Arezzo, An Anecdote, and Academics

Pappardelle (type of pasta) with cinghiale (wild boar)

Piazza Grande - it's in a scene in La Vita e Bella (Arezzo is Roberto Benigni's hometown)

A rainy (but festive) day in Arezzo

Yes... alliteration!

Anyway, this is the post I have been meaning to write since I went to Arezzo on Saturday, I am finally devoting the time necessary to share it with all of you, and I am going to tack a couple other things on afterward.

I had been vaguely intending to go to Arezzo for a while, but finally got myself together to do it last Saturday. Since Arezzo is actually one of the towns for which there is NOT a map in my amazing guidebook (a gift from Alexandra!) I took some notes and drew a crude map off Google Maps with the things I was thinking of visiting, and even put them into a nice little loop that I would do. As a sidenote, I have yet to print off anything at all since I have been here in Florence... I am not even sure where I would go to do it, but I'd find a way if I really really had to. Armed with my hand drawn map and the information in my guidebook, I made my way to the train station and bought my ticket. The train ride was quite easy, about 1.5 hours. I vaguely had the intention to read on the way there - but instead I stared out the window and listened to music (some of it Christmas songs!) on my iPod. It was much more fun that way, and I was in a happy place in my mind.

The historic center of Arezzo is very close to the train station, and I just headed on in after I got off the train since I had a mental map of the town in mind already. I did stop at the tourist office to get one of their maps first - but at the end of the day I hadn't referenced it at all. What happened was, I started the loop I had planned, but then found myself taken with window displays, with taking pictures of the streets, with thinking "oh, that street looks cool, I want to go that way." Rather than following my plan, I did hit most of the sites I had selected, but in a different order and in more of a wandering fashion. I also discovered this pretty cool park near the Duomo with a view of the countryside, and as I left the park the bells of the Duomo rang signaling noon, and it was loud and long and really cool. It rained on and off for most of the time I was there, but I didn't really mind it so much. It added to the atmosphere, and it didn't seem too "sad" because there were Christmas decorations and people shopping everywhere. I rather enjoyed it actually, except for having to awkwardly hold my umbrella on my arm when I wanted to take a picture.

So right, I had a lovely time meandering and wandering from one place to another. When I went in one church, called Maria Pieve or something to that effect, some others were exiting and at first it seemed like I was the only one inside. I could hear every one of my footsteps reverberating through the entire church, it was very eerie and cool. I also really liked the Duomo in Arezzo, it was on top of a hill and very impressive, both inside and out.

For lunch I went to a small restaurant recommended by my guidebook. I got there sort of early. I should have known not to go in before 12:30-1 (when lunch usually starts here), but I was hungry, I was near the restaurant, and I had done almost everything I wanted to do. I went in and got a table, and off the chalkboard listing wines by the glass, ordered a glass of Sangiovese which is red, and was good (and had a good price at only 2 euros). I knew I wanted to eat local, and I'd read that sauces made with wild boar were local to the area, so I chose pasta with a sauce of "cinghiale". I very much enjoyed the dish, the sauce was red, and the meat was much like other meat I have had in the past. I got a lot of satisfaction out of eating local. During my main meal I was debating dessert, as they listed their desserts as homemade, but they'd cost another 4 euros. Well, I finished my pasta and wasn't *entirely* stuffed, and I still had a decent amount of wine to finish, so I said what the heck and ordered some tiramisu. I am really glad I did because it was DELICIOUS! I like almost all the tiramisu I eat, as a rule, but this was especially creamy and rich and lovely. That was a good decision I made.

After lunch, I felt quite satisfied with my day so I walked around only a little bit more and then went home. One of the joys of my daytrips by myself is I get to decide my schedule on a whim, it is really quite liberating. As was having my carefully drawn out plan on a map, then not following it at all. For those of you who know me well, you realize this is a bit of an evolution for me.

The Anecdote: As I may have mentioned before, each month I buy a bus pass which covers me riding the bus all month. Well, December arrived so fast that Monday morning it slipped my mind that I needed to buy another pass. I was on my way to the train station to buy tickets for my time with Dave over Christmas, and realized the whole pass thing along the way. I decided to just keep my eyes out for people checking tickets and stayed on the bus. Of course I was really paranoid because the fine is so high, so at a certain point I ended up just getting off and walking the rest of the way - which wasn't too bad really. I told myself to get the monthly pass after I got the train tickets.

I was sort of nervous to get the train tickets, but everything ended up going fine. I knew trains would be busy during the Christmas season and I'd been intending to take care of that purchase for a while, so I was REALLY excited after I accomplished that! I stopped at the ATM to get some cash and merrily went on my way toward the library. I even managed to hop right on a bus that was heading that way, without waiting. Only to realize, darn, I STILL didn't buy the pass. I got off at the next stop, ever annoyed with myself, and just walked to the library, *stopping along the way to finally buy the pass*. Good. Skip ahead some. I realized after looking at my November pass that I had never validated it, which you are supposed to the first time you use it. It just never occurred to me and sat in my wallet all month. I think I either didn't get checked at all in November, or if I did get checked once, the guy didn't care that it wasn't validated. When I got on the bus to come home, I made sure to validate the pass and then put it in the outside pocket of my laptop bag.

Skip to the next day. I wasn't taking my computer out with me, so I transferred my stuff from my laptop bag to the purse. All the essentials - wallet, cell phone, keys, etc. Well etc didn't include the bus pass which I had forgotten to put in its proper place in my wallet. I managed to forget that until I was on a bus, ha. As annoying as it was, I didn't want to have to be paranoid all day, so I went back home to retrieve the pass. I went back and forth on whether to even go downtown before class, and decided I did have enough time for lunch before heading back toward class (which is sort of near where I live). I got on the bus downtown, and right before my stop.... *building suspense* I got asked to show my ticket (which remember, hadn't happened in about a month at least). I had to chuckle to myself as I took my pass out of my wallet to show to the man checking. I just found it all too ironic that I got checked, but also felt very justified in all my paranoia/time wasting. What I kept telling myself was "if you ride without the pass it WILL be the day they check..." and that is why I took the trouble to go back and get it. And I was vindicated! That was a long anecdote, but hopefully a humorous look into my trivial everyday issues. I am happy to tell you that now the pass is safely in my wallet, and I never forget to take my wallet anywhere. Peace of mind once again!

Academics: I have been trying without avail for the past few weeks to register online for my two Scienze Politiche exams - one of which I already did but for some reason I need to go on the official day to make the grade official... please don't ask me to explain more than that, because I can't. Anyway, I had the right website but could never find my classes. For one of the categories where they might be, it said there were no exams available for online registration. I kept trying and trying (since my professors had said to sign up), but nothing. First I asked my tutor via e-mail, and he said to check in building D5 at the campus, so I took a day to go back out there even though I don't have class there anymore. The woman in D5 didn't know anything and said to go to another office, but I was too nervous at that point and ended up asking Lucia. Lucia got in touch with the office for foreign students, and told me to go and talk to Veronica there. I did that today, and Veronica saw that my exams weren't up on the site, and called an office over at the facolta. Apparently they had been getting plenty of calls about the same issue, and Veronica took down the name of ANOTHER person who apparently would know what was going on. I think she tried to call her but it didn't work, so she gave me the advice to call this woman, ask if the exam slots will be up online soon, and if they won't within the near future, to e-mail my professors. Apparently it is not ESSENTIAL that I sign up, but if I am officially registered online, my grade will automatically go into the system - where as if I am not officially signed up, it will sit on some secretary's desk to be manually entered, and it would possibly be more difficult to get my grades and the official record. While I wish things were resolved by now, I am really grateful that Veronica was so helpful and I feel like I have made a bit of progress. The weird thing is, I am not THAT phased by it, and certainly not shaken or upset, despite the fact that quite frankly this bureaucracy and navigating it is kind of ridiculous. I take heart in knowing that this experience with going through various offices and having issues and having to work them out is preparing me for Life and the Real World. And my Life and Real World are likely to be in English! Even better!

That pretty much concludes everything I wanted to write... it is certainly a sampling but a good one I think. I am almost ready for my trip to Cagliari - I leave Friday morning and will be there through Monday. I have been in touch via e-mail with a man at the B&B where I have reservations, and that makes me feel much more comfortable.

In addition to the photos above, I am about to put some more on Picasa. If you need a link please let me know.

Sending you all my love,

Kate