Last Day in Montepulciano

It was a bittersweet day, of course. I finished my morning class and then went to mail a few more postcards. Then I came back to school to use their wireless internet. As I was sitting in a chair, a very sweet woman from my class offered me her "verb wheel". It is kind of a cheat sheet for verb conjugations that she had been using in class. She saw how I struggled and this was a very kind - and much needed offer. So, I did accept it and have already been studying it. A group of us then went to lunch (which is the same one my friend and I accidentally crashed a couple of weeks ago) and I bonded some more with the woman in my class from Germany/Switzerland. She and I had gone out to lunch a few days earlier so she could help me with my pronunciations. I gave her my email address. I was pretty much close to tears most of the day with the kindness that was shown all around. I did laugh a bit when our Italian teacher handed me my certificate when I finished my classes. I don't know if everyone's says the same thing, but mine says it is a "certificate of attendance". She said I deserved it because as much as I hated class sometimes, I did stick it out. I feel like the kid in grade school they could't find a good thing to say about, so they gave him/her the Certifiate of Attendance :)

Anyway, back to the good stuff. My room mate has also been nice enough to help me with some basic Italian and we have had some good talks. She has been a wonderful interpreter between me and Fiorella, I feel that we will keep in touch.

Although I was stuffed after lunch, Fiorella made dinner for us. She made home made pasta noodles with meat sauce, a great salad, sliced and very tasty beef and a fruit torta. She went out and bought special wine - which we finished off, and got her private stash of some kind of liquor out. Needless to say that we had a great meal, lots of alcohol and lots of laughs (thanks to my room mate interpreting for us!) Of course I wasn't packed so it was a late night. Fiorella also bought me a refrigerator magnet of Piazza Grande - what a great memory that will be every time I look at it!

I ended up with so much more "stuff" than when I came. I came to Fiorella's with one carryon bag and left with the carryon bag, a stuffed backpack and a stuffed tote bag - along with Seymour and his crate and sling. I need to get rid of some clothes and some of the many handouts I got in class over the last month. And I do have a stash of food with me that I expect to finish quickly!

Fiorella said that I needed to come back next year or the year after that. I really hope to - and to stay with her again. But I will need to get up to speed on my Italian.

This morning, both Fiorella and my room mate got up early with me so they could send me off together. Fiorella offered to drive me to the bus station but I wanted one last walk through town. We all had tears when I left.

Here are some closing pictures from
This is the front of that restaurant that we went to the other night and I attached the review webpage. Everyone sits at long tables - one table on each side of the room. You will see crowds gathered outside when it is time for each seating.





These signs were so useful to me. Even I couldn't get lost for long here.


I hadn't noticed the windows with the flower pots above this entrance to Montepulciano. I am assuming that someone lives there. What a view they have!




Fiorella let me take a picture so here she is with my room mate getting ready to eat dinner. The table was set so nicely and my roommie got flowers to Fiorella. Pasta was the first course and if you notice, our large wine glasses are pretty full!





Here is Fiorella's dog, Kirakooo (sp?) waiting like a person to get something from the table. He eats anything! Unfortunately the picture is pretty dark.





Right across the street from where I was staying was a big truck filled with grapes and taking them into that building. I am not sure what all of that was about and didn't get to ask.

Great Next to the Last Evening in Montepulciano

http://www.acquacheta.eu/english.html
Above is the review of the restaurant six of us went to tonight. I am stuffed and full of vino - and content.

A very sweet girl from Vienna invited us to eat at this restaurant tonight. I pass it every day when I walk Seymour and see it crowded every night, I have always wanted to stop. I didn't know this was the restaurant she had reserved for us.

They have 2 seatings - one at 7:30 pm and one at 9:15. We actually didn't leave until close to 10 pm and it was fine - it's Italy! People are always turned away from this restaurant because they do not have reservations. The good news is that they let Seymour into the restaurant with us. People are seated at long tables together. They have a menu of regular food and then daily food specials. They are known for their meat - very large steaks, duck, etc. Unfortunately I did not order meat! I had brochette with olive oil and tomatoes, some kind of pasta with mushrooms,a great salad and and some kind of dessert that they recommended - and of course vino rossa. I had lots of vino rossa. The good news is that our casa was only a block away - uphill, yes, but on the same street.

It was great company, great food and a wonderful way to almost end my stay in Montepulciano.

Our table consisted of 2 people from Australia who did not know each other previously, the young woman from Vienna who did the organization - and is hoping to come to Ft Worth to do a traineeship on equestrian stuff. (I gave her my email address just in case I could help her in anyway) a guy from New York who is an avid biker and has been coming to Italy for the past 6 years, my room mate, and me. And of course, Seymour but he didn't take up a seat.

I still have that afterglow of too much good food, good wine and good conversation. Seymour didn't get to eat anything so his afterglow never actually started.

I really appreciated getting invited because I was the only one who was not in a class with someone else at the table. Things just work out,sometimes.

Check out the restaurant review I attached to see more about this place.

Unfortunately, tomorrow we have a school lunch at another really good restaurant and then Fiorella is making us a great dinner, so good food - and calories - are everywhere!

On another topic, I talked with the director of the school yesterday because I could not go back to class with the teacher who taught the second half of our lesson each day. She has only been our teacher for a week. I know I said I was going to let go of my stresses and just get what I can out of the class, but I just couldn't with this person. She doesn't speak any English so she just couldn't deal with those of us who were at a lower level. She just started talking for long periods of time with our class mate who spoke pretty good Italian. The other 3 of us just sat there. it was that classmate that mentioned to me that the class was too fast and was willing to talk with the director with me. She is also the woman who offered to help me so we went to lunch together yesterday and reviewed some of my (many) problem areas. How I appreciate her!

So I met with the director of the school and she offered me a one hour private lesson in exchange for not going to the second part of my class. It was so helpful to talk to her and reduced my stresses immmensely. She also gave me copies of information that will help me with the basics that I have never learned. So tomorrow morning will be the end of my lessons. I have so much more to learn and don't want to stop learning. I definitely want to come back to Italy - soon Yes I know I have 2 more months here but after talking with people who are here from other countries and also have a connection to Italy, I feel that they are kindred spirits. I'm not sure Seymour feels the same way :)

Grazie Google Translate and Vadafone!

My life has just become easier. Now that I have access to the internet at my house I used Google Translate to replace my much missed room mate Paulina. I wrote my questions and responses in English and Fiorella read the translation in Italian. We had a wonderful personal conversation this morning and I think that helped both of us get to know each other better. Much of our conversation I will keep to myself but we did talk about the cost of things. Electricity here isn't as expensive as water, but then they don't have A/C or dryers. Pensions are pretty low here but then social security is also little. She has lived in her house for 38 years. She keeps it beautifully.

The school didn't tell her who my new room mate would be or where they are from so it will be a surprise to both of us. She only takes women in her home so at least we know that much.

I tried to take a video of piazza grande this morning but somehow only 2 seconds recorded. I will practice more so I can add videos periodically to this blog.

Seymour and I went to the supermarket again this morning. I am now getting 6 cans of dog food at a time. I will have to up my food budget! On the way down we saw a small parade with drummers and a few people in Rennaissance costumes. On the way back, the parade grew very large and there were many groups of period costumes. I'm not sure what it was about. I tried to ask Fiorella (without using google translate) and I think she said they were students but since they were all ages, I probably didn't ask the question right. I will post pictures of the parade later today.

Fiorella is cleaning the house to get ready for the new student who will be staying a month so Seymour and I are back at piazza grande. There are lots of tourists and tour groups in town. I love feeling more and more like a local. Seymour is getting used to the church bells. In fact they are going off right now and he is shaking a little but is still resting beside me. I can't say the same for the drums in the parade. They really scared him and passed by closely so I had to hold his ears and hold him close to me to calm him down. Piano, piano.

I am very comfortable here but will be more comfortable as my Italian gets better. In fact, I get sad thinking of leaving Montepulcian in two weeks. I went to buy my bus ticket to Chiusi today. That is where I catch a train - to somewhere.

But at least I have 2 more weeks to enjoy this city.

BTW, I did see that the Italians and French have the longest lifespan in all of Europe and surpass USA. We need to exercise and drink more wine!!

Week 2 at Il Sasso - Italy

I need to buy more aspirins! The good news is that there are some words in Italian are the same as in English,like:
computer
yogurt
cappiciano
pizza

So, I know those words :)

The rest are all jumbled in my head. I hope something comes together by the end of the month. I did hear that a few women from my class went out together this weekend and made a mistake like I usually do. They were telling someone that they were taking a class at Il Sasso,and pronounced Sasso wrong - so they ended up saying they were taking a sex class instead of a language class. Thank goodness that wasn't a mistake I made! Of course now that it is in my head, it will probably come out my mouth one of these days here.

Back to our daily life here, when Seyour and I take our walk at 7:30 am, there are always workers sweeping the road and a truck picking up trash. I usually bring my trash out to the street and drop it in one of the bins along the street because I don't know how to ask Fiorella where to put the trash.

Seymour has learned that when he has to go to the bathroom, he will find very few trees or bushes so he actually has just used the street. I have already gone through a roll of poop bags here. Seymour is getting to dislike some of our walks and I will post pictures by tomorrow of his typical morning. Even with his complaining, he is a great travel companion.

Tonight Fiorella is having a dinner party for her son. I don't know if I am invited or not since I can't understand what she is saying, so Paulina said she will ask.

Yesterday Fiorella let me do laundry at her house. (I may have already said this, I'm forgetting what I'm writing) Anyway, I got to see what was behind the door on the first floor - the washer room. It is interesting that the room was cut out of rock, so it is a little like a cave. She does not have a dryer, so she gave me a large drying rack to dry my clothes. Since I almost always hang my clothes out at home, this was fine. It was great having clean clothes!

Seymour and I are done with class for the day so I'm going to drop off my books and computer and walk to the supermarket to get him more dog food. I wish they also sold doggie toothpaste because I can hardly stand Seymour's breath!

Even though I've been walking up and down these hills for over a week, I am still tired by the time I get from the supermarket to our house. Paulina did show us that there is actually 2 elevators in the park that will save us some walking on the hills. Siena had 3 escalaters to get from the bus part way up the hill to town. I guess I'm not the only one complaining about the hills!

Montepulciano

This will be short. There is no wifi at the place I'm staying - or no fan! I am waiting for my first class to start. So much to tell!. This is a beautiful town but all hills. I am exhausted from dragging my bag and Seymour up the hills to find my room.
This is where part of New Moon was filmed. I will post pictures later. We just finished our placement test for class and I could not answer one question. I have never turned in a blank test before!

My host family is very nice but speaks no English. She has a dog and Seymour kinda gets along with him. He does growl and bark some. We'll see if that works out. Since there seems to be no A/C here, people leave their windows open all the time so it is very noisy. I am definitely outside of my comfort zone, but that is good for me.

Somehow I left my jeans at the hotel in Rome. How does one not see a pair of jeans? I will probably have to buy some clothes for summer because long sleeves won't cut it. Did I say it is HOT?? caldo ??

OK, we have a break now so I am going to find a grocery store to get Seymour some food.
More later

Montepulciano, Italy

I have started doing a little research on our trip to Italy. My language school is in Montepulciao, Italy (where they will allow me to bring Seymour to class) and I wanted to find out a little more about the city since we will be there for 4 weeks. Here are some interesting facts I've found:

Twilight Saga: New Moon used Montepulciano as the City of Volterra,the city where the Volturi live. I'm a Twilight fan so I can't wait see where they filmed!

Montepulciano is a major producer of food and drink. Montepulciano is known world-wide for its fabulous wine. Wine connoisseurs consider its Vino Nobile among Italy's best. I am glad that I won't have a car. I just have to be careful not to drop the wine - or Seymour!

Montepulciano is also known for its pork, cheese, "pici" pasta (a thick, rough, chewy variant on spaghetti), lentils, and honey. So much for thinking I'll lose weight because we will be walking most places! Seymour is a big cheese fan so he may end up gaining a bit of weight, himself. He will have to be careful, though, because some of the hotels limit pets by weight - under 10 pounds, usually. He's at 7 pounds 4 ounces right now!

The trip is feeling more real. I think I need to start doing a little more planning. We do have 3 months there and I don't want to miss anything important!

Learning Italian in Italy - With a Dog

I just sent in my deposit for a 4 week language class with Il Sasso in Montepulcaino, Italy. Here are a couple of pictures previous students took of the area - very pretty.

The city is between Rome and Florence but so far, I haven't found it on my basic map of Italy.

I have signed up for their Standard course, which is 3-4 hours of language lessons 5 days a week. The 4 week course is 600 Euros. I also asked to do the homestay with the single woman with a dog. I sure hope Seymour will play nice. This is also the place that said Seymour could come to class with me. If you want to read more information on this city and language school, their website is http://www.ilsasso.com.

Since I will be flying in to Rome, I plan to stay there for a couple of days before I head out to my language class. They give directions on how to get there - take train, then bus, then walk. Oh boy, that will be interesting for someone with no sense of direction and little Italian. I am taking that 7 session course on Italian for Travelers before I go, so I hope that will give me a few good words to use!
It's getting more real -