Casa Vecchia 4 - Home For the Next 3 Months

Here are some pictures of our "dorm" which is really part of a house. We (Andres, Ryan, Jeff a.k.a. "Hollywood", and myself) lucked out and got an "off-campus" place due to overcrowding at Santa Chiara.

This is San Giuliano. The church with it's piazza space that doubles as parking lie right next to Santa Chiara. The building on the left is Casa Vecchia where we are staying. Directly behind me is the street to get up to our place.

Vicolo Repente is the street you take to get up to our place. If you couldn't guess repente stands for repentance. Ironic in more than one way.

This is what Vicolo Repente looks like from the bottom. It may be appropriate to repent before traveling down it as it's one of the steepest streets in Castiglion Fiorentino. Our place is just off to the right.

The door to the left is the entrance to our place. Eventually we're going to get some plants and have a "garden-off" with the neighbors.

Our foyer.

The living room or office/computer space. This was taken the first night when it was crazy cold as you can tell by Andres' attire.

Finally the bedroom. You can see three beds in frame. I'm basically taking this shot from atop my bed. Our closets are off to the left out of the shot. The bathroom is also out of shot but there is one. We were also lucky enough to get a bidet.
So that's the place where we'll be living for the next three months. It isn't five star but it works.

The First Pictures

Here are some of the first pictures taken from Castiglion Fiorentino (the town I'm staying in). The panoramic picture above was taken from the highest point in town. The old Etruscan watchtower on the right, and below, pre-dates the Roman Empire. So it's old. Really old. I forgot my camera when we went here so this was taken with my phone. Actually these were all taken with my phone.

The next three pictures were taken in a small park about halfway to the top of the "hill." The pictures are of the Val di Chio Valley where Castiglion Fiorention, Cortona, and few other Tuscan towns reside

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The last picture is taken on the other side of the hill (where the Santa Chiara study center is). The church on the right is San Giuliano. The study center is out frame, to the right, directly across the piazza from the San Giuliano.

That's all for now. More to come soon.

Acclamation

It's hard to describe the trip here. Put simply, it was a little less than miserable. The food was terrible. It tasted like the plastic in which it was cooked. Salt and pepper made it bearable. The movies were decent. But those only last so long on a 9 hour flight. Sleeping was next to impossible. Not because I wasn't tired, I was plenty, but rather the overall comfort of the airplane was somewhat lacking. Sorry United, but you should fill up the jet with those fancy beds in first class.
We eventually got to the airport in Rome and found the baggage claim, no problem. My bag came around the carousel, so it definitely didn't get lost which was one of my biggest fears about the trip.Once I had my bag in hand I touched something that felt like oil and assumed it was something the baggage handlers had done. Come to find out both of my shampoos had ruptured. Luckily, the blast was contained within a side pocket. The only downside was that now my bag smells of hair care product.
After the "shampoo situation" we boarded a charter bus to round out the trip to Castiglion Fiorentino. It was nice because the bus was spacious and I was actually able to sleep decently.
After about an hour on the road we stopped at a "truck stop." This thing puts some American restaurants to shame. I got a sandwich. It sounds lame but it was good. Not sure what was on it though.
Once we arrived at Santa Chiara (the study center in Castiglion Fiorentino) we checked into our very nice but very cold room. Pictures will follow eventually, once I figure out how to get them off my phone.
The RC girls in charge then took us on a tour of the town, showing us the best places to get coffee, food, and drinks. Stories to follow soon.

The First of (Hopefully) Many

For all those who don't already know, I'm going to Italy. I will be studying architecture in Castiglion Fiorentino at the Santa Chiara Study Center for four months! Besides scooting around all of Italy, I will also be visiting Barcelona, Spain on spring break as well as making a trip north to Germany and the Netherlands when the program ends in May. I will be using this blog as an electronic journal of sorts to keep anyone who cares updated on my exploits. There is about three weeks until I ship out and lots to do still. My next post will most likely be from Itlaia. Ciao!