Along the Sunny Road

Monday, February 6, 2012

Snow in Orvieto!

The weather the first couple of days was glorious! It was chilly but sunny and the view from the top of the plateau was clear and vibrant. It gave us some time to take in our surroundings, get acclimated with the grocery store and walk to school in optimal weather conditions. Now that these posts are so far behind it's hard to remember what exactly the process of events were. We started school last week and took a few tours of the town. My Etruscan art teacher took us on a few tours of the city's attractions such as the clock tower (a central point of town), the Cathedral Duomo and underground Orvieto. Underground Orvieto has over a thousand man made caves! They were used by the Etruscans for entrance, hiding, storage and shelter in World War II. The system they had was incredible. A whole town was thriving above us while we walked around the dirt caves!

Here's a few pics of the snow, Cathedral, and underground Orvieto.

The walk on the way to school

Cathedral Duomo

Piazza della Republica where our apartment is located

Walking into school

side of Cathedral Duomo

View from the city on top

some of the roomies!

view again - can't get enough!

Pretty architecture

Orvieto Underground

Rock the Etruscans used to make olive oil

Renovations made twenty years ago to keep the caves from crumbling

A well they used to get water. They used to repel or use footholds to scoop water up.
Imagine if you had that job!

You can see the footholds on the right side of the well.

The front porch with all the snow! We woke up to this and had no idea!

SO MUCH SNOW!!

Roommates!

Our tour of the Cathedral

The nativity scene

The baptism of John the Baptist

The rose window with the figures of the twelve disciples

Entrance to the Cathedral

Front

Looking upwards

On top of the clock tower!

The view was phenomonal

couldn't of asked for better roomies

The Cathedral from the clock tower

The bell at the top

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Arrivederci Arizona!

The days of paperwork completion, absence emails, moving, packing and visa application are over! I can't believe my semester in Italy has finally begun. I have a new apartment with new roommates, new surroundings, and a new language! Stepping off of the plane was super intimidating and almost paralyzing. Luckily there were other students who arrived in Rome at the same time on other flights. About 15 of us in the program took a shuttle that transported us to Orvieto. I was a bit surprised of my surroundings because Rome wasn't the city I expected. I think it's because the airport is farther away from the city. It took us about an hour and a half to get to Orvieto. The main part of Orvieto is up on a plateau. In order to get from the top to the bottom you have to take a train like car called the Funiculare for one euro to get down to Orvieto Scalo. This part has the bigger supermarket, stores, and less expensive hotels but more on that later.

We arrived to Orvieto and were placed in our apartments. I am in the apartment Serena with my roommates Anna, Liz, Madison, Andrea and Kristin. It's way better than I could ever imagine!! Honestly I don't know how there is such a beautiful space for us six girls! There is two rooms (three girls to each room), a dining room, living room, kitchen, two bathrooms and a laundry room. I couldn't be more thankful for my living arrangements, especially when some other students are saying how cold their apartments are. We all get along really well which is making everything easier. Navigating through daily occurrences with friends is so much easier, especially when it took me a week to figure out the way to our apartment.

I have many posts to update you all on! I just got my internet key to work, which is why I've been slacking on my blog! They'll be coming along more rapidly, I promise! I'll get caught up, it'll just take some time as I have school work and papers to do.

Here are some pictures of our apartment in Orvieto!