When in Rome...: Todi, Umbria

Greetings… When I saw it was the 4^th, I’m like… waaaaaait….. is this a holiday? And then I remembered that I was a month ahead of myself. Whatever.

As I write, I am listening to Serbian church choir music… I think. Whatever it is, it is beautiful as it echoes off the 30 foot ceiling of this building. There is a certain quality of the human voice that is can be combined perfectly with arched ceilings and plaster coated walls to deliver shivers to one’s spine. It reminds me of the churches I visited today in Todi. What was meant to be a shopping trip for shirts turned into a hike/tour/best lunch ever type of outing. Every article of clothing we saw was SUPER expensive, so we window-shopped and sighed over the pretty things instead. Soon, the skies opened up with rain, the wind caught on to the tune, and the thunder was not to be left out on the fun. The group of us initially took shelter in a park underneath the trees, but that quickly got old, so we moved on to hanging out in churches. The church at the top of the hill was the highest point in the city and it had a bell tower. Guess what we got to do? Yep. We climbed to the top and enjoyed the 180 degree view over the town and surrounding valley. Although the view up high was beautiful, the interior of the church was not to be outdone. Gorgeous gothic arches towered over us, adorned with plain white plaster, highlighted by gentle uplights. Beneath the well-worn floor, some apparently important dude dominated a room with his massive stone tomb. What is it with churches and burying people in crypts and tombs beneath the church? I mean, I know it was the custom for a long time, but really… what genius dreamed that idea up?

Oh yeah! For lunch, we were in this really charming little restaurant that had a yellow cover and a beautiful breathtaking view. I had some really delicious cold potato salad, but my partners in crime had some… interesting… dishes. One was a fish – with the head still attached. But it all evened out in the end, as the Pinot Bianca ROCKED my light lunch.

Waiting for the bus to take us down to the train station consisted of more window shopping, a cappuccino and a pastry. The others had hot chocolate – and for those of you who have not experienced it, the hot chocolate in Italy is not normal. It’s basically heated up chocolate pudding. We also watched a bride and groom walk down the street, apparently on their way to the reception. I am beginning to get used to the whole deal. Every weekend I have been here, I have observed at least one wedding. And I thought MOSCOW had a lot!

We got back to San Gemini around 9pm(and on the way home, I saw these cute little snails hanging out on the sidewalk – they were so photogenic!), and we decided to have a spontaneous potluck and movie night. I made mashed potatoes (I DON’T KOW HOW IVE SURVIVED WITHOUT THEM UNTIL NOW!), and we had green beans, polenta, salad and potato chips to go along with our movie of the night – The Princess Bride. I established a rule: NO QUOTING. It was soooo nice to watch it and actually hear the actors’ voices….

Time for bed for me – 2 AM, and I have an intense day planned tomorrow. Night folks!