way down south

This week I started my Umbra school classes. It's been a while since I've
painted, and the books I've been reading for my Italian Lit class are mind
blowing. I'm also taking more Italian language, and a course on the history
and cultural importance of food in Italy. Totally hot.
So, last weekend, I went on an adventure down south. On Thursday I took a
train to Rome with four other girls in my program, where we stayed with an
American/Italian girl whose parents owned the student trip program that we
were taking. We stayed the night at her beach house, after an amazing
seafood meal at a local restaurant. To our surprise, after a pitcher of
wine, she started spitting out all sorts of opinions about people from
Southern Italy, and how she didn't think Gays deserve any rights. Needless
to say, we were all kinda shocked, and her being our host, weren't quite
sure how to react. More on this later....
So the next day, at 4 am, we went into Rome to meet up with other students
,and took a bus to a ferry, and the ferry out to the Island of Venotene.
Unlike Cinque Terre, this island is a lot harder to get to, so we were the
only tourists there. Away from the humm of the city, it was deafingly
silent. The Mediterranean Sea is absolutely blue, and the volcanic sand is
so soft. Yes, I got the hottest tan and a face full of freckles (yes dad, I
was wearing a hat and sun screen!!) The five of us stayed in a condo, and
for the first time ever, i cooked a four course meal for 7 people (I met
some girls from Philly who wanted to talk about Tank Girl). I was totally
proud.
The next day, we went scuba diving, and despite the language burrier, no one
died or busted their ear drums. However,  the next day, we went snorkeling
and saw just as many tiny multi colored striped fishys. Oh well, at least I
can say I've been scuba diving......
The beach was totally fun too, amidst caves carved into the rocks, there's
tons of huge rock island type things that you can swim out to and jump 20+
feet off and into the water.
Across from our island was another which was used as a prison for political
activists, kinda like Alcatraz, which was closed around the same time during
the 60s. That's where I found the mummified rabbit.
Another point of interest was the Roman Ruins which were the palace of
Julia, a Roman princess who was exiled from the city of Rome because she was
unfaithful to her husband. Hmmmm, what a punishment, being banished to your
own private island with a palace. Maybe she planed it out that way....
Oh yeah, the second night we had a birthday party for my friend Laura. Yes,
wine, yes, cake.
We were approached one time by a pack of biker kids, but they were just
being obnoxious. The roads are so narrow that only cars fit, if your walking
you have to hold your breath and hug the edge. I don't know, there's just
something about country roads that's just not that intimidating, especially
if you know how to say "fan cullo".
Getting home was an adventure, since we missed the last train to Perugia
that night, and had to take a train heading to Milano, get off, and take a
bus. By 2:30 am, I refused to wait for a taxi from the train station, and
decided to walk up the whole goddamn mountain. It was awesome.
So anyway, this week, aside from school, I crashed a yoga class, went to a
wine tasting (where I learned how to tell the alcohul content of wine by
swirling the glass around), and saw La Traviata at the famous Theater I told
you about before. It took the lady 30 min to die. I told my Italian friends
about it and they said that in their home town, they call it "La Crapiata."
ha.
I have pictures available , courtesy of my digital camera toting friends, if
anyone is interested I will send you a link or something. Oh yeah, and pics
from Florence.
well, I'm getting to the point were I miss some stuff from home, like
marshmellows, peanut butter, and oh yeah, punk mix tapes. If you have some
of these items hanging around, bothering you, send them my way. No worries
if this is impossible, I just thought I'd put it out there.
Much wine love, and garlic smelling kisses,
megan