More from Arezzo, Italy and Musings

I have gone to the "other side of the railroad tracks" in Arezzo three times today. It's another great part of town; it had stores, some old churches and lots of places to eat. Here are a couple of the churches I found:










I also found a store that had inexpensive clothes, so I bought 2 tops for 5 euro each and 1 pair of thin sweat pants for 4 euro. A few of the shirts I brought are all cotton and washing them over and over (often in the sink) and hanging them to dry was causing them to stretch badly. I needed some things that fit.

I tried on the pants and really like them - I can sleep in them or wear them outside - so I decided to go back and get another pair. Unfortunately, I didn't get back until after 1 pm - all shops are closed, remember. So, I found a place to get some take out food. I didn't realize that the polenta I bought was filled with organ meat and then I got a plate of "meat", not sure what it was, so overall, not my best choice of foods. Seymour enjoyed sharing my meal!

I did pass a restaurant on the way home that I thought was interesting. See below:

I always wondered if pizza was considered a "food"






Also saw this great statue.




This side of the tracks also had 2 pretty large supermarkets and a sign for another iberCoop, like the shopping center that was in Livorno. I didn't go looking for it.

After going home and eating part of my meal, I left to go back to that clothing store at 3:30 pm. I'm not sure how far it is from our place to the clothing store, but I'm guessing its at least a mile or so.

As I was walking to the other side of the tracks for the third time I saw this wall. They have a church here that was build in about 1000 and this wall looks like it didn't come too much later.



So, I got my second pair of new pants and then went through my clothes and got rid of 2 pairs of pants and 2 shirts. I put them in a bag on top of a trash can so hopefully someone will discover it. There are poor people here sitting on the sidewalks begging for money.

Tonight, I finally met Chicco, who manages this place. He was great talking me through my confusion of trying to find this place when I first came. He's a really nice man and teaches guitar lessons in the other room on this floor. I wondered about that room!

I also stopped in to a shop where an artist was working. He paints and also does paper mache objects. I told him that his work makes me smile. He liked that and said that he put himself and his soul into his work. He is from Argentina and so Spanish is his first language but he speaks Italian very well. I again fractured my Italian and he less fractured English. He said "My English is bad and your Italian is bad". Thank you, I already knew that.
I wish I could have bought one of his pieces but there is no way I can carry anything else. I now have Seymour's new crate to contend with - that I haven't written about yet.

I sent my email to the tourist office here on how they can increase tourism and of course how they can be even more dog friendly. I don't know if they have anyone who can interpret English, but I at least said what I wanted to say.

Other unrelated stuff:
1. They have cigarette machines and I saw that a pack of cigarettes cost 3 euro.
2. Gas is about 1,50-ish euro a liter (someone can figure out what that is a gallon, if they want)
3. I noticed that there aren't as many condom machines here as in other cities. I wonder if the prostitutes haven't discovered Arezzo yet - or they carry their own?
4. They sell a lot if "fizzy" water here. I seem to often have an upset stomach and noticed on a bottle today that it said it was good for digestion. So I'm not the one one with a weak stomach! I'm drinking it as I type.
5. Overall, Italians are small people. I wonder if it partly has to do with all of the smoking they all do?
6. I wonder if all of the weight I'm carrying on my back and shoulders is causing me to get shorter?

I have my train ticket for the EuroStar tomorrow morning. it is only going to take less than 3 hours to get from here to Napoli and I think it stops in Rome. That is fast! It cost 63 euro, so it is very expensive compared to the regular or regional trains. I am on a timeline since I have to then either catch a bus or a train and then a bus to get to Matera, which is another 4 hours away, so I had to suck it up and pay. Now I need to be sure to set my alarm since the train leaves at 7:30 am and I can't miss it. Usually when I have something important like that, I can't sleep!

I finally decided to stay in Rome the last week I'm here. I found an apartment on the outskirts of Rome so I can explore the non-touristy area and then go into the center of Rome on the bus and train to see the other attractions. Since I've been there a couple of times already, I mostly want to go back to Trevi Fountain and that area.

Time to pack -


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