Thursday January 10
Breakfast this morning consisted of prepackaged toast and really interesting jelly and tea. I must say, for a country that has such amazing food they are definitely missing out on breakfast. And since our days are so packed with walking I definitely could have used that extra energy! We started off looking at some historical landmarks of Macerata, such as different churches and shrines and piazza’s (a piazza is like town square, but there a multiple piazza’s here). I learned that in a church you can tell what saint a town focuses on. It is located on your right when looking at the altar, there will be a painting and the saint that is in it tells a story about what is important to the town. We also saw a Shrine to the Virgin Mary. After the black plague, those who survived wanted to create a shrine to her to thank her for sparing their lives. The towns people got a Lord to cover the expenses and created a beautiful shrine for the Virgin Mary (or as they call it, Madonna). In the hallways of the shrine there are also places of specific worship where people give a silver heart when praying. It represents that although you cannot give your real heart because you would die, you give a symbol of your heart to her.
We also found out our housing placement today. I am living with Bridget, Jill and Amanda- she’s the girl who is from Allendale. We live on Manzoni, which is outside the city walls and fairly close to the SuperMarcado. We also have a pretty nice view of the city and it isn’t too far from school.
For dinner tonight we went to La Volpe e l’Uva on Via Berardi, I guess that means something about a wolf and a grape… I’m not sure, but I’ll let you know once I learn some Italian. Oh, apparently at dinners pasta isn’t the main course. That’s a little fact that would have done me some good to know. As I loaded up on seconds of the pasta for dinner, I then found out that we had another course coming. During dinners they first serve you bread, then a pasta dish, then some meat, then some salad. They also gave us some sweet bread for dessert and the option for some coffee (which is actually cappuccino) at the end of dinner. I must say, they sure do know how to stuff us full here! While I had always heard the wine “flows like water” here, I have now seen this first hand. They constantly refill glasses with wine that is so fresh your teeth, tongue and lips are stained purple from the red wine. Which, of course, makes taking anything you say seriously next to impossible.
After dinner tonight we decided to head out to experience the night life of Macerata. Thursday’s are the most popular night to go out, and as we left dinner we saw café’s everywhere just packed with people. Another side note: bars and cafés are nearly the same thing. They both serve pastries, coffee and the like. There really are no places that exclusively serve alcohol or anything like that. Our Professor Filiberto told us that no one here really drinks to get drunk, that alcohol flows so freely because people are responsible with it, unlike Americans. So, we decided to go to Café Centrale in one of the main Piazza’s in town. I had been there yesterday during the day to get a latte (which was delicious might I add), so tonight it was much different than what I had experienced earlier there. They have a loft so we all went up there to hang out. It was really fun for all of us to get a chance to sit and get to know each other, and they were playing some American music which was very nice to hear.
Another interesting thing I learned while visiting different cafés here is that you order, and then either drink standing up right at the bar there, or they serve it to you at your seat. But they don’t have any coffee’s to go like a Starbucks would, and you don’t pay them until after you’ve finished your drink. There is also a charge for sitting at some places, so it’s always interesting to find out when you aren’t expecting that. But everything here is at a much more relaxed pace. People aren’t always rushing from one place to the next, but rather enjoy their time socializing with one another. A very nice change of pace from America!
Friday January 11th we started off the morning with an interesting little breakfast pastry pie and then packed up our stuff to leave the hostel later in the day. I also decided to take a shower this morning… which was anything but pleasant. Although I was no longer a smelly mess, it was a bit of a task to shower in a room where the sink, toilet and shower are all part of the same room. Let’s just say, things got a little wet and I’m not even sure if I got all the shampoo out of my hair.
We left the hostel this morning and explored some more of town, but mainly focused on areas outside of the city walls. There is this magnificent structure that has five of the main poses of statues and is sometimes referred to as the “Jackson Five.” We also got teas, cappuccino’s and tea at this little bus stop café. It was kind of chilly outside today so it really helped to warm us up! And we got to move into our apartments today!!
Breakfast this morning consisted of prepackaged toast and really interesting jelly and tea. I must say, for a country that has such amazing food they are definitely missing out on breakfast. And since our days are so packed with walking I definitely could have used that extra energy! We started off looking at some historical landmarks of Macerata, such as different churches and shrines and piazza’s (a piazza is like town square, but there a multiple piazza’s here). I learned that in a church you can tell what saint a town focuses on. It is located on your right when looking at the altar, there will be a painting and the saint that is in it tells a story about what is important to the town. We also saw a Shrine to the Virgin Mary. After the black plague, those who survived wanted to create a shrine to her to thank her for sparing their lives. The towns people got a Lord to cover the expenses and created a beautiful shrine for the Virgin Mary (or as they call it, Madonna). In the hallways of the shrine there are also places of specific worship where people give a silver heart when praying. It represents that although you cannot give your real heart because you would die, you give a symbol of your heart to her.
We also found out our housing placement today. I am living with Bridget, Jill and Amanda- she’s the girl who is from Allendale. We live on Manzoni, which is outside the city walls and fairly close to the SuperMarcado. We also have a pretty nice view of the city and it isn’t too far from school.
For dinner tonight we went to La Volpe e l’Uva on Via Berardi, I guess that means something about a wolf and a grape… I’m not sure, but I’ll let you know once I learn some Italian. Oh, apparently at dinners pasta isn’t the main course. That’s a little fact that would have done me some good to know. As I loaded up on seconds of the pasta for dinner, I then found out that we had another course coming. During dinners they first serve you bread, then a pasta dish, then some meat, then some salad. They also gave us some sweet bread for dessert and the option for some coffee (which is actually cappuccino) at the end of dinner. I must say, they sure do know how to stuff us full here! While I had always heard the wine “flows like water” here, I have now seen this first hand. They constantly refill glasses with wine that is so fresh your teeth, tongue and lips are stained purple from the red wine. Which, of course, makes taking anything you say seriously next to impossible.
After dinner tonight we decided to head out to experience the night life of Macerata. Thursday’s are the most popular night to go out, and as we left dinner we saw café’s everywhere just packed with people. Another side note: bars and cafés are nearly the same thing. They both serve pastries, coffee and the like. There really are no places that exclusively serve alcohol or anything like that. Our Professor Filiberto told us that no one here really drinks to get drunk, that alcohol flows so freely because people are responsible with it, unlike Americans. So, we decided to go to Café Centrale in one of the main Piazza’s in town. I had been there yesterday during the day to get a latte (which was delicious might I add), so tonight it was much different than what I had experienced earlier there. They have a loft so we all went up there to hang out. It was really fun for all of us to get a chance to sit and get to know each other, and they were playing some American music which was very nice to hear.
Another interesting thing I learned while visiting different cafés here is that you order, and then either drink standing up right at the bar there, or they serve it to you at your seat. But they don’t have any coffee’s to go like a Starbucks would, and you don’t pay them until after you’ve finished your drink. There is also a charge for sitting at some places, so it’s always interesting to find out when you aren’t expecting that. But everything here is at a much more relaxed pace. People aren’t always rushing from one place to the next, but rather enjoy their time socializing with one another. A very nice change of pace from America!
Friday January 11th we started off the morning with an interesting little breakfast pastry pie and then packed up our stuff to leave the hostel later in the day. I also decided to take a shower this morning… which was anything but pleasant. Although I was no longer a smelly mess, it was a bit of a task to shower in a room where the sink, toilet and shower are all part of the same room. Let’s just say, things got a little wet and I’m not even sure if I got all the shampoo out of my hair.
We left the hostel this morning and explored some more of town, but mainly focused on areas outside of the city walls. There is this magnificent structure that has five of the main poses of statues and is sometimes referred to as the “Jackson Five.” We also got teas, cappuccino’s and tea at this little bus stop café. It was kind of chilly outside today so it really helped to warm us up! And we got to move into our apartments today!!
1 comment:
Hi Jenny
Sure is some trip..........I'll call you Nancy Jr. you sound like her!! Keep on Blogging! :-) Love ya baby! Auntie RR
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