February 9th
The heaters for the Palazzo are right next to the window, and I like to stand next to them for two reasons-The 1st being to get warm and 2nd being to look out and people watch. The view from the window in the classroom is into a hair salon. As I was warming up and people watching I saw a nonna (grandma) walking out with a newly done hair style. It reminded me of taking my nana to get her hair done when she is in North Carolina visiting my family. Hopefully she will be coming to North Carolina close to the time I get back.
In order to stay here for a long time I have to get a permit of stay. I took a copy of every page of my passport, my student ID card and other information to the post office. I had to pull a number and wait to be helped. When my number was called, I walked up and slid my papers under the opening in the glass/plastic wall. The post office worker diligently looked through every paper and stamped the information. (Now all I have to do is get my finger prints done in a couple of weeks, and I’ll get my permit of stay!)
Luckily for me the Pam (grocery store) is in the same indoor shopping area as the post office, so I didn’t have to walk extra in cold to go grocery shopping. I knew I wanted to buy pasta, vino, something salty and something sweet. I ended up walking down each and every isle about 3 times not knowing where everything was. I did eventually find what I was looking for and, I was very pleased to find a bag of pasta for 37 centesimi and pasta sauce for 67 centesimi. A bag of pasta is enough for 3 meals! I found some Pam brand popcorn, saltines (I made sure I bought salato) and a bottle of vino. My mom would be so proud with my bargain hunting skills—6 items for 3.70 euro!
February 10th
We had been doing so much homework and reading that we decided it would be a good idea to get out of the Palazzo and do something fun. Jess, Lilly, Kim, Megan and I went out to get some gelato. It was cold and raining, which was not the best gelato weather, but we all still wanted some. I asked for saggiare (sample) and then ordered cioccolata e nocciola(Chocolate and hazelnut).
February 12th
It snowed, and we learned the word for snow…It is neve. The snowflakes were huge. I got excited to see such large pieces of snow. As we ate lunch we could see the snow starting to stick to the roof of the buildings near us.
Like I have previously said, I spend a lot of time looking out the window keeping warm and people watching. As I was looking out the window I saw a mangy dog without a collar. I told my roommates how bad I wanted to go and rescue it and bring it into the Palazzo. We decided John Rose and Dr. Webb might not be too keen on the idea. (Maybe I’ll secretly rescue it……) After lunch we walked to the bus station to get tickets for Arezzo on Saturday. When we were leaving I saw un cane (a dog). Being the dog lover I am, I was excited to give the dog some “loving.” The dog gave me a kiss, and I said “grazie per un baci!” It made me happy because I have been missing my dogs like crazy!

February 13th
Saturday morning we woke up and got ready. We hoped on the bus and headed to Arezzo. Arezzo was founded by the Etruscans and conquered by the Romans in 311 BC; It is located in the Toscana and is a 45-55 minuet bus ride from Sansepolcro (Sansepolcro is located in the Provence of Arezzo.) Arezzo is on a hill and the scenery on the bus ride was amazing. As we drove through the mountain tops, I was in shock and awe. After the snow from the day before, everything was dusted in a beautiful white powder. I kept saying over and over again that the mountains and trees looked like something that could be in a calendar.

When we got off the bus Bekah (our Resident Director) told us how the train and bus station work. We stopped by the information station to get a map of Arezzo and started on our walk. Jess, Megan, Kim and I walked up the main street and went into some shops. I meet a very nice woman, who was working in an accessory shop. She was speaking to us in Italian and I tried to tell here “parlo un po’ Italiano.” I asked her how to say gloves….”come si diche” (and pointed to my glove) she responded “guanto.” She also taught us the word for purple, black, grey, and brown. (viola, nerro, grigio, marrone)
The sights were beautiful. The Pieve Di S. Maria had a lot of columns and was like nothing I have ever seen in America.

We walked up to il parto (the park) where some Italian kids and teenagers were having snowball fights. Megan and I could not resist, and started throwing snow balls at each other as well as Jess and Kim (I won the snowball war….) In the park we walked to the wall and looked down to see a spectacular view. We could see the land, the mountain and all the houses below us.

There was a beautiful piece of sculpture in the park, but unfortunately people have vandalized and covered the back side with graffiti. I have seen quite a bit of graffiti while in Italy, especially on sculptures and old buildings. I find it very sad that the people who are doing the vandalizing do not respect the artwork that they are lucky to have.

The next place we went to was the Cattedrale. Once again I was in awe. The church had such colorful and decorative stained glass windows. As I was in there I told Jess “My mom would love this.” (So I think I will have to take her to Arezzo when she comes to visit me.) The cathedral had both paintings and sculptures of all kind, I enjoyed taking all the art work in. I thought the ceiling was the coolest. It was very Sistine Chapel-ish as it was divided into sections, each with a different depiction of a bible story. I was wishing that I had more knowledge of the different stories so I could know exactly what each depiction was.
After visiting the Catterdrale we decided we needed to hurry up and eat before everything closed at 1:00. Megan, Kim, Jess and I walked around and got quite lost. For about an hour we tried to decipher the map. We ended up walking outside of the Arezzo walls, and decided we would just walk parallel to the walls so we could end up back at the bus station. Luckily, we made it back and sat to eat lunch at a café right next to the bus station. I ordered salami and smoked cheese sandwich. The salami said salami piccante, so when I ordered I said “no piccante”, and was happy that my sandwich did not burn my mouth.
Bekah took us to Arezzo and gave us information on the bus, but we had to get back to Sansepolcro on our own. Thank God, I was with the girls, because I was very confused with the bus system. The problem was that the paper posted at the bus station was old, so the times were not right. We ended up peaking our heads into every bus and saying “Sansepolcro?” until we found a bus driver that said “si, si, si!” When I got back into Sansepolcro it felt like such a sense of accomplishment for making it back!
Exhausted from our day in Arezzo, I took a 3 hour nap. The rest was much needed before I had to do homework and reading for classes. As I was doing the class work, I was looking forward to “going out on the town.” At 11:30 we left the Palazzo Alberti and went to K café (This is where we went last week, we really liked it.) As we were standing, waiting to order our drinks 3 boys walked up to me and asked us where we were from. I told him, and then asked how he knew we were not from Sansepolcro. He ended up saying that he could hear us speaking in English. I thought it was because we looked different because people here always stare at us, like they know we are Americans. I talked to the boys for a couple of minutes until one asked me for my number. As he pulled out his phone there was a picture of a girl on the background. He then proceeded to tell me that it was his sister. I guess he thought I was a stupid Americana raggaza. (So no, he did not get my number… but I thought it was funny.)
More boys came up to talk to us as we were sitting at the table. I was happy because last time no one spoke to us. (It was like we were aliens from another planet). It was fun to sit with the Italanio raggazo and speak with them. They would ask us questions to get to know us and I tried my best to use the little Italian that I know. We invited some of the boys over for lunch. (John Rose likes for lunch guests to come over.) So hopefully they come! We shall see…….