the best panoramic view across the city. On my way back to the train station I stopped to get some lunch and ordered a sausage and eggplant panini. As you can tell by the photo, the sausage was completely raw. It tasted good and I didn't get sick but it was just really weird eating something like that. I definitely did not expect raw meat on my sandwich.

Siena

2010-05-05T18:09:00.009+02:00

Siena has been one of my favorite Italian cities that we have visited this semester. It is a very unique city because it openly celebrates and adapts the historical traditions to this day. They have 17 Contradas which are historical districts of the city. They are very prideful and this is apparent everywhere; there are Contrada flags hanging all over the town marking the boundaries. As a group we went into the Goose Contrada Museum which is almost a sacred place for Contrada members only. It was really impressive because we got to see the historical costumes and the banners won in the Palio. This last weekend a few of us were in Siena for St. Catherine's Day celebration which I will talk about when I post pictures of last weekend. I really appreciated Siena's mentality that they can continue traditions and community pride but at the same time updating the traditions to the modern age. Siena is a pretty neat and interesting place. Do some research about Siena about the Contradas and the Palio if you want to know why I'm so interested in Siena.

Villas

2010-05-05T16:14:00.008+02:00

I'm starting to wrap things up here in Italy. Less than a week left. I've been working on my final projects and traveling a lot in the last few weeks. I'm squeezing as much in as I can, but now that everything's all done all I have left is to clean, pack, and update my blog. It's been far too long. Here is a smattering of the villas that we have visited. We went on two trips to see villas. We saw the Villa Farnese at Caprarola and the Villa Lante on one trip a while back, and a few weeks ago we visited Villa D'Este and Hadrian's Villa. The good news that I got last week is that I got an internship with Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming for the summer. All the details haven't been worked out but if all goes according to plan I will be headed out there in a couple weeks. I should have more free time in the next few days while I'm waiting to fly out on Monday to update my blog some more.

Lucerne, Switzerland

2010-04-10T11:53:00.011+02:00

Last weekend, Alyssa and I spent a few days in the town of Lucerne, Switzerland. We did a lot of walking around and discovering the town. Lucerne is maybe the most beautiful place I have ever been. It is the perfect combination of city, lake, and mountains.

Ireland

2010-04-07T16:29:00.009+02:00

For spring break 5 of us went to Ireland. We took the bus out of Venice to the train station at 4 in the morning, took the train to Milan where we flew to Dublin, and then took a train to Killarney. It was a very long day, but overall no huge problems. We spent a few days in Killarney where we saw the Dingle Peninsula and I wandered around in Killarney National Park. From Killarney we moved on to Galway. We partook in the the St. Patrick's Day festivities in Galway and the next day seeing the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher. Our last couple days were spent back in Dublin.

North Trip

2010-03-29T14:06:00.009+02:00

On the north trip we went to Verona, Vicenza, and Venice for 3 days. I spent an afternoon while in Venice and visited Murano, Burano, and Torcello. Burano was my favorite place on the whole trip.

Assisi

2010-03-29T13:52:00.004+02:00

Sorry about the lack of posts and the lack of text in my posts but it's possible to be busy in Italy too. Trying to find a job, watching K-State basketball, planning trips, and studio studio work has kept me off of here for a while. I'll put some pictures up for now and see what happens.

South Trip

2010-02-25T11:54:00.010+01:00

Temporary (Hopefully) Hiatus

2010-02-23T17:58:00.002+01:00

Unfortunately my computer has decided to take a break for a while which may make it hard for me to post for some period of time. I hope to post some photos and other comments when I can from other people's computers. Until then hope that people are friendly. Preview of what's to come, eventually: Cooking Class, Florence, Herculaneum, Pompeii, Sorrento, Amalfi, Atriani, Ravello, Salerno, and this weekend, Assisi. Hopefully this computer problem gets solved within the near future (before May).

Within the Duomo

2010-02-13T13:54:00.009+01:00

Day Trip to Civita

2010-02-09T21:58:00.009+01:00

On Monday we took a day trip to look at Orvieto from the countryside surrounding the city. The views were great looking back at Orvieto even though it was somewhat of a hazy day. After stopping a couple times to take a look back out the town we visited the site for our studio project. We are designing and remodeling a house to become a b&b or apartments. It is an interesting site with some caves for wine, a horse pasture, and a small area for fruit trees. There is a lot of potential for the project so it'll be interesting to see where it goes.

After our site visit we went to the town of Civita where Don and Carol live. The town is very small and is perched upon a cliff similar to Orvieto but smaller. There are currently only about 10 people living in the town. The views around Civita were spectacular. I cannot picture a more perfect setting for a tiny little town. The landscape surrounding the town is all eroding away so it creates a very dramatic scene. The only access to the town is a pedestrian bridge which we trekked across. We visited the Watts' house and toured their remodeled "hay shed." The shed which is now somewhat of a living room is across the small street from their house. It is one of the nicest little spaces in terms of views out as I can imaging. There is an amazing view from the toilette out to the countryside and all the windows in the place do the views justice. They have a terraced patio/garden which left me speechless. It was very simple but elegant and again the views were astonishing. My favorite thing there was the one olive tree that was perfectly, naturally, placed in front of a window on the edge of the cliff.

We went to a bruschetteria and had a great lunch and then we were served some grappa which was essentially gasoline because I took the leftovers from all the cups and threw it into the fire and it immediately exploded. After lunch we had about an hour to explore the town on our own and did we ever. A bunch of us headed to the edge of the cliff and down a trail that lead into the valley and away from the city. We found a grove of chestnuts which entertained us for awhile and Cole and I decided we wanted to keep going. We were the only two who wanted to brave the muddy trail which I was ok with because I know what kind of things lie beyond what seem to be uncomfortable conditions. It is almost always worth the extra trouble to go beyond where people normally stop. Even though we were running short on time we descended the muddy hillside until we got to a pass between two valleys that lead to another stone outcrop which was protruding from the surrounding landscape. We crossed the muddy pass which fell off to the side maybe 100 feet downward and got to the base of the cliff. We turned around because we had to be back to the front gate of the town in 15 minutes. I regret not having a few more minutes to try and get to the top of the cliff, but its probably a good thing we didn't have more time because odds are I would have ended up at the bottom of the valley in shambles.

On our way back, Cole and I had to climb the muddy hill which proved not to be as easy as going down. On the way up I slipped and did the splits and in an attempt to keep my camera from the mud I managed to rip a foot long section of my jeans in the crotch. Not really the end result I was expecting from the hike but it was worth it.

Later that night we made a great dinner and Adriana roasted some of the fresh chestnuts she collected. The Civita trip was my favorite day up to this point. I think the reason for that is that we had some time to explore, not just in the city but in the countryside. On that note, I'm getting excited for the Ireland trip!

Orvieto by Night

2010-02-09T20:08:00.010+01:00

Saturday night I decided to take some time and wander around town instead of going out. It was a bit misty so some of the pictures were a little foggy. Nobody here in town goes out any later than 10 other than on Saturdays so there were quite a few people out. I hope I can go away from the town some night and take some pictures looking back up at the lit up cliffs and the Duomo.

Firenze

2010-02-06T11:44:00.005+01:00

Yesterday we went on a day trip to Florence. Not the best of days because it was raining, but nothing stops us. Since it was raining I didn't take my camera, only my point and shoot, so if you are questioning the quality of the following photos, that is the reason. We go back two more times as a group so I'm hoping to get a nice day so I can take some good ones. We'll see... I've seen a lot of the city center of Florence before so the awe factor, like there was in Rome, was not there. I'm sure it didn't help that it was rainy.

We first went to the Cathedral, saw Dante's church and house, the Piazza della Signoria, and then Santa Croce. After we finished our walking tour a group of us found a Thai/Asian restaurant and had lunch there. I have had the best hot and sour soup here in Italy, first the Chinese place here in Orvieto and then the best I've had at that Thai place. You can only take so much Italian food. The variety of food is definitely something we take for granted in America. The only food we have here is Italian. After lunch we wandered around and found a candy store and then near Santa Croce there was a chocolate festival which kept us occupied for a while. On our way back to the station we stopped at an art store and happened upon a couple of the guys from K-State who are studying at Santa Chiara. It wasn't a great day to wander around but next Friday we go back to see the Uffizi so hopefully it will be better wandering weather.

We took the two and a half hour train back to Orvieto which was a killer but Alex and I watched Star Trek to pass the time. When we got back it was pouring and nothing was open. We ended up going to the Cafe Cavour after a while where we met some people who were actually our age. There aren't too many people in this town of college age so it was nice. I went outside to talk on the phone and then I ended up joining in a 3v3 game of rugby tennis in the middle of the Corso, the main street in town, at midnight. Pretty funny. It was a couple of the locals and myself vs Maxie and two other locals. It was a very fun game after I figured out the rules. I was skeptical at first because anything with the word rugby implies getting the snot knocked out of you but this game involved no physical contact at all. My team won so the other team had to buy us beers, which were in the largest beer bottles I've ever seen, almost the size of small wine bottle. I think we might be going to a cafe to watch a rugby match later today.

Hopefully the next time we go to Firenze I will have more to show for it, in terms of pictures at least. It's kind of nice not to be taking pictures because you see the world through your own eyes instead of a viewfinder.

I Swore I Wouldn't Title This Entry "When in Rome"

2010-01-31T21:04:00.009+01:00

Last Friday we took our first field trip to Rome. Our whole group of twenty or so made the trip all together. Our train from Orvieto left at 7:30 so it was an early morning. Like the tourists we are we managed to screw up the train ride. When we got on the train we had twenty or so "reserved" seats for us but people were all over the place because they don't actually sit in their seats. So, we moved everyone all over the cabin just so we all had seats together. Talk about stupid Americans. I really hate going around in large groups being tourists, but when in Rome...

We arrived at the train station and took the subway to the Coliseum and from there we went to Palatine Hill and saw the Roman Forum. From there we went up Capitoline Hill and saw Michelangelo's Piazza del Campidoglio with Marcus Aurealius' statue. We lucked out with the weather again because it was a beautiful day. So we sat there in the sun for a bit then moved onto the Jewish Ghetto where we saw the location where Aldo Moro's body was found after his assassination by the Brigate Rosse. We went to the Piazza Mattei and saw the Fontana delle Tartuge which is a beautiful small fountain. On our way to the Pantheon we went through the Piazza Navona which I wish I could have spent more time at because it is such a huge space in such a dense city. We didn't spend too much time anywhere because we were trying to get to so many places but we are so close to Rome that we can come back on weekends to explore on our own. Our last stop as a class was the Pantheon. It definitely lived up to the hype. I was very impressed with it. Again, it's so hard to describe the emotions when you are in such a place. You just have to be there. I could picture being in the Pantheon while it is raining or snowing having it fall through the space. I think my favorite picture from Rome was the one I took in the Pantheon looking into Alex's sunglasses.

The Pantheon was the last place we saw as a class. We broke up and went our separate ways before heading back to Orvieto. A group of us headed to the Trevi Fountain which was amazing especially in the sunlight. There were a ton of people there and for the end of January I was pretty surprised at all the people. After the Trevi we went to the Spanish Steps and again was blown away by the real thing. That is a serious set of steps. Again, tons of people and so many steps to sit on. The views of the Roman rooftops were pretty neat. On our way back to the train station we stopped and got pizzas which were 4 euro for a whole pizza. We were stuffed and walked all the way back to the station. Had a small issue with finding our train to go back to Orvieto because they decided to switch platforms on us. But everything turned out ok and we made it home.

Other than looking like extreme tourists the first trip to Rome was a success and fortunately we will be heading back to Rome but not as a big group. Although I've been to Rome before this experience was so much better because we had a whole day to spend wandering around. I can't wait to go back and spend some quality time at some of the places we saw.

This Friday we go to Florence so it will be a short week looking forward to that. But until then I will be spending more time exploring Orvieto.

Photos Taken WHEN IN ROME

2010-01-30T11:51:00.013+01:00

Some Photos

2010-01-27T21:30:00.012+01:00

I have found that it is very hard for me to share images so I will try and put some up when I can. So here are a few.

Discovering the Town

2010-01-27T16:20:00.004+01:00

The last few days I have just been learning the town and wandering around. A few nights ago we watched the AC Milan vs Inter Milan game. It was fun to be in a bar while the game was on. For the most part we have just been goofing around getting to know Orvieto. We go to Rome on Friday for a day trip. Classes have been good so far. Marco, our art and architecture history professor is very into everything and makes class very interesting. I have walked around the cliff on the south side of the town and the views of the surrounding areas and the cliff are very neat. I still want to run on the trail but it will be more of a run-walk situation. We have sampled the local wines and made a list of the good and bad ones. Sorry if this was a very choppy post but I don't have much time. We booked our flights for spring break. We fly to Dublin, Ireland on the 13th of March from Milan and fly back to Rome on the 21st. It shall be fun! I will discuss the Rome trip next time.

The Land of Small Portions and Prosciutto

2010-01-24T00:57:00.003+01:00

Ok, I finally have had some time to write down my thoughts on the first few days. So, here goes.

The trip started out with a little bit of a nervous twist. Our flight leaving at 8am from KC directly to DC was cancelled. So instead, Paul, Becky, Nicki and I flew out at 7:20am not finding that out until about 6:30. We went from KC to Chicago to Philadelphia, to DC. Luckily we didn’t encounter any problems along the way and made our connecting flight where we met up with the rest of the group from K-State. The flight to Rome was long and boring, as expected. For some reason I decided to watch Paranormal Activity during the first hour of the flight. Bad idea. I was too close to the TV screen and didn’t fare too well.

When we arrived in Rome on Wednesday morning we took the bus to Orvieto. Driving up, the first thing you will notice about Orvieto is that it sits on top of a giant cliff. I knew that the city was at the top of a cliff but seeing its actual size was much more impressive than I expected. We took the bus up the cliff, and I got my first glimpse of the running/ walking trail that runs around the city. I have been planning on making that trail my new running route but it is very steep in places and would be a rather rough run. I’ll have to see how that goes. When we got to the top of the hill we met with a few ladies who worked at the Centro Studi, our study center and they showed us to our apartment.

We lucked out with the apartment. We have a wonderful landlord who doesn’t speak any English. She is a very nice lady who we have seen a few times around town and in Sidi’s, the grocery store, where she works. We have a kitchen with all the appliances minus an oven, a huge living room/dinning room, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and our own private courtyard, which is a fairly large size. It’s an absolutely beautiful place, only a minute’s walk from the Centro Studi. To get to the Centro Studi we walk across Piazza Duomo and pass by the Duomo which you would recognize if you have any knowledge of architectural history. Pretty neat huh?

Orvieto is absolutely amazing. There are 5 thousand people living on top of the hill where we are and another 10 thousand at the bottom of the hill. The town feels very comfortable and very safe. I am already starting to recognize people and seeing the same people every day. The locals seem to embrace us even though at first we are very slow and somewhat confused. I love just wandering around the streets and just taking it all in. There are two main streets in the town, the Corso Cavour and Via Duomo. There are no sidewalks here, just streets so we have to be very careful leaving our apartment or we will get flattened. All the streets are lined with small shops; bars, cafes, butchers, bread bakeries, wine shops, and other shops and apartments.

Fortunately classes really haven’t started yet so we have had plenty of time to get to know the city. A few of us explored part of the trail that goes along the cliff. It is pretty impressive how large these rock walls are. We also went to went to the top of what I believe to be the Torre del Moro which is the tallest tower in the town. The view out was amazing. We could see across the whole valley to the Appenine Mountans and to the south we could see the volcano whose name escapes me. From the tower the entire town of Orvieto can be seen as well as the surrounding farms with their olive trees lining the sides of the hills. One thing that you can definitely notice from the tower is how dense and how small the town really is. It is only a mile long and maybe a quarter to a half mile wide. You can tell that the town is very dense from the ground too because of the lack of sunlight. It is very chilly because almost every building in town blocks out the sunlight from the streets. The only place where the sunlight hits the ground is in the piazzas.

We have been doing meals family style where we have a bunch of people, maybe 8ish, people over to the apartment and we would all have salad, pasta, and wine. Everything is better here. The produce is so fresh that it’s almost not even worth eating anything else. It is very cheap too because everything is grown locally. So far my favorites are the tomatos (pomodoro). I made my recently discovered favorite warm spinach salad yesterday and tonight with fresh tomatos, spinach (spinaci), onion (cipolla), and Orvieto olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Squisito!

I am catching on to the Italian language pretty quickly. I successfully ordered 2 onions, an eggplant, and 1/2 kilo of tomatoes. "Vorrei due cipolla, e un melanzana, e un mezzo chilo pomodoro, per favore." I don't know if it's perfect but it did the job. We are at the Blue Bar right now at 1 in the morning because we can use the internet.

The blue bar is our favorite place so far. We met the nicest people, Anthony and Romania. They own the bar and speak English. Anthony speaks 6 different languages and is very happy to have us around. Earlier today Romania walked Conner and I to the best bread bakery near. Anthony and I have talked about soccer and going to games. He said he may be able to take people to the games on Sundays. He wants to come with us if we go to a game as a group. The big game is tomorrow. AC Milan vs Inter Milan. I hope I can find a place to watch the game but the Blue Bar and other places around town are closed on Sundays.

Well my battery is running low so I should get off and this entry is probably pretty long but I have many thoughts. Until next time. Buona Notte!

Day 1

2010-01-20T17:02:00.002+01:00

After a crazy series of flights we made it to Italy! It's about 5:00pm here and I plan on getting some dinner and then going to the apartment and collecting my thoughts about the trip and the first day. I'll post something when I have some more sleep. First impressions of Orvieto: it is a very dense town but fairly small (at least on top of the cliff where we are staying) comfortable, safe, it seems like it will be the perfect atmosphere for whatever the rest of the semester brings. I'm getting excited for a GREAT night of sleep and my first full day to explore the city.

Pre-Gamming

2010-01-14T00:53:00.000+01:00

In one week I will be in Italy. Hard to picture just yet. I am still in the pre-packing stage where I think I have everything I need and am debating if its all going to fit. We'll see... I fly out on the 19th so I've still got a little time.