June 12th: Sightseeing and Eating

June 12, Thursday

11:35 pm

Wow, we’re nearing the first weekend already. It's taken this long for everyone to settle in (and we're still really not), so it's easy to forget that we're only here for five weeks... which will probably seem shorter once we start performing.

This afternoon Jeff, Mara and I had a lot of free time, so we made a long picture-taking expedition all around the city. The incident that stood out to me was Petrarch’s house, which I didn’t know I was standing in until Mara told me. It had a small, cozy courtyard with orange trees growing on the terrace above, iron gates, and the customary yellow walls of the city. Soon afterwards Mara left to go to rehearsal, so Jeff and I continued along the road to “the hill,” a favorite park/picnic/playground area of us students with a great overlook into the city, and took probably hundreds of pictures between the two of us. From there we kept going in the direction we had started in, and ended up at the church I visited with Mara a few days ago (picture above) – a huge, echoey, high-ceilinged place with many famous frescoes of Francesco (say that five times fast). When we entered, we heard what sounded like a religious sermon, and as we made our way across the room realized that there was a funeral taking place in the lavishly-decorated side room of the church. The priest’s voice boomed throughout the entire building, as tourists reverently made their way around the spacious room. The combination of the intoning of the priest and the stillness of the rest of the building made for a very peaceful, calming experience.

I have been talking about making soup for a few days now, so tonight we decided it was time. Seven of us met at the supermarket to buy the necessary ingredients, along with some bread, wine, and a huge piece of watermelon. When we got back to the apartment nearly an hour later, we realized just what we’d gotten ourselves into – there were ten hungry people waiting to be fed, and not enough dishes to go around. So Lianna, Elisa and I quickly got to work, and managed to cook up two huge pots of soup to feed everyone that wanted it. I had had something simple in mind, but things kept being added during the process, so in the end we had a tortellini, white bean and vegetable soup with tomatoes and basil. From grocery store to consumption of the meal, the process had taken about two and a half hours… but we had a lot of fun making a mess of the kitchen and listening to Jenny’s Swedish pop music on full volume. Everyone claimed the soup was good, too, although Lianna and I still think they were just being nice for all our effort….

Three nights ago I went for the first time to the gelateria down the street from one of the apartments. The owner, a friendly middle-aged man with stubble, was very welcoming, and also patient with our slow pace of sampling and choosing flavors. By coincidence, I came back the next night with a different group of friends, and it having been the second time he saw me, he asked where we were from. He was excited to find out that we were instrumentalists because he used to play the piano, so I invited him to come to our chamber music concerts later this month. He gave Elisa a discount, and promised me that the next time it would be my turn… so tonight I grabbed a bunch of people and we went over.

While the others chatted amongst themselves, I began conversing with the store owner and his friend, a 26-year-old chain smoker named Daniele who often hangs around the store. He asked what the group was doing in Italy, and was particularly taken with Elisa because she looked like his sister of the same age. I asked him if there was a discoteca anywhere in or around Arezzo, since many of us are interested in going dancing this weekend, but I wasn’t expecting much because I had already heard from others that there isn’t much around. Sure enough, he told me there was not only nothing to be found in Arezzo, but nothing in the surrounding cities either. He also said dancing/clubbing is something the Italians do only in the winter….

Daniele made me promise to bring the group back tomorrow night so we could continue our conversation. That store owner is going to make a fortune off of us.