Rain in Orvieto

Last weekend, we were supposed to go on a field trip to a dying city (I can never remember its name.) This city was built on volcanic earth. Over time, erosion took the middle away, so now one half of the city is on a cliff face and the other half is on top of a mountain. They've built a bridge between the two, but either with erosion or one earthquake, the city has a short timeline.

Unfortunately, both for the fieldtrip and the general atmosphere of Viterbo, it was raining. Pouring, really. After we had already gotten on the busses and started moving, Frankie, our USAC representative turned around and said, "Oh, because of the rain, we're going somewhere else."

We got to "somewhere else" by taking a charter bus, hoping on a ski tram and walking: bienvenudo a Orvieto. Our first stop was St. Patrick's well, designed in 1537 as a Papal escape plan. There was one spiral staircase going up and one going down, neither which connected (I didn't realize this until I started going up.) Here's a shot from the top:

And the bottom:

Those dungeon-y little windows run alongside the staircases and were probably about four or five feet tall, to give some idea of scale.

The other nice thing in Viterbo (besides a cheap, nice lunch and a shop where a lady talked to us about learning Italian) was a cathedral:

That kid in the foreground is a USAC student, Anthony. The cathedral was started in 1208 (that's about all the information I could learn: Everything else was in Latin or Italian, alas.) The stripes in the bricks on the sides run all the way around the building. I think that must be regional or something: There is a building in Viterbo with the same layout.

We stopped at a Etruscan museum which was also, sadly, only in Italian. But I do understand the pottery pieces, small coins and figures were very ancient and incredibly detailed, so it was mildly amusing.

The coolest sounding thing about Orvieto, however, we didn't have time to see: An underground Necropolis! Perhaps, we'll go back for a day trip.

Here's a photo of rainy Orvieto, seen from near the well:

The hills, the greenery, the villas at the bottom are all very typical Italy, as is, so far, the rain. (well and landscape photos courtesy of Aine.)

Oh! I bought gold boots today:

10 euros, baby!

The Apartment and The Internet of the Damned

Before it's too good to be true, I'll start posting. somehow, I've hacked into a wireless network in my apartment that my computer's never picked up before. It may be coming straight form Hell, it may be The Internet of the Damned, but I'd still use it. Nothing, including my school Internet ID, works the first (or in the Internet case, third or fourth) time in Italy. Viterbo's been wonderful, though rainy, cold and everything seems to take twice as much effort as it normally would. Naturally, the language barrier slows things up (the other day I got kindly coached by a waiter on how to say 'spinache' [meaning spinach] correctly), but so does walking everywhere in the windy, crazy, completly non-sensical old part of Viterbo. I live, as people--or at least the other Americans--seem to say, 'inside the wall.' Viterbo's wall, unlike Pink Floyd's, is pretty sweet. It's huge, way less crumbly than I expected and Medieval. It circles a large portion of the city, much like Mccarren Boulevard, for those familiar with Reno.

I'll post more pictures at some point ... perhaps. Natalie and I, before spending the day adventuring around mysterious parts of Viterbo with two other girls: Aine ("Anya") from New York and Amy from Reno, took a bunch of pictures of my apartment.

This is my front door and, coincidentally, me.

Natalie turning on the light in the crumbly lobby. They work on timers. The bottom switch also turns on the light in my lobby two floors up.
Natalie took a picture of my ass climbing the first set of stairs. Right above me on the landing, the sign says, "Academia de bella arte" and below my bottom, there's another sign above a door saying, "laboratoria." My Italian is pretty bad, but I'm thinking this used to be a school of some sort.

Here's Natalie in the courtyard. This is completely open, i.e., there's no roof. Pigeons poop here and stuff, but it's still rather pretty. The dead plant in the corner is particularly picturesque. My favorite thing about the courtyard is the well to Natalie's left. There's an inscription above it that I'm convinced, for no particular reason, is Roman. I have no idea what the pyramidal shaped thing by Natalie's feet is, except made of glass.

Here's the "Roman" inscription. I don't know if you can read it, but the word "AQVA" really gave away the well and founded my beliefs that it's Roman.

Here's Natalie on my second set of stairs. I thoughtfully did not focus the picture on her bum.

Here I am in my landing, literally saying, "I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing in this picture." I share this landing with three other apartments--two are other USAC students and one is an art studio. The one by my hand is my front door.

This is Natalie in the front room that we never, ever, ever spend time in. There are pieces of wheat glued to the yellow canvasses hanging up. The door in the picture is my roommates', likewise the umbrella.

This is teeny tiny me in the teeny tiny kitchen cooking on the teeny tiny stove with the teeny tiny dented pan. The little white counter actually houses a propane tank, like the green space heater in the foreground. There is no centralized heating in my apartment, or generally speaking, hot water. It looks like I don't have legs, but if you look carefully, my pink socks are visible.

This is the view from my kitchen window. Very typical Viterbo, everything has these shingle roofs, cobblestones, stucco and greenery. If you scroll down, I took a picture of my street and that gives some more of an idea about Viterbo in general. There's also pigeons, they're all over my house.

The other half of the kitchen. Once again, the green propane heater. A pint-sized fridge and woodstove (the latter does not work.) I love the red, vinyl couch in the background, but it's pretty uncomfortable. The door on the right leads to the front room and the door on the left leads to the bathroom. I'm eating apples.

I accidentally walk in on Natalie in the shower. The behomoth, white tank hanging by the ceiling is the hot water heater, which needs to be on for about an hour if you want a hot shower. If there are too many other appliances plugged in when this is on, the whole flat will short out. I've already done it once (breaker boxes are in the crumbly lobby.) I'm standing right by the toilet, so that's not visible, neither is the bidet. (A funny story: Natalie told me some year-long students shaved their legs in the bidet last semester. I told her that's too gross because people's "dingle berries" have been in there. Yulgh.)

Here's me in my bedroom. Now that I've had the dangerous, metal radiator on for the better part of a week it's pretty warm. My bed is actually a European version of a futon. The green back is a giant pillow that I can remove and Viola! A twin-sized bed. Underneath this marvel of modern bed design is a trundle bed, which is not attached to the bigger bed. Natalie sleeps there sometimes. My coat is on a clothes drying rack. Nobody here dries their clothes (if you noticed in the bathroom, we only have a washer). There are clotheslines and clothes outside people's windows all over the old part of town. Perhaps, in the newer, more prosperous part of Viterbo people have moved out of the 1940s. Heil Mussolini and all that.

As much as I bitch, I really enjoy my apartment and living here. I feel like I'm getting more of an experience than, say, the people living in brand new, heated apartments about a block away from me. Here's the other half my room, with Natalie visiting. I'm pretty sure you can see my books and a water bottle. I don't drink tap water except when I'm eating because it tastes like minerals and pipes.This is the view from my window, including my very own laundry line, which I may use when it gets less rainy/cold.

And lastly, the view down the street from my front door. At the end of this street is a sort of square called a piazza. My piazza has a fountain with lion statues in it. Today, after our adventures (we followed the wall a little ways, finding the Mideval cathedral, a little garden and climbed a fence that gave us a really incredible view), we headed home and people were playing folk music in our Lion Fountain Piazza. More or less incredible.