Saturday morning i awoke bright and early rearing to go for our class trip to arezzo. We took the 20 minute walk down the hill to the train station and met our professors there who were passing out our tickets. This is my first train ride since coming to europe so i got to learn all about trying to read the schedules, validating tickets, and figuring out which train and track we were on. The train ride was only about 10 minutes, after arriving we went to the tourist office and picked up full color maps of the town. Now, one thing you must know about arezzo is that the first saturday of every month they have an antiche (antique) fair. And its not like its in a building, no, the entire fair is in the streets, from the main road leading from the train station up to the duomo, and every road around the old part of the city that will fit a table. All the piazza´s are full of furniture and vendors, musicians, and the traveling gypsy beggars. I swear, the exact same old women in florence with the hemeroid creme who asked me for money, was the same old women who asked me for money again in Arrezo (which is south of florence) i bet she takes the train to arrezo every month for the fair! Anyways i wondered around the fair and bought alot of very small but really cool gifts for a few people i like back home! its going to kill me to have to wait six months to give you all your gifts. of course they have to be real small because i have to carry this crap for 6 months on my back! (oh by the way, right now its sunday morning and if you remember, those dang bells, every 15 minutes, and right now from my window i can hear the neighbors two dogs howling along, which according to the girls in room 6, the dogs ALWAYS do!). Though i got gifts for everyone in my immediate family, i didnt get anything for johns life partner! nora, sorry nora, i found something i really wanted to get you but it was 65 Euro! It was 6 little ivory statues of drunken chinese guys who were fat and pudgy and very cheerful. They were really cool but like i said, way to much for my budget. Some other cool gifts i saw but didnt get was a world war 1 helmet with all the german eagle metal work and the spike on top, i also saw a ww2 back pack that had been covered with cow fur, and i also saw an old leather flying cap and goggles. After buying gifts i wondered around the duomo and made my way to a large park that was on the edge of the old town fortifications that looked out over the valley. There i met a japense tourist, it was kinda funny, i didnt speak japanese and she didnt speak english, so we tried to communicate in another language niether of us knows, italian! After that i made my way around to the Piazza Grande and then grabbed lunch, where shortly after i found what was by far one of my favourite moments of the day. On one of the streets was a table like all of the others, full of little knick knack, saints, and other stuff when i noticed right next to a 2 foot tall statue of the virgin mary, and in front of a toy pinnochio (still in the box) was a giant black ceramic penis! I didn´t bother to ask "quante questo" (how much is it?) but i did get a picture! Through with walking around the fair, i went to the church of San Francesco which boasts one of the most famous Cycle of frescoes in italy, the Legend of the True Cross! i didnt pay two euro to go in the chapel, i just stood near the alter and peered in. Pretty cool. after that i met up with my roommates outside the gellato place and walked back to the train station. Back at home in Castiglion Fiorentino i didnt really do anything, i think a lot of people went out but i was in bed by 10.
(hey, dad if your reading this, record the super bowl for me ok! i think were getting the italian version without the good commercials, and the game here doesnt even start till 1:30 and goes till nearly 5 am!)
Ciao for Now!
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