Beach bums and cave explorers

February 15

We started off the day going to Loreto. Many people, including Mother Teresa, have made a pilgrimage there. I'm sure you are now thinking, well why would so many people come all that way? For starters, the Pope has an apartment there. It was used more often in past years, but is still pretty neat for the Pope to have somewhere to escape from the Vatican. Loreto is also home to one of the very few black Madonna's. It's basically a statue of a Madonna, but she's made from black stone instead of marble and there are very, very rare to find. But, the coolest part is that the black Madonna is housed in the house of Mary!!!! That's right, Loreto has within its cathedral the home that the Virgin Mary lived in. There are pictures of it on postcards I sent to some of you, but there is a huge marble house encasing the brick house of Mary. People from all around the world pilgrimage here and walk on their knees all the way around it while praying. As soon as you walk inside her house its like a breathe of fresh air just hits you and everything seems right again. Although I have never been one to fully believe or understand miracles, I truly think this place could do just that. It's very quiet inside, not eerily quiet, but just very peaceful. I could have stayed there for hours and sort out my brain if I didn't have to catch up with my group.

After visiting the gift shop we loaded the bus to go to Sirolo. It was SO amazing there! There were huge cliffs that dropped off into the Adriatic Sea and a beach that stretched for miles! The weather was perfect and we stripped down to our skivvies and dove right into the water. Okay... we didn't exactly go skinny dipping but we did shed our coats and I accidently let the water run over my feet... with my shoes still on. Whoops. Then we climbed up these rocks that jutted out into the sea and basked in the warm sunlight. It was sooo nice.

I was sitting on the rocks watching the waves crash and attempting to be a shade darker than Casper when all of a sudden I heard a big SPLASH! I looked over and saw that one of my classmates, Clarke, had slipped and fallen into the water! Others had to help him back on the rocks because it was so slippery and he was sopping wet. Poor guy, he took it like a trooper though! After taking loads of funny pictures and playing hopscotch on rocks we realized we had to climb back up the mountain to pick up the bus, ugh. Weaving up treacherous paths through trees and roots we heaved and hoed our way to the top of the cliff… and I had previously complained about walking uphill to class, ha!

After the workout of a lifetime we drove to Genga/ Frasassi and went to lunch at Ristorante da Francesco. Starving we plowed down on the bread before us and all of the water we could handle. Then the pasta came which was- heavenly! It was a linguini in a tomato sauce and come to find out, had wild boar in it. I had no idea what the meat was as I was shoveling it in my mouth, but it was quite tender and delicious. I would definitely recommend it to anyone with an adventurous appetite. That course was followed by a salad, and then dessert. It was marvelously presented, but then once we took a bite we realized it was soaked in rum, which wasn’t exactly a pleasant surprise. After our hike the last thing we wanted was something to upset our stomachs. But the rest of it was delicious.

After filling ourselves to the brim we took a short walk to the Grotte di Frasassi. It is this enormous natural cave that was first discovered by some rock climbers in the 80’s. There are 5 different chambers available for guided tours and they also offer cave exploration for extra money. In the cave exploration part they give you helmets, suits and rope to discover what’s off the beaten path of the tour. But with the group we got a tour guide and went inside. There were stalagmites and stalactites that were as old as 1.4 million years old. It was rather warm in there too, and the tour guide told us that it naturally remains the same temperature throughout the whole year. We saw mineral formations that looked like people, polar bears and castles. It was pretty neat to see a cave that has been around for so long.

After entering back into the land of inconsistent temperatures we went to a famous winery, Cantine Belisario, where they produce the renowned white wine “Verdicchio di Matelica.” We got a tour of the vats that they ferment the wine in and the barrels where it is stored. It is quite a long process that I hadn’t realized takes such perfection to get it right. Then we were brought inside to the store and had a wine tasting lesson. We each got a glass of wine and were taught the proper way to swish it to see how the wine runs down the inside of the glass. Then we learned the appropriate smelling techniques with wine and then finally how to taste it. We also got a discount on bottles of wine if we wanted to purchase any, so Mom and Dad, look for yours to come ;)