Casentino, Rimini, Pisa, Siena...

(written october 5)

So here it is, finally, the lowdown on my travels this past weekend. Sorry about the lag time. I’ll skip the formalities on this one and cut right to the good stuff.

Last Friday I journeyed with Camp Stanford to Casentino, an Italian city about an hour and a half away from Florence. Every quarter, Dr. and Mrs. Bing, our benefactors, pay for every student in every study abroad program to take trips, go out to dinners, etc. There’s about 30-40 students in seven or eight programs, so basically the Doc’s a baller. This wasn’t our big trip, but as a general rule, the Bing’s like to go for show, flying students throughout Europe and the like. So mostly because we’re all a bunch of spoiled brats, my comrades and I were baffled as to why we had gotten the old shaft with Casentino. To put this in perspective, the parts of Casentino that we visited were so rural that the only people we came close to encountering were a group of hermits at an old monastery. Now I’m as big a fan of piety as anyone, but when the only signs of life I can observe are smoke clouds curling out of chimneys, I start to feel a little tense. And why smoke curling from chimneys in September, you ask? Because this was the coldest, wettest, windiest day I have spent in Italy to date. It wasn’t so bad, if you disregard my broken umbrella. But Professor Verdon, who accompanied us to provide the narration for the excursion was completely unphased. Hence, we literally stood outside for hours, vulnerable to the elements in all their fury. I suspect that it’s Verdon’s other vocation as a priest that allows him to remain so stoic in such a dire circumstance. And indeed, it was surely the hand of God that intervened to protect him, as he literally brought his lecture to a close and took us inside right before the torrential rain really started.

On Saturday I went to Rimini for two days, an Italian beach town on the Adriatic Coast. It was one of the most gorgeous beaches I have ever seen, and because it was low season we nearly had it all to ourselves. While there, I ate the best margherita pizza I’ve had in my life, and, once again, I splurged on souvenirs. I swear to god, I fall for every single tourist trap. In all fairness though, I didn’t go for the shameless “I Heart Rimini” t-shirt. I instead went for postcards to send to all of you and a spiffy new pair of shoes. Another thing that I’m loving about Italy is all of the music I’m hearing on the radio. There’s this one song in particular that I’ve heard a couple of times…actually, it’s currently my favorite song - I feel so worldly. Anyhow, I happened to hear it as I was passing a store, so I quickly ran in to ask the store owner if he knew what it was. Because he didn’t, the two of us stood there for a couple minutes (rockin out) until finally it ended. But those novice Italian DJ’s failed to mention the song OR the singer. So my new friend and I did the next best thing: we called the radio station. After sitting on the line for several minutes (is it so much to ask to simply talk to a human being anymore??) we finally got the info we needed. Sweet, sweet victory. Oh! So my story about the nasty perv…I’ll make this quick because I already have the foul image burned into my mind and would rather not dwell on it for too long. I shouldn’t have been too surprised as I’ve been inundated with warnings from just about every person I know that the Italian guys are shady, but this one caught me off guard while I was off enjoying Fairytaleland (Rimini – such a magical place). My friend Jessica and I were walking down between the beaches, basking in the sunshine, enjoying the ocean breeze, MINDING OUR OWN BUSINESS, when all of a sudden, some sicko in his forties drops his pants and starts wacking it. I’m really sorry for being so crass, but I don’t know how else to put that, and it was just as much of a shocker to me. We were the only ones in sight and he wouldn’t stop staring at us so it was pretty creepy. My solution was to keep walking, because I refuse to let some gross old guy have that kind of control in a situation like that, but Jessica made what was probably the wiser decision and quickly led us away. Rest assured though, the next time this happens I’m pointing and laughing. Aside from this little episode, Rimini was absolutely wonderful – my favorite part of Italy so far.

Enter Pisa, the world’s most overrated city. If it weren’t for a bunch of 12th century construction workers slacking on the job, I seriously question whether or not Pisa would have a vital enough economy to support itself. They literally depend on pedaling those cheesy little leaning tower nightlights and shot glasses. It’s seriously one of history’s most profitable screw-ups. I had my suspicions that this would be the case before I wasted a day of my life in the small city, but I have no one to blame but myself. A very small part of me would have died had I not obtained my token tower picture. So to answer your question, yes. I did stand there with all the other imbeciles pretending to push/hold up/get crushed by/flick over/and kick that hyped-up architectural mistake. To be fair, it actually is pretty cool for the first two or three seconds that you lay eyes on it, and I got to go up into it and catch an amazing view of the city (which is so much better from a bird’s eye view).

Finally, today (Friday the 5th) I took a train to Siena. Siena is almost a mini Florence – and they’re actually longtime rivals, stemming from days of bloody battles and castle building competition – and there were actually parts of it that I liked better than my home city. For example, Siena’s town hall and Duomo far supersede Florence’s. Although the Duomo in Florence has a magnificent exterior, one step inside of the Duomo in Siena landed me in one of the most beautiful cathedrals I’ve ever seen.

Anyhow, I’m off to eat dinner right now, but I’m leaving tomorrow to spend the weekend in Milan so I’ll most certainly have stories for you later. Sorry for the very dry report of my weekend, but I had to bang this out quickly and I’m exhausted. I’m sure I’ve left out about a million things, but you’re probably tired of reading this anyway.

Buonasera.