july 30-31
July 30th: Please, oh please!
Friday was another lazy day at the villa, and I spent my time practicing and watching the clouds rolling into Viterbo from the 3rd floor loft. Starting about 5pm, all of us at the villa were openly hoping that the ominous thunder, lightening, and wind would be enough to have our (outdoor) concert cancelled. Around 7, while I was rustling up some Italian (duh) sausages and homemade French fries, Ai called the festival contact, and sure enough the concert was cancelled. All of us did little dances of excitement around the villa, had dinner, and then enjoyed a nice, relaxing evening to celebrate. Jeff and Tracy had invited some other orchestra students over to the villa, and we all spent the evening in the loft drinking one-Euro wine and playing card games. It was pretty fun, though I had to drink red wine, which I’m not a huge fan of, because we had forgotten to go buy our own white. I sucked it up (it wasn’t half bad), got my red wine-stained teeth, and slept like a baby. So all in all it was a good day.
July 31st: Farmer’s market and men in Speedos
Jenn and I spent this Saturday like a couple of true Italians. We got up around 9:30, breakfasted, and sauntered down into town with Gabbi. We thought there would be a farmer’s market set up with food and local stuff, but instead found tents and tents of clothes and clothing accessories. Not exactly the best souvenirs. So we walked around town instead, running a few errands and popping into a few shops instead. The weather has been beautiful the last week or so, and it all started with the winds picking up. Very interesting. We came back to the villa, had lunch (leftover tortellini, mmmm), and then threw on our swimsuits and headed back into town to catch a bus with some other orchestra people to the terme. The terme is the local hot springs, about 20 minutes west of Viterbo. We had expected a couple beautiful gurgling pools and some nice waters, but the terme ended up being one hot gurgling spring that fed to smaller pools in the middle of a boring field, with a highway and warehouses on either side. Not exactly glamorous. The sulfur was very….sulfuric, as in smelly and slimy. It was really neat how it was all natural and whatnot, but not the romantic place we had envisioned. After withstanding what I could of the slime and heat of one of the pools, I took a nice nap on a sheet and dried out. We were only there about an hour and a half before leaving, but that was enough. We can say we experienced it, right? We got back into town around 5:30, did a little more browsing, stopped for gelato (chocolate and cappuccino) bought some one-Euro wine, and went back to the villa for dinner and showers. Ai had made meatballs with rice for dinner, which were delicious and very filling, and then Jenn, Gabby, and I headed back into town. The very first Saturday we were here we discovered tents set up downtown selling nick-knacks and local goodies, and thought they would be out this evening, too. Well, we made the mile-long trek down to down to discover……no tents. Boo. So we checked emails and once again went back to the villa. Our three trips into town today probably equaled out to at least 6 miles of walking today. Can’t say that I’m not exercising! Tomorrow we go to Rome with the orchestra for a performance of our concert version of ‘La Traviata.’ This should be interesting.
Friday was another lazy day at the villa, and I spent my time practicing and watching the clouds rolling into Viterbo from the 3rd floor loft. Starting about 5pm, all of us at the villa were openly hoping that the ominous thunder, lightening, and wind would be enough to have our (outdoor) concert cancelled. Around 7, while I was rustling up some Italian (duh) sausages and homemade French fries, Ai called the festival contact, and sure enough the concert was cancelled. All of us did little dances of excitement around the villa, had dinner, and then enjoyed a nice, relaxing evening to celebrate. Jeff and Tracy had invited some other orchestra students over to the villa, and we all spent the evening in the loft drinking one-Euro wine and playing card games. It was pretty fun, though I had to drink red wine, which I’m not a huge fan of, because we had forgotten to go buy our own white. I sucked it up (it wasn’t half bad), got my red wine-stained teeth, and slept like a baby. So all in all it was a good day.
July 31st: Farmer’s market and men in Speedos
Jenn and I spent this Saturday like a couple of true Italians. We got up around 9:30, breakfasted, and sauntered down into town with Gabbi. We thought there would be a farmer’s market set up with food and local stuff, but instead found tents and tents of clothes and clothing accessories. Not exactly the best souvenirs. So we walked around town instead, running a few errands and popping into a few shops instead. The weather has been beautiful the last week or so, and it all started with the winds picking up. Very interesting. We came back to the villa, had lunch (leftover tortellini, mmmm), and then threw on our swimsuits and headed back into town to catch a bus with some other orchestra people to the terme. The terme is the local hot springs, about 20 minutes west of Viterbo. We had expected a couple beautiful gurgling pools and some nice waters, but the terme ended up being one hot gurgling spring that fed to smaller pools in the middle of a boring field, with a highway and warehouses on either side. Not exactly glamorous. The sulfur was very….sulfuric, as in smelly and slimy. It was really neat how it was all natural and whatnot, but not the romantic place we had envisioned. After withstanding what I could of the slime and heat of one of the pools, I took a nice nap on a sheet and dried out. We were only there about an hour and a half before leaving, but that was enough. We can say we experienced it, right? We got back into town around 5:30, did a little more browsing, stopped for gelato (chocolate and cappuccino) bought some one-Euro wine, and went back to the villa for dinner and showers. Ai had made meatballs with rice for dinner, which were delicious and very filling, and then Jenn, Gabby, and I headed back into town. The very first Saturday we were here we discovered tents set up downtown selling nick-knacks and local goodies, and thought they would be out this evening, too. Well, we made the mile-long trek down to down to discover……no tents. Boo. So we checked emails and once again went back to the villa. Our three trips into town today probably equaled out to at least 6 miles of walking today. Can’t say that I’m not exercising! Tomorrow we go to Rome with the orchestra for a performance of our concert version of ‘La Traviata.’ This should be interesting.