Cortona

Well, I'm closing in on finishing my first week in my new home, Cortona. The town is everything I could ask for, and more. The views from every part of the city are simply breathtaking. One can see so far towards the horizon that it eventually fades into a haze, much like it looks like from the window of a plane. The town is flourishing, no doubt helped by the success of "Under the Tuscan Sun" and the travellers that come due to it, along with the constant drum of students from our program every three months (the summer program is one of four semesters spent in Cortona; UGA also has a fall, spring, and maymester course here). The locals seem very kind and understanding of our ineptitude at speaking Italian, and have had more than one "welcoming party", if you will, in our honor.

Our dorm is plain but homey; apparently our group is the first beneficiary of a major restoration over the last couple of years. I'm living with six other guys in the basement of our building. We've aptly named it the Bachelor Pad (creative, right?). It gets a little interesting with one shower, but the guys are all great and such be good company. It's a great dynamic, with a wide range of personalities. The studios and classrooms are in a neighboring building just a bit down the hill from the dorm. The building itself is ancient, but the studio seems to offer all we will need. I'm currently writing from a very high-end Mac in the computer lab.

Food is served to us nightly at Tonino's, a local restaurant apparently famed across the region for some great cuisine. I have not experienced anything that would suggest differently; the pasta, second courses, and desserts (typically delicious fresh fruit) have been incredible. Breakfast is buffet style in the dining room at our dorm, with cereal, European milk (not refrigerated), oj, rolls, jelly, yogurt, a few cookies or pastries of some kind, and coffee. It gets me by fine. Lunch is on our own, and I'm still scouting out the cheapest and tastiest meals in town for that. So far the local grocer has hit the jackpot with a 3 Euro turkey sandwich complete with mozzerella, pesto, and mayonnaise (which they put on everything here).

Evenings have been a treat for me. The temperature dips down into the fifties as the sun sets, which is a wonderful change from the hot afternoons. I've had the privilege of watching the sun set from the highest point in Cortona the last few evenings, and those moments will be forever engraved into my memory. The night life has been fun, complete with trips to the discioletca, or dance club, night walks through the town, evenings with a book and the iPod, and a big birthday celebration complete with 20 pizzas on top of the mountain last night.

My daytime activities have been helter-skelter to say the least. Last Wednesday and Thursday were basically the "Here's Cortona" days, complete with tours of the campus and town, unpacking, room assignments, a welcome band our first night, and supply shopping. I skipped the few meetings on Friday and actually made one more return trip to Rome (you would think two would be enough) and went to the Borgehese Gallery with a friend, as we had both missed the chance to see the gallery in our 4 days there. The trip was worth the effort; to see Bernini's sculptures and Caravaggio's images in person is enough to put tears in one's eyes. Never have I been so entrhalled at a piece of scultrue as Bernini's "Apollo and Dafne". It was incredible. Saturday was spent on a field trip to the beautiful city of Siena, in which I took a nice nap in a park after visiting a few sights. Sunday was a sleep and read day, complete with about and hour and a half worth of laundry. We had our official kick-off last night, complete with a ceremony attended by the mayor, a member of the US consulate, and other important people that I should probably remember but don't. The evening was finished off by a group of flag-throwers, which was a very cool spectacle to watch.

All that rambling puts me here; I just finished my first day of class, and am about to go for a jog and then probably to (finally) go shoot some basketball. I cannot tell you how happy I was to see a rim at the park the other day. I've already had a few chances to play some soccer, so that itch has been scratched, but I miss my basketball something awful. I'll backtrack later on today and share some thoughts on my first leg of vacation, Vill D'Este, soccer with the locals, and Italian food. Until then, ciao!

Oh yeah- some of the pics from my first leg of vacation are finally online. Here's the links. Click on any and they'll take you to my photo pages. Florence, Rome, Naples, and early Cortona shots will follow as soon as I can get my computer to work.

Munich and Bad Tolz: http://uga.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2226700&id=4912107

Munich and the Alps: http://uga.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2226709&l=9f5c3&id=4912107

Venice: http://uga.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2229183&l=3fc7a&id=4912107

More pics later. Have a great day, everyone.