Sorry

It has been a busy week, I'll finish writting everything on my bus ride tomorrow and post ASAP.

~m

Thursday 8/10

This morning I had my culture and civilization of Italy class. Our instructor asked us about us and what we thought about Italy, culture, and civilization. After our discussion we took a walk to the edge, where all we found was fog. We walked around the edge talking about the history and culture of the town. We walk half way around the town, so about 2 km.

For lunch we had the Asian class's food. Not eating pasta was a nice change for the day. Although the rice was over cooked and the asparagus was very fibrous, what I ate tasted good. After lunch, it was time for another walk around the other side of the town.

In the afternoon, we had our first wine tasting class for our wine certificate. We were all told the wrong time, so we were all half an hour late. We discussed the basics of wine making and wine tasting. Today, we tasted three wines: a white, sprinkling red, and a red. The sprinkling red smelled like butter and the red one smelled like acetone.

After class we walked into the kitchen and a group had come in for a class. They had made pizza, this is when we discovered "burnt cheese and tomato pizza." This pizza will live all of our minds for forever. After our wonderful snack, we decided to walk down to Nando's. Nando's is the pastry shop by the train station at the base of the mesa. They had nice looking tortes but the gelato wasn't great. When we got back to the restaurant we learned their gelato is brought.

Tuesday 7/10

This morning I started my internship at the Zeppelin, I made pasta with the pasta extruder for 4 hours. After lunch they didn't need anymore help. After lunch I walk around town and found the edge of town. Then I was found by Tony, one of the guys on the trip, and we finally found a office supply store to buy paper and stuff. We found some of our other classmates and got gelato. We tour the museo behind the duomo, which has close up views of the frescoes in the duomo. After walking around the duomo, I stopped by the market to get some yogurt. Yomo is the best yogurt ever, the peach is so yummy. Once I got home I worked on homework for my online class. And then off to dinner, it was British Isles food. The morning class is cooking us lunch and the afternoon class is cooking dinner.

Monday 5/10/09

I woke up a little earlier today, headed to lunch then cuisine and then language.

Sunday

Sunday morning I slept in until almost 11 and left for lunch at the restaurant around noon and than I was in Italian Cuisine class for 4 hour and then language class for 2 hours.

Saturday in the Countryside

Saturday we went Chef Polegri's family's home to pick grapes for them to sell to a winery. It took 20 of us 2 hours to pick a little over 1/3 of an acre. I can't remember what kinda of grapes they were but I'll find out, they were for a white wine. Before picking the grapes, we ate the breakfast that Chef Polegri had picked up for us, it was rice balls and pizza. After picking, we washed the serious black stickiness off of our hands and took a needed water break. Here I'm drinking a lot more water then normal. We walked through some of the vineyards, the olive trees, and the interns' house. Chef Polegri takes interns from different schools, gives some where to live and takes care of some/most of their living cost and they work for free for him.



For lunch we had a Tuna and tomatoes sauce for our pasta. We have learned that people here like bitter salads and in the countryside they like very bitter salads.



After hanging out a little more, we drove back to the town and took a 2 hour nap. We all meet at the restaurant and we started walking. Chef Polegri told us it was a 10 minute walk, but I think it took about an hour. We walk very very slow and stop every 15 meters. But on our adventure back to the country side we found a Chinese restaurant(for when we can't eat anymore pasta). Once we reached the edge of the mesa, we took a cable car down the side of the mesa. Until about 15 years ago the cable cars used no electricity and just used water weight to push the two cars up and down.

Once we reached Chef Polegri's friends' home did was dusk and everyone was concerned we had to walk back to town. There were no lights and not many roads where we walked, so the thought of having to walk back was not the most perfect idea. Anyway, this house was a small castle. The view from the house was looking up at Orvieto, it was gorgeous. The family was restoring the house but the inside had modern comforts with old touches. We have a barbecue with tons of food, water, and wine. After dinner and cleaning up we got the terrifying ride back up to Orvieto. I do have to say Chef's wife is a better driver then he is.

I'll post pictures as soon as I can.

Thursday

We toured the city today. We explored the market, the underground, the duomo, and one of the clock towers.

Day 2

I slept okay but I got cold last night. Tonight i pulled out the extra blanket. They had left some food for us in our apartments, the blood orange juice is yummy! I didn't have to be anywhere until noon, so I slept in a little. The morning Italian Cuisine class cook lunch and then when we got into the kitchen we started dinner for us and the morning class. In our class, we make ciabatta dough. We took the dough and divided it in to 3 big pieces and 2 smaller pieces. We made sage and rosemary ciabattas with the bigger pieces of dough. With one of the smaller pieces we enriched the dough with eggs and olive oil to make a savory tart. The other piece with folded in same random cheeses and prosciutto and made snails that we egg washed and topped with Parmesan cheese.
We also made a pork stew and Gnocchi with a zucchini sauce.

For dessert, we baked a short dough tart with chocolate pastry cream and cinnamon-sugar pears.

After class, we had our language class and then dinner.



Here is the down stairs of our apartment.

First Day in Italy

We landed at 8:46 am in Rome. We were all very tired. We walk to the rail to go to customs and baggage claim. Going through customs I thought they might ask question or at least look at me but they didn't. Once we all found our luggage we set off to find Chef Lorenzo and his staff. And then we had to find a bus that would and could take us to Orvieto. Fitting all of our luggage into this over-sized van or this mini bus (which ever you want to call it) was a definite challenge. While we were loading up I tried to put the handle of my big bag down and it wouldn't go, so I hit it and the plastic broke into about a hundred pieces. But anyway started our journey on the bus. The drivers are crazy!!! But we made it alive. A long the highway there was graffiti everywhere, something I didn't expect.

Along the highway we stop for some coffee(espresso) and cappuccinos. The shots of coffee are tiny, they don't even fill the espresso cups half way.

When we got to Orvieto I thought the bus was going to break down it smell a little after going only half way up the mesa to the packing lot. At the packing lot, we separated the girls and the boys luggage into a small van for it to be taken to our apartments. We took the over ground escalators to town and walked to our apartments. This is our street and our courtyard door.

After a little exploring in apartments, we head to lunch(which felt like dinner). Then unpacked and then dinner. It was a very full day.

Traveling- SAC to DC to Rome

AS Written during travel

I almost missed my flight from Sacramento because the airport was so busy. My flight was to leave at 7:35am and at 7:05 I was still in line at the ticket counter. A few moments later they started pull all of us going to DC from the line. And by 7:15 I was on the plane.

The flight from Sacramento was a little bumpy at the end. In DC the weather is cloudy with a few showers, which explains the bumps. The next flight leaves in 3 hours end is about 8 hours long.


Flight to Rome

As I write this we are flying over Zurich and headed For the Alps. The Alps look cold, beautiful. I think in the last 48 hours I have slept about 6 hours. And I'm pretty sure that I will sleep quite well tonight. But for now I need coffee!

Packing and Finals

Okay... breathe... so I'm stressed and thought I would take some time out and post and then send out my link to everyone.

Started packing two weeks ago but really haven't made much progress. Monday morning folding clothes and putting them neatly in the suitcase, just to find that I need another suitcase. I'm packing for three months with the weather going from warmish to cold and rain. I don't know what to pack and I need to do laundry before I can finish packing. How do you pack for the changing of the seasons?


Today's Weather In Orvieto
77°F
Current: Partly Cloudy
Wind: N at 2 mph
Humidity: 39%


I'm more stressed about finals and the actually leaving then the trip or preparing for the trip.
I can't wait for finals to be OVER!

~m

Getting Ready

I am currently preparing to began studying in Italy and I can't wait. I leave on 9/28, oh I just can't wait. My list of thing to do is growing and growing, I have even enrolled Steff in helping me get ready. Well, i really need to get things started for the day and get off to school. This blog will be one of my connections to home, and I can't wait to tell you all about the exciting event about to unfold.

~m