First three days in Viterbo, Italy
July 4th-5th-(ish) : WHERE DO WE GO?
After a tumultuous few days in New Haven wrapping up from moving, the day finally comes to fly to Italy. I wake up at 7, throw my remaining non-Italy essentials into my car along with my mattress, and drop off my car at my old apartment to leave it for the month (hope it’s okay!!). Inhyung does the same, and Chris drives us to campus where we hop on the shuttle to JFK. 2 hours and $10 tip later I’m in JFK waiting for Jenn to arrive. And there are birds flying around the terminal. Weird. Casey wouldn’t like that. Jenn arrives and we proceed to be shuffled around the mess that is JFK and make ourselves comfortable for a few hours. I finally go check with an attendant about why our flight wasn’t displayed, and its delayed…which is bad news because of the short layover in Detroit. We are re-scheduled to a direct flight to Rome, and wait a little longer. We board the plane and do about an hour and a half of more waiting, and are finally off. Avatar, 2 meals, and 3 hours of trying to sleep later, we’re in Rome. The passport line is crazy long and things are horribly unorganized. And it’s 3:30am in our heads. We make it to baggage claim and….no baggage. Still in Detroit and/or Amsterdam. Bummer. Proceed to find our festival rep Valeria, and finally do. More waiting. Then we bus to Viterbo, 60 miles north. This is when I finally fall asleep. We enter the city, and Jenn and I are on the first stop of drop-offs. Which means we’re one of the farthest from downtown. Our apartment is in a beautiful old villa complete with lemon and grape bushes, a stone driveway and beautiful gardens. The interior is of course vintage and quirky and cute. AND has a pizza oven. We clean up, nap, and wait for our housemates. They arrive a little after 5:30, and are a nice bunch of students. Then we go exploring Viterbo, which is about a 15-minute walk from the villa. It’s a lot like Bath with its cobblestone sidewalks and medieval buildings lining your every step. I feel insignificant wandering around this old town and not knowing the importance of these buildings. We go on a guided tour of the important places for the festivalgoers, get lost on our way back, and are finally able to figure out where we are. After emailing loved-ones at a free wi-fi area we stumbled across, we make the 15-minute uphill trek back to our villa. Today feels like it was 3 times as long, and getting a full night’s sleep will be heavenly! Arrivederci!
July 6th : I’m smelly and tired
Second day here and still no suitcases. I am writing this entry while wearing a Delta blanket dress and no underwear (currently washed and drying in the window) because of how sick I am of wearing the same clothes for three days. Luckily, we will be receiving our suitcases (minus one of Jenn’s) tomorrow between 4 and 7. This had better occur. Other than the great suitcase dilemma, today was a full day of walking and pointless meetings. The morning started with a 30-minute walk to the nearest Deutch Bank, the only bank in Viterbo that I can use my ATM card at without horrendous fees. After mildly getting lost we finally found the bank, and I finally have Euros. So then came brunch, which consisted of a slice of pizza and a Coca Cola Light. Yes, light, not diet. It actually tasted like Coke Zero. Then we walked across the city to our first meeting of the day, where we were introduced to people I’ll never remember the names of and explained about the first concert, etc….which is Friday. Rachmaninov 2 and Bolero, to be exact. Then we are told to go to the festival office later that day to give them our passports to copy and to give them 50 euro for apartment deposits. Between the two meetings we do some more walking, this time to find Jenn a bank that works for her ATM card. Afterwards we get our first gelato of the trip. DELICIOUS. I got strawberry and some kind of cream with fruit (it was in Italian, but looked good so I got it). A small cone with two flavors was only 1.50 Euros, which is probably under $2. Not bad at all. The hand-off of money and passports occurred, along with Jenn and I sitting on hold with the Delta people about our baggage. Then we met up with our housemates and make the walk to a different grocery store outside of the wall of the city, but closer to our apartment. It was huge! I was a bit overwhelmed with trying to figure out the Italian names and what exactly I should be buying, but settled with about 20 Euros of sandwich stuff, breakfast stuff, and a few meals worth of pasta and meat. Then we trudged up the giant hill back to our Villa to drop off our groceries, had a little snack, and then went back into town for yet another meeting. There we got back our passports and finally got our specific baggage information as Delta had called our festival contact. RELIEF. But still another almost full day without clean clothes. Then we trudged back up the hill, and most of the housemates helped out and set up a delicious dinner consisting of a fancy delicious salad and fresh pasta with meat sauce. YUM. The best part was the location of dinner, which was in our backyard area surrounded by trees under a beautiful night. We chatted for a while at the table, and here I am. Our only obligation tomorrow is rehearsal from 7pm-12am…outside…which is nuts! Apparently, this is always when the orchestra rehearses. Our concert is Friday night, and then we have the weekend free. Sounds like a trip to Rome might be in store!
July 7th : Learning how to be Italian. And still smelly.
Today we slept in and had a leisurely breakfast, which consisted of corn flakes (Italy’s cheapest cereal) with sliced bananas. Then came my first practice session while in Italy…an hour long of scales and warm-ups. We made our way into town around noon and got our music for our first rehearsal that night. We then made our way to the grocery store, again, and bought food for three dinners. It came to about 10 Euro a person, or 3 Euro a meal. Not too shabby. We lugged ourselves back up the hill to the apartment, had some lunch and a brief siesta (or “Pausa”) before working on preparing dinner. Jenn and I headed to town at 4:30 to wait for our suitcases, and sat out by the street near the festival office until 6:45. Still no suitcases at this point. We head to our first rehearsal, which was moved to another location last minute, where Jenn finds out that they’re only rehearsing the piece she’s not on. Change of plans is apparently very common in Italy. We rehearse Rachmaninov Piano Concerto no. 2, and it isn’t that bad. The orchestra consists of mostly 30-something musicians, and they’re not bad to play with. The first clarinetist, Roberto, is a burly young fellow, and plays rather musically. Though he was often lost, especially at first. He and the principal oboe were thankfully very helpful in translating rehearsal numbers when the conductor would forget about his English-speaking crowd. After 4.5 hours of rehearsal with two breaks, we left the theatre around 11:30pm, and swung by a gelato place on the way home. This time I got part Nutella, double fudge, and cinnamon. YUM. Viterbo was really hopping with the young adults of the town, and one particular plaza was the busiest we had scene it. So that’s when the young crowd comes out. We climbed back to the apartment, where my suitcase thankfully greeted me. 3 and a half days in the same clothes will really make you appreciate a fresh set of pajamas, let me tell you. I had a late dinner (chicken and potatoes with little pieces of carrot!) and showered and unpacked. Finally this place is cozying up! Our room has a TV, and the only non-Italian station is the hip-hop music video station that consists almost exclusively of American music. With no Internet or phone, having American music videos to watch is actually very satisfying. Well, it’s 2:30am and I’m pooped. Tomorrow is my first Italian class through the festival! Yay!
After a tumultuous few days in New Haven wrapping up from moving, the day finally comes to fly to Italy. I wake up at 7, throw my remaining non-Italy essentials into my car along with my mattress, and drop off my car at my old apartment to leave it for the month (hope it’s okay!!). Inhyung does the same, and Chris drives us to campus where we hop on the shuttle to JFK. 2 hours and $10 tip later I’m in JFK waiting for Jenn to arrive. And there are birds flying around the terminal. Weird. Casey wouldn’t like that. Jenn arrives and we proceed to be shuffled around the mess that is JFK and make ourselves comfortable for a few hours. I finally go check with an attendant about why our flight wasn’t displayed, and its delayed…which is bad news because of the short layover in Detroit. We are re-scheduled to a direct flight to Rome, and wait a little longer. We board the plane and do about an hour and a half of more waiting, and are finally off. Avatar, 2 meals, and 3 hours of trying to sleep later, we’re in Rome. The passport line is crazy long and things are horribly unorganized. And it’s 3:30am in our heads. We make it to baggage claim and….no baggage. Still in Detroit and/or Amsterdam. Bummer. Proceed to find our festival rep Valeria, and finally do. More waiting. Then we bus to Viterbo, 60 miles north. This is when I finally fall asleep. We enter the city, and Jenn and I are on the first stop of drop-offs. Which means we’re one of the farthest from downtown. Our apartment is in a beautiful old villa complete with lemon and grape bushes, a stone driveway and beautiful gardens. The interior is of course vintage and quirky and cute. AND has a pizza oven. We clean up, nap, and wait for our housemates. They arrive a little after 5:30, and are a nice bunch of students. Then we go exploring Viterbo, which is about a 15-minute walk from the villa. It’s a lot like Bath with its cobblestone sidewalks and medieval buildings lining your every step. I feel insignificant wandering around this old town and not knowing the importance of these buildings. We go on a guided tour of the important places for the festivalgoers, get lost on our way back, and are finally able to figure out where we are. After emailing loved-ones at a free wi-fi area we stumbled across, we make the 15-minute uphill trek back to our villa. Today feels like it was 3 times as long, and getting a full night’s sleep will be heavenly! Arrivederci!
July 6th : I’m smelly and tired
Second day here and still no suitcases. I am writing this entry while wearing a Delta blanket dress and no underwear (currently washed and drying in the window) because of how sick I am of wearing the same clothes for three days. Luckily, we will be receiving our suitcases (minus one of Jenn’s) tomorrow between 4 and 7. This had better occur. Other than the great suitcase dilemma, today was a full day of walking and pointless meetings. The morning started with a 30-minute walk to the nearest Deutch Bank, the only bank in Viterbo that I can use my ATM card at without horrendous fees. After mildly getting lost we finally found the bank, and I finally have Euros. So then came brunch, which consisted of a slice of pizza and a Coca Cola Light. Yes, light, not diet. It actually tasted like Coke Zero. Then we walked across the city to our first meeting of the day, where we were introduced to people I’ll never remember the names of and explained about the first concert, etc….which is Friday. Rachmaninov 2 and Bolero, to be exact. Then we are told to go to the festival office later that day to give them our passports to copy and to give them 50 euro for apartment deposits. Between the two meetings we do some more walking, this time to find Jenn a bank that works for her ATM card. Afterwards we get our first gelato of the trip. DELICIOUS. I got strawberry and some kind of cream with fruit (it was in Italian, but looked good so I got it). A small cone with two flavors was only 1.50 Euros, which is probably under $2. Not bad at all. The hand-off of money and passports occurred, along with Jenn and I sitting on hold with the Delta people about our baggage. Then we met up with our housemates and make the walk to a different grocery store outside of the wall of the city, but closer to our apartment. It was huge! I was a bit overwhelmed with trying to figure out the Italian names and what exactly I should be buying, but settled with about 20 Euros of sandwich stuff, breakfast stuff, and a few meals worth of pasta and meat. Then we trudged up the giant hill back to our Villa to drop off our groceries, had a little snack, and then went back into town for yet another meeting. There we got back our passports and finally got our specific baggage information as Delta had called our festival contact. RELIEF. But still another almost full day without clean clothes. Then we trudged back up the hill, and most of the housemates helped out and set up a delicious dinner consisting of a fancy delicious salad and fresh pasta with meat sauce. YUM. The best part was the location of dinner, which was in our backyard area surrounded by trees under a beautiful night. We chatted for a while at the table, and here I am. Our only obligation tomorrow is rehearsal from 7pm-12am…outside…which is nuts! Apparently, this is always when the orchestra rehearses. Our concert is Friday night, and then we have the weekend free. Sounds like a trip to Rome might be in store!
July 7th : Learning how to be Italian. And still smelly.
Today we slept in and had a leisurely breakfast, which consisted of corn flakes (Italy’s cheapest cereal) with sliced bananas. Then came my first practice session while in Italy…an hour long of scales and warm-ups. We made our way into town around noon and got our music for our first rehearsal that night. We then made our way to the grocery store, again, and bought food for three dinners. It came to about 10 Euro a person, or 3 Euro a meal. Not too shabby. We lugged ourselves back up the hill to the apartment, had some lunch and a brief siesta (or “Pausa”) before working on preparing dinner. Jenn and I headed to town at 4:30 to wait for our suitcases, and sat out by the street near the festival office until 6:45. Still no suitcases at this point. We head to our first rehearsal, which was moved to another location last minute, where Jenn finds out that they’re only rehearsing the piece she’s not on. Change of plans is apparently very common in Italy. We rehearse Rachmaninov Piano Concerto no. 2, and it isn’t that bad. The orchestra consists of mostly 30-something musicians, and they’re not bad to play with. The first clarinetist, Roberto, is a burly young fellow, and plays rather musically. Though he was often lost, especially at first. He and the principal oboe were thankfully very helpful in translating rehearsal numbers when the conductor would forget about his English-speaking crowd. After 4.5 hours of rehearsal with two breaks, we left the theatre around 11:30pm, and swung by a gelato place on the way home. This time I got part Nutella, double fudge, and cinnamon. YUM. Viterbo was really hopping with the young adults of the town, and one particular plaza was the busiest we had scene it. So that’s when the young crowd comes out. We climbed back to the apartment, where my suitcase thankfully greeted me. 3 and a half days in the same clothes will really make you appreciate a fresh set of pajamas, let me tell you. I had a late dinner (chicken and potatoes with little pieces of carrot!) and showered and unpacked. Finally this place is cozying up! Our room has a TV, and the only non-Italian station is the hip-hop music video station that consists almost exclusively of American music. With no Internet or phone, having American music videos to watch is actually very satisfying. Well, it’s 2:30am and I’m pooped. Tomorrow is my first Italian class through the festival! Yay!