More Cheese

One of the important roles of the school is to help students find appropriate activities to do outside of the classroom. Since there are no athletic teams at the school, many of these are athletic in nature. The second largest area seems to be gastronomic. Cooking lessons are very popular among both the students and faculty. In addition, many of the local merchants would like the opportunity to connect with the students, but the school is careful in making such arrangements. On Thursday both of these trends came together as approximately 15 students and faculty made there way to a cheese tasting at Gigi e Mena at the Piazza Fontana Grande, just up the street from the school. There we sampled a total of nine cheeses. There was mozzarella di bufala, ricotta di pecora, caciota di mucca, parmesano and 5 different pecorinos (fresh, fresh with pine nuts, fresh with pistachios, semi-aged and aged). My favorites were the parmesan and the aged pecorino. Amy enjoyed those also in addition to the mozzarella and ricotta.

Amy finally had a chance to have one of her lingering questions answered when she noted a bastardo in the display case and asked the proprietress what it was. Most cheeses in Italy are made not just from one type of milk such as cow or sheep, but also from one breed of animal. Bastardo is made from milk from mixed breed cows (essentially bovine mutts) or from milk from different breeds mixed together. Hence, the bastard.

A Walk to Work

We are settling in this week for the first full week of school in awhile. As such, we haven't had much time to do interesting things so I will take the time to fill in another blank by writing a little about our neighborhood and the route we take on our way to work. The historic center of Viterbo is ringed completely by a medieval wall. The area of the city known as San Pellegrino is considered to be one of the finest examples of medieval architecture remaining in Italy, although many places make that claim. The western area inside the walls is less built up since it was largely destroyed during WWII and it wasn't considered feasible to rebuild it. We live within the walls near the Porta Romana on the southeast side of the city. One of the two train stations for Viterbo is a few hundred meters away from this gate. Below is the view of the Porta Romana taken from inside the city wall. The structure which housed the Macchina di Santa Rosa can be seen on the left side of the picture.

The entrance to our street, Via Vetulonia, is around 50 meters from the gate at approximately the point where the picture of the gate was taken from. It is a one way street (Senso Unico) in the direction of the arrow.

Once you turn the corner onto Via Vetulonia, our apartment is on the left another 50 meters down the street. In the picture below, the entrance to the apartment is where the street begins to bend, just beyond the last visible first floor balcony. The trees you see in the picture are in a garden area that our bedroom window overlooks. Technically there is no parking on the street, but motorcycles and the occasional car park there anyway making life difficult. I have yet to see anybody get a ticket for parking there. I wouldn't want to get one since they average almost 40 euros.

If you continue along Via Vetulonia through a couple of sideways jogs to the right, you encounter our favorite fruit and vegetable store, Eden Fruits.

The road which passes through the Porta Romana is called Via Garibaldi. This is the beginning of the route taken by the Macchina. If you continue straight rather than taking the corner onto Via Vetulonia, you see the view below. In the distance is the Piazza Fontana Grande, the first stopping point of the procession. To orient you further, the street where Symposium Vini is located is about 50 meters down this road to the left of the picture.

Below is a closer view of the fountain. The main road continues to the right of the building in the background. However, it changes names and is now called Via Cavour. The school is located approximately 50 meters down that street at Via Cavour 77.

The pair of large, green doors is the main entrance to the school. The school itself is actually on the primo piano or first floor in the Italian way of numbering. It is what we would call the second floor. The only indication that the school is there is the small sign to the left of the door which says Scuola Americana. The school is not the only tenant in the building. There are other apartments, several of which are occupied by teachers at the school. The entire walk from our apartment to the school is less than 300 meters and takes around 5 minutes, even dodging morning traffic.



How many Italians does it take...

Actually, how many minutes does it take to pick up your car from a pair of Italian brothers who are mechanics? 60! Our mechanics, Giorgio and Mario, are fantastic. They came with the car, so to speak. They are friendly and knowledgeable and are the Click and Clack in our lives. It's important for us to have a good mechanic, since we are driving a 1998 Opel with 161,000 km on it. This afternoon we went to pick up our car that we had left with them on Wednesday before our trip. It needed a couple of inspections completed before October. When we arrived, we were greeted and kissed and offered coffee. Then, instead of paying and driving away, we chatted for almost an hour about cars, my Mini Cooper, the speed limit in the US, trips we had taken and hoped to take in Italy, American politics, war and the economy. By the time we left (only 90 euros later!), my head was spinning. By the time I caught on to one topic of conversation, we were two topics beyond. Gotta love the social lubrication involved in the simplest transactions! But we know that if we're ever in trouble with the car, Giorgio and Mario have our backs.

Terracina

On Saturday, the final day of the trip, we checked out of the campground and then stayed nearby and visited the town of Terracina. We packed a lunch and headed out to walk to the remains of the Tempio di Giove Anxur some 2 km away and 230 meters above the town. The students were told that the bus couldn’t make it up to the top because of the hairpin turns on the road and therefore we had to walk. The reality was that buses could certainly do it (we saw one coming down as we began the trip) but our colleagues in charge of the trip wanted the student to have the experience of the climb. I’m not sure why we couldn’t have just told them that. Walking also allowed us to leave the road and climb the paths to the top. As we ascended, the views both up to the temple and down to the town were indeed breathtaking, but most everybody, including Amy and I, could have used a bit more shade and temperatures some 15° cooler.

At the top we came to what remains of a large temple. The building materials for the actual temple have been scavenged over the centuries and what is left is a large platform indicating a substantial temple once stood on the site. Archeological evidence indicates that there has been some sort of religious importance to the place for over 2600 years. The temple was almost certainly originally dedicated to some local deity, but over time it morphed into a temple to the god Jupiter. On the path to the temple we passed by an archway that was part of the Appian Way, the ancient Roman road to the south which was begun in 312 BC. There was a small bar at the top which did a brisk business in cold bottled water and gelato and which was home to a family of cats. The friendliest was one of Jet’s Italian cousins who was quite content to be petted and played with. The smallest was a tiny fur ball that almost came home in several student backpacks. The day ended with a three hour drive back to Viterbo where an empty refrigerator signaled a meal out with friends at Il Monestero and a gelato to end the day.

Sperlonga

The main attraction for the second day was a trip to Sperlonga, midway between Gaeta and Terracina. We lunched in the town overlooking a long, crescent beach festooned with beach umbrellas. After a relaxing stroll down a winding path shaded by carob trees we arrived at the beach for several hours of splashing and swimming in the near-perfect water. Amy and I tried carob pods the day before after which Amy declared they tasted like ear wax. Personally, I don’t eat much ear wax but Amy insisted they tasted the way you would imagine ear wax would taste based on what it smells like. Hmmm, OK.

At the south end of the beach was a grotto which ended up being our final destination. Historians have decided that this was the Grotto of Tiberius. Tiberius was the emperor after Octavian who reigned during the time of Christ. Apparently, he didn’t much care for being emperor and spent most of his time outside of Rome in a series of villas in places such as Capri. One of his villas is in what is now Sperlonga. There Tiberius threw lavish parties for his guests in a cave/grotto specially transformed into a magnificent sculpture garden filled with Greek marble copies of some of the most famous scenes from myth and legend. The remains of these sculptures have been placed in a museum on site. One particularly nice installation was the Polyphemus where Odysseus and his men blind the Cyclops. Unfortunately, I left my camera at the campground so I have no pictures!

Gaeta

The school took its first overnight trip from Thursday to Saturday. We met in the parking lot of the Questura at 8:15 AM on Thursday and boarded a double decker tour bus for a three hour trip south to what is sometimes referred to as the “Odyssian Coast”. Our first stop was the port town of Gaeta where legend has it that Aeneas’ wet nurse Caieta was buried as described in the first few lines of Book 7 of the Aeneid. NATO currently has a base there, but they have withdrawn to an almost skeletal presence so that the town in its current incarnation is essentially dying. This is especially true during the off season for tourists. We had only a few hours to explore and eat lunch. Unfortunately, we had our first unacceptable dining experience of our entire stay so far. Absolutely indifferent service, mediocre food and then a “misunderstanding” about salad which resulted in an additional 6 euros added to the bill. All this and it took every minute we had, leaving us no opportunity to explore beyond taking pictures of the duomo and fortifications on the hill.

Next was a stop at the Montagna Spaccata or “Cleaved Mountain”. It is a spectacular arched, cave-like feature which opens to the sea. Legend has it that when Christ was crucified the earth was so horrified by what had been done that it split the mountain. One might have thought the natives would notice a cave as big as this one before that time. Later, a Turk who did not believe, came to the site and placed his hand on the wall of the cave. The imprint of his hand remained in the rock and he left a converted believer. He must have been a fascinating person since he clearly had five fingers and no thumb based on the impression in the rock! While there, Amy’s AP Latin class gave a dramatic reading of the section of the Aeneid referring to Caieta.

Our domicile for the trip was the Le Palme Village Campground in Terracina. Fortunately, there were no tents involved, just a very nice, two bedroom, mobile home near the beach. Goofing around, swimming and water aerobics ensued followed by dinner, games and bed.

Raining Cats and Dogs!

Italy, like much of Europe, is very pet friendly. The pet of choice seems to be the dog. The majority of the dogs we have encountered have been small to medium sized dogs ranging up to around 20 pounds. Diesel would fit right in if it were not for his tendency to be aggressive towards unfamiliar dogs. The standard seems to be a mixed-breed of around 12 pounds although, as noted in an earlier post, we have met a gorgeous, pure-bred Siberian husky and other larger dogs. An unofficial survey, conducted by Amy, suggests that most are unaltered males. Personally, I refuse to go around looking for a dangler on every dog we meet in the street. Regular dogs, not just service dogs, go pretty much everywhere that their owners go. You see them in the supermarket, getting gelato and eating in restaurants. Diesel would have trouble with this since, even though dogs are allowed to be there, they are expected to be on the floor and not in the lap as he would insist on.

Cats are a different matter. We don’t know anybody who has cats here. The ones we see seem to be outdoor cats such as Jet’s cousin we met in Orvieto. There is one in our neighborhood who visited us several times when we first moved in. He would sit on the wall opposite our bedroom window and call out to us. It turns out that the open area across the street from us is also the grounds for the dining hall where we eat our lunch. Several days ago the same white cat was seen being carried by one of the cooks through the dining hall and out into the courtyard where the door was closed so that he couldn’t return. The cook walked past muttering something about the oven which my Italian wasn’t good enough to catch. He just wandered into the mensa without anyone noticing or even really caring. Pretty cool!

Pienza

Since we had the time, we opted for one more side excursion on our way home down the Via Cassia. This time we turned to the east and headed for Pienze. How many ways can I find to say, “yet another of the small, walled hilltop towns in the region”.  Well, that’s what it is. It is located between the wine producing regions of Montalcino and Montepulciano and all of the little wine shops in town stock a wide selection of both. But, the real claim to fame is the pecorino cheese. Sure, you can buy pecorino in the states. Here you have your pick of 6-8 different varieties: fresh, aged, super aged, aged in a cellar, aged in wine, finished in ashes, etc. Of course, when in Pienza …. so we bought some cheese to bring home and then wandered the city. Pienza is smaller than many of the other places we visited. The portion within the medieval walls is only some 300 yards long. They do have a very nice cathedral, a present from Pope Pius II who made Pienza his home. The Pope’s small palace beside the main church was open for viewing. One of the things you notice, especially at the western end of the city, is the juxtaposition of old and new architecture, even within the historic city walls. Much of the old city was either damaged or destroyed by allied bombing during 1944. The rebuilding was finished some 11 years later in 1955.

Siena

The city of Siena is one of those “must see” places. It is yet another of the towns retaining its medieval walls, similar to Viterbo in that respect. Once again, if you were set down blindfolded in the middle of the city you would find yourself comfortably at home. There are steeper hills than in Viterbo and more upscale shops. The phenomenon of the shops is a kind of chicken-and-egg thing. If there are a lot of tourists, more upscale shops open to cater to them and if there are more upscale shops they attract more tourists. Viterbo is nice in that the shops are what you would expect of a living city. I can’t imagine how many shops there are in Siena selling fancy handbags, shoes and underwear.

The shops aside, Siena has a number of unique features. The first is the green and white striped duomo. As originally conceived it would have been the largest place of worship in the Christian world, larger even than St. Peter’s in Rome. The Black Plague devastated the population of Siena, reducing it to 1/3 of its original 100,000 and ending the grand plans. What is now the main chapel would have been the transept across a monstrously large apse. A few of the outer walls of the planned space which had already been completed are still standing and have been incorporated into the square. The interior of the space is so visually stunning you don’t know where to focus. It puts the duomo in Orvieto to shame. Next is the Campo, the fan-shaped central square where everybody congregates and where the Palio is held every year. We arrived in the evening in time to sit for a few minutes and drink in the atmosphere.

One of the highlights of this portion of the trip was the Hotel Alma Domus where we stayed. It is run by nuns and is simple, clean and inexpensive. It is located just across a ravine from the duomo, giving breathtaking views of the building and providing a central location for waking up to chapel bells on a Sunday morning. It is also directly next to the Sanctuary of St. Catherine. Finally, the Basilica di S. Dominico is around the corner from the hotel. St. Catherine of Siena is one of the most revered saints in Italy. There are two relics in S. Dominico, her head and her right thumb. The head is in a small chapel at the side of the basilica and rope barriers keep you from getting too close. Her thumb, “on the other hand”, is readily available for inspection mounted on a silver stand behind a piece of glass next to the chapel housing the remains of her head. We had a pizza dinner a few steps from our hotel then turned in for a relaxing night’s sleep. We left early the next morning to avoid the expected crowd for a soccer match between Juventus and Viterbo.

Montalcino

After our visit to Sant’ Antimo we decided to stop for a late lunch in Montalcino, another of the small hilltop towns which populate southern Tuscany. Certainly most foreign tourist have left the area by mid-September, but the beautiful weather brought out the Italians in droves. We anticipated a relatively easy job of finding parking and ended up searching all over the top of the mountain for a free space. Even within the old city walls, the streets are incredibly steep and narrow which made for a few harrowing twists and turns for Amy at the wheel. Lunch was at a small café where we indulged in local pasta and shared a half bottle of Brunello di Montalcino. As it turns out, the tiny town of Montalcino is the heart of one the most famous “big” wines of the world. A hearty, robust red, Brunello is produced by hundreds of small vineyards in the area immediately surrounding the town. They are currently selling the 2005 and 2006 pressings which gives you an idea of how this particular wine matures in the bottle. It changes with time and can be drunk across a decade or more. I have discovered that I tend to enjoy middle aged Brunello the most. Too young and it is more tannic than I can handle, too old and it is more earthy than I tend to like. As with Goldilocks, the middle is just right. Perhaps the most novel adventure of the entire trip was our attempt to follow the GPS system directions for heading out of town. After careening down a hill through a gate so narrow we nearly brushed the rear view mirrors, we turned onto, I kid you not, a single, lane dirt road that plunged off the mountain. Intrepid driver that Amy is, she obediently followed directions until we came to the barrier telling us that the road was closed! So she had to turn around (no easy feat) and retrace the entire ordeal only this time going uphill. Needless to say, the GPS got put away for a bit until we got ourselves off the mountain and it connected back in with reality.

Abbazia di Sant’ Antimo

As we were about to pass into Tuscany, we got a phone call from the Resident Director of SYA-Italy, in other words, our boss. He was actually calling to suggest a side trip. He then texted the details, I located it on the map and we were on our way to our second, unanticipated adventure. This time it was a trip to the Abbazia di Sant’ Antimo. After winding through the town of Montalcino (more on that later) we jogged 10 km south to the Abbazia. It is a fascinating community of Augustinian monks who do their typical monk thing. They pray, eat and are industrious in the region surrounding the church which at one point (500+ years ago) was one of the major stopping points on the pilgrimage to Rome. The church itself is a simple, but beautifully proportioned building sitting out in the middle of tilled fields and surrounded by ancient olive trees and grapes. We happened to be there for Sext, one of the times they pray, which isn’t exactly startling since they do this seven times a day beginning with Matins at 5:45 AM. What was unexpected was that the entire prayer was done as a Gregorian chant by the 8 monks who participated. It was very interesting, to say the least.

War Graves

On Saturday Amy and I were joined by a couple of our friends for an overnight trip to Siena. Amy and I have been to Siena several times, but this was their first trip. Rather than post a massive missive on the entire trip, I will break it up into smaller bites.

As we traveled north on Via Cassia (SR2), we came upon Lago di Bolsena. This lake appears to be volcanic in origin, like Lago di Vico, and is large enough to have several sizable islands in it. We were stunned by the view and searched for an appropriate place to stop beside the road for pictures and observations. The first place we happened upon had a sign in English saying it was the Commonwealth War Cemetery. Intrigued, we followed a long, winding travertine path to a small, immaculately maintained cemetery holding the remains of 600 soldiers from various countries in the United Kingdom who had died during the campaign to take the Italian peninsula during WWII. They were collected and moved there and to a number of other sites. Many died in a concentrated campaign during early June of 1944 at approximately the same time as the invasion of Normandy. There were representatives from South Africa, Canada, England, New Zealand, Australia and India. All branches of the armed forces were represented: army, navy, air force, signal corps, medical corps, etc. Many of the markers had quotes or other statements from family members engraved in addition to standard information. It was a very powerful and moving reminder of the sacrifice made by many at that time. On a side note, I was startled by the number of unknowns buried there. For some there was knowledge of what branch of the military they were in or what ship they had served on, but for almost a dozen there was no information other than that they had “Died during the Great War of 1939-45” and were “Known Unto God”.

Do You Have Any Change?

Italians are odd when it comes to money. Once you get outside of Rome nearly all transactions are conducted in cash. But Italians seem to have a love-hate relationship with cash. They hate small change. For instance, restaurants price everything in either whole or half euros. All prices listed ALWAYS include all taxes which makes it significantly easier for them to do. Nearly every transaction is rounded to the nearest 10 cents unless you are in a major store or the tiniest of Mom and Pop operations. They still play the game where cheese will be prices at 12.99 euros per kilo, but when the price for the piece you chose comes out to 6.67 euros they will often ring it up as 6.60 or even 6.50 thus avoiding those pesky 1, 2 and 5 cent coins.

Then there are euro bills. The smallest bill in circulation is 5 euros, coins go all the way up to 2 euros. If your bill is 4.37 and you hand them a 5 euro bill, they will ask if you have change. In other words, they want you to give them 40 cents so that they can give you a single euro coin in return. If you were to hand them a 50 euro bill for the same purchase they might flat out tell you they couldn’t make change, even if they could, hoping that you would hand them a smaller bill or even pay for it with coins. Recently I paid for a 65 euro grocery purchase with a 100 euro bill. The cashier asked if I had anything smaller so I opened my wallet and showed her there was absolutely nothing else in it. I actually had other bills, I had simply removed them from my wallet for exactly that reason. The subsequent rolling of eyes, drawn out sighs, shuffling of bills and close inspection of every square centimeter of the bill which ensued was worthy of an Oscar. After literally two minutes she finally gave me the 35 euros in change. You would have thought I was asking her to give me the money out of her own pocket and taking it away from the starving orphans of the world instead of getting change when I had already GIVEN her 100 euros.

In order to reduce the pain of the “one hundred euro shuffle”, Amy and I went to a bank to have them break all of the large bills we had brought with us. This too was an interesting exercise. They won’t help you unless you have an account and you can’t have an account unless you are a legal resident. You can’t exchange currency either, unless you have an account. These measures are part of a rigorous anti-drug campaign by the Italian government. We got around that by going through the bank where the school does its business. They were quite helpful and we managed to exchange all of our large bills for smaller things which we might have a prayer of using. The bank itself was a trip. In order to enter the bank, you need to go through a revolving entrance chamber one at a time. You push a button, the teller responds by activating the exterior door. You step in, the door closes behind you and you are then inside a sealed chamber where you wait until a second door is opened so that you can enter the bank. It wouldn’t surprise me if all of the glass involved was bullet proof. For a transaction as large as the one we were making, the actual cash had to be sent through a central system to the cashier. Perhaps Springfield could cut down on the number of random bank robberies if they adopted the “Italian way” of banking. Finally, we have been told that there is a 20 euro bill crisis. ATM’s now dispense only 20 euro bills, creating a shortage of them. How curious; they are, after all, printed paper.

Birra

Wine is clearly the Italian beverage of choice not counting bottled water and even there wine would probably win. Recently, however, beer has been slowly making inroads. Last night Amy organized a gathering at Beer Shock, a local pub within the walls of the city center. We were joined by several of our Italian friends as well as all of the other US-based teachers. It is not a true brew pub in that they brew no beer on the premises. However, they do carry a reasonable selection of local and regional beers on tap and in the bottle. The local craft brewer is Turan. Amy and I enjoyed several glasses of their imperial stout which is on tap and pumped rather than pressurized from the barrel. It was excellent, slightly smokey and with just a hint of bitter aftertaste. We made a meal of it and added plates of meat and cheese antipasto as well as bruscetta. An excellent time was had by all and Amy has been declared the social secretary for the year. We will be going back with an even larger group.

The supermarket also has a number of surprising options. In addition to the ubiquitous Peroni and Heineken they have a wide range of products. At one extreme is stuff called just "Birra". Talk about your generic labeling. At the other extreme you can find Belgian ales, German imports and craft beers. A regional brewer called Ceres has a nice selection including a blonde bock, red ale and stout. If the shelf is any indication, Italians seem to prefer higher alcohol content beers such as Tennant's Super as well as many doppia (double malt) and tripel (triple malt) beers with alcohol contents ranging up to 9%. Culturally Italians don't tend to drink high volume so perhaps they are seeking the same kick out of drinking a beer that they would get from a couple of glasses of wine. I for one am not complaining. Beer tends to be sold by the single bottle in the supermarket. The next packaging unit up is the 3 pack. Six packs are non-existent although you occasionally find a 4 pack for an import. You can buy a case but I haven't bothered to see how many bottles are in it. The only disadvantage I can see to being a beer drinker in this land of wine is that even common, average beer is far more expensive than the equivalent quality of wine. Perhaps it is time to break out the homebrewing supplies.

Our Apartment

Given our recent reentry into the world of home internet connections, I figured I would take a moment to catch up on some of the pictures I promised. Today will be our apartment.

This is Amy at the street level, exterior entrance to our apartment.

When you go through that door you are in the entry way. We are up one flight of stairs on the primo piano (first floor, which is actually the second floor but who's counting).

Once you enter our apartment you are at the end of a hall which divides the area in half. Amy particularly likes the stone floors which are easily seen in this picture. At the end of the hall is the guest bedroom.

The kitchen is the first room on the left as you go down the hall. This picture is of the sink/cooking area. The fridge and prep counter are on the other side of the kitchen. In the view seen below there is a window to the right which looks out to an overgrown, private garden which we do not have access to.

This is the view from our kitchen window at dusk on one particularly nice recent evening.

The dining room is kitty corner across from the kitchen.

This is the guest bedroom.

The living room is the first room on the right as you enter the apartment. Our computers are now on a desk which is at the left side of this picture. The TV is on the other side of the room, opposite the couch.

 I haven't posted pictures of our bedroom or of the two bathrooms. If enough people want to see them I can do that later.

Big news: we now have Internet!

After our nightly gelato run, we came home to Internet! It's a miracle. You can also post comments on our blog now.

Health Care (Don't Worry, We're not Sick)

The Italian health care system is a bit complex. I am slowly unraveling some of the strands as different situations unfold. It would seem there are essentially two parallel systems, one private and the other public. We have private insurance provided by our work. As such, we have access to a local doctor who speaks English and deals with the American students. For a one time, non-reimbursable fee of 50 euros you establish yourself as his patient. Once that is done all of your routine health care (well visits, flu shots, transfer of US prescriptions to Italy) is all eventually covered by insurance. For non-acute care, that seems to be the way to go. Even something like a broken arm might be best off attended to by him. Interestingly enough, he comes by the school weekly and will make house calls for a slightly higher fee.

Then there is the public health care system. A routine hospital stay is quite different here. The local hospital is well equipped (for the mid 70's). You bring your own clothes, no embarrassing  hospital johnny. However, there isn't much in the way of nursing. The nurses will give you meds, administer IVs, draw blood, etc., but it is expected that a family member will be with you pretty much at all times, day and night, to help with everything else. Need help getting to the toilet; ask Aunt Rose. Want a glass of water; Uncle Marco heads to the vending machine to get you some. Want breakfast; hope that your sister remembered to bring it. What is the upside, you might ask? It's free, even to visitors like Amy and me.

Lago di Vico

There are several nice natural areas near Viterbo. On Sunday the school hosted a welcome picnic at Lago di Vico for the students and their host families. Even though it has been two weeks since the students arrived, the welcoming and orientation events will continue for another two weeks as they become immersed in the language and culture of Italy. Lago di Vico appears to be some sort of volcanic formation. You drop down to the oval lake which is ringed by hills. The portion of the caldera which isn’t filled with water is planted almost entirely in hazel nuts. The weather was perfect and the setting spectacular. There is a beach, but few people swim in the water for several reasons. First, Italians appear to prefer going to the sea for swimming and second, the intensive agriculture has resulted in high chemical concentrations in the water. The Italian authorities have recognized the problem and are monitoring the situation but finding a solution will be difficult as the agriculture in the region is lucrative and would be difficult to scale back.

In (Lots of) Vino Veritas

One of our friends, Dave, had mentioned several specialty shops while he was showing us around the school a couple of weeks ago. Last Wednesday Amy followed up to try and pinpoint the location of the shop which specializes in all-things-pork and the local brew pub. As she was doing that Dave asked if we had found “the wine place”. Well, we hadn’t so off we went. No more than 300 meters from our house on the opposite side of the main street we arrived at Symposium Vini, an unpreposing little hole in the wall. It has a nice little selection of local bottled wines at quite reasonable prices, but what really sets it apart is the 20 or so 800 liter metal containers you notice immediately upon entering. They are full of a variety of local and regional wines. Pietro will help you pick out a wine, giving you samples of ones you are interested in until you arrive at your final selection. The wine is then placed in whatever container you want, old wine bottles, empty water bottles, etc. and away you go. We ended up with a 2 liter bottle of a nice, “biologic”, red wine from a reasonably well known local producer. Biologic meaning there are no preservatives or other things not naturally found in the winemaking process. The cost? A staggering euro 4.40. By Friday evening I was back refilling that bottle and picking up a 5 liter jug of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, an excellent but less famous cousin of the Brunello d’Montepulciano. The whole thing, jug and all, was euro 9.00. When you convert the price to dollars and divide the jug into standard 750 ml bottles it translates to $1.87 per bottle for an amazing wine.  Any visitors who like wine should be prepared for a real treat in a visit to Symposium.

Orvieto

On a typical Friday only AP and Italian language classes meet so that Amy and I each teach only one class. We are both finished before 10 AM and the entire school would usually close at 12:30 PM. This Friday was unusual in that students had a ½ day “field trip” in Viterbo. Instead of having classes in the morning and taking the field trip in the afternoon, they did the excursion in the morning. Thus our classes, which would have ended early anyway, didn’t even meet giving us an unanticipated free day. We used it to sleep in and then take a day trip to Orvieto with a couple of friends.

Orvieto is another of the old medieval walled cities in the region, much like Viterbo in that respect. Where it differs is the spectacular natural setting on top of a rocky outcrop which juts one hundred feet or more straight up from the surrounding area. When you add the additional fortification walls it would have been a formidable place to try to capture 500 years ago. We were unable to find the parking area for the funicular and ended up driving around a serpentine road all the way to the top. Orvieto is a tourist destination, but if you were to arrive blindfolded into the center of the city you might wonder why. It looks like Viterbo only with more upscale, tourist-type shops. One reason is the magnificent, mid-13^th century duomo which is filled with stunning frescos and nifty marble floors but, alas, no pictures allowed; you will just have to visit us to see it for yourselves.

We cruised the shops, many of which featured ceramics and of course, wine. The region around Orvieto is a significant wine and olive oil producing area and Orvieto is famous for its Orvieto Classico, a very nice, dry, white wine. We lunched at La Palomba, a medium sized restaurant somewhat off the beaten path but full of local customers. Amy had the local style pasta with truffles, one of her favorite dishes. I almost went for the cinghiale ragu (wild boar) but settled instead on the amatriciana.

One of the highlights of the day was when Amy made a little, black feline friend on one of the tiny little lanes we wandered through. It would appear that Jet has Italian cousins, right down to the little white patch on the chest!