Intro to Castiglion Fiorentino

Wednesday, 1/29/03
It is 9pm and I am so ready to go to sleep. This morning we had a nice big roll for breakfast. Yay! I didn't think it would fill me up but it stuck for a surprisingly long time. After breakfast we went on a nice long tour of the town. This town is awe-inspiring. It didn't seem very remarkable at first because we were on the main roads at the bottom of the hill. But once we got up into the old part of town, every cobblestone wanted to claim my fascination. The streets are very narrow, yet cars drive through just like they have all the room in the world. We had to stand flat against the walls several times to avoid being run over. The walls are high, the tiny gardens beautiful. And the streets are the steepest I have ever seen. The ones that had steps in addition to being very steep were the scariest and most beautiful. There are arches everywhere, each door is a work of art, and the scenery of the hillside is gorgeous.

We got back in time for lunch, which was (as well as dinner yesterday and today) pasta with Parmesan, then sliced meat and potatoes of varying forms (mashed or roasted). After lunch we had orientation info on trains, then studio, etc., then the history and culture of Italy.

Karin and I went back into town after that to retrace our steps and take pictures. We went into the city library and city hall, then went up to the top of the hill to the castle ruin. The castle was great, full with those narrow arrow holes in the walls. The only problem was that we couldn't get inside anything other than a courtyard. Then, on the way back down we couldn't find Santa Chiara, which we had passed this morning, and we got a little lost. But you really can't get lost in Castiglion Fiorentino, so we made our way back to the main road pretty quickly. We never found Santa Chiara. I'm going to bed. Jet lag is extreme.

Thursday, 1/30/03
A lot has happened today. First of all, I woke up at 3:45 in the morning. For the life of me, I coudn't go back to sleep. I'm sure my biological clock is completely jacked up. I set my alarm for 7, but didn't get up until 8:15. Cady had even more trouble than I did, and finally, we made it known to each other that we were both awake. She said she needed medicine (a lot of the other students' digestive systems, we found out later, were going beserk) and suddenly a voice piped up, "I have some!" It was Karin, who we had accidentally woken up. When she said that so unexpectedly I just couldn't stop snickering. The entire time while I was awake I just wanted to burst out in guffaws to release some repressed energy, even though I was still dead tired.

We ate our trusty roll for breakfast, and hot chocolate in my case, then we went back up into town for a lecture from Paolo. We went inside a beautiful Catholic church and he talked about the religious symbolism of the architecture. We came back for lunch, which began with the traditional pasta, but lo and behold the second course, instead of sliced meat, was a delicious tuna salad! It had tomatoes and celery in it.

After lunch we again went back up into the town with Peter and went up to the tower at the top of the hill were he pointed out our project site, talked a bit about Etruscan architecture, and what types of buildings would and wouldn't fit in the setting and be allowed by the community. We also toured the Etruscan museum in the community library and Peter talked about how much Americans waste. 4% of world population, 20% consumption of energy and natural gases. He also gave an assignment to sketch the objects there and become obsessed with the shapes.

Directly afterward, us architecture students met with everyone else at a bar where they were welcoming us with hors d'oerves. The bar was neat--its lower portion of three rooms was all underground. Then I went with Dixie to the cell phone shop and we came back for dinner (I haven't had a drumstick in forever! It was great). And that brings me to now, where I am sitting in the lobby with a silly television show and a handful of smoking Italians.