Day three on this trip, and day two in San Gemini. The sun is shining and the birds harmonize to Chopin’s waltz in B minor, flowing gently out of the speakers in the ancient church with frescos adorning the walls. I sit at a long table, two and a half feet by ten feet long, which shakes with any movement more violent than typing. The light streams through the high windows and bounces off the white plaster walls, enhancing the volume of the building and the beautiful vaulted ceilings. It is almost surreal, sitting in a church about 800 years old, in a town older than that, and in a country that houses thousands of years of history.
After going to bed a little after 21:00 (they use 24 hour time here in Italy), I slept over 12 hours and woke up a 10. I stumbled downstairs, and received instructions from my roommate on how to use the tub/shower. I sat on my doorstep for a while, basking in the sunshine and meeting a nice man who spoke English. I then made the trek back up to the 3rd floor to gather my shower supplies and back down to the 1st floor to clean up for the day. You see, the shower handle does not have any sort of legitimate pressure, so you have to first get the warm water, then pressurize it with a burst of cold water in order to get it through the masses of hair. I filled an 8x10” plastic tub full of water, and splashed around with it. Enough of that. I then prepared breakfast, which ended up being two slices of some sort of ciabatta bread with pesto spread over the top and a couple of slices of this delicious white cheese and a glass of orange juice. It wasn’t bad, actually. I might do the same thing tomorrow. Here comes the difficult part. I have no coffee maker. It is Sunday and almost every store in town is closed. Obviously, this means that my morning elixir is out of the question, which spurs me to think: Can I kick this addiction for the summer? Is it worth it? Do I really want to?
Since jetlag has almost successfully defeated, Pheobe and I decided to tour the town a little bit more. We walked around and meandered through the streets, discovering what looked like some sort of medieval jail, modern Italian houses, shoddy ones, a restaurant hidden in the middle of the city, a hotel, and lots of beautiful views. We passed Italians, greeting them with polite American “ciao”, continuing with our discoveries. The streets led us back around to the main square, Piazza de Francesco. The catholic church was just letting out, and mainly Italian men were just hanging about in the shade, smoking and discussing whatever Italian men talk about. We grabbed a bench overlooking the piazza and tried to learn some needed Italian words as we drooled over the women’s shoes as they walked by. Not kidding – 5 inch heels about ¼ inch thick. Almost everybody was dressed like you see in the magazines. I’m telling you, these Italians really know how to dress. Even though we were incredibly distracted, we managed to learn “how much”, “how are you”, various vegetables, cough drops, and essentials like that. We discussed the fact that you see many more men out and about than you do women, which begs the question: WHERE ARE THEY!?!?! Kinda scary, when you really think about it.
Now, the sunshine has passed, and the cool breeze smelling of rain blows through the church, with the random rumble of thunder in the not-too-far distance. I’m beginning to wonder if this is a usual afternoon occurance: a thunderstorm with rain. I really wouldn’t mind about this tradition if we weren’t outside around 15:00 every day. We shall see.
Now It’s just waiting for the orientation meeting to begin at 16:00…. Listening the rain fall gently to the cobblestoned streets….
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