One Year in Italy....here we go!

So let me explain what happened. There is an application on all macs called "iWeb" and I have used it in the past to create a blog. My plan was to use it again because it has all sorts of doo-dads, bells and whistles to spice up a blog page, and you create an entire website, not just a blog. I feel like the organization is better because you could have a whole section dedicated to pictures, to the blog, to movies, to music, etc. So I created my blog on iWeb and even started blogging, but when I went to publish it nothing happened. Then I remembered that mid-summer I got an email from Mac saying something about iWeb and something about no longer publishing the sites....but I didn't remember. Stubbornly I tried to publish the page 4 more times before giving in to peer pressure to use Google blogs. So, the blog is here (hooray!) and the plan is to post about once a week, but fear not, it shall be quite an elaborate post. Since I have been here for almost three weeks, I am going to break up those weeks into their own separate posts. I am using my big, HUGE calendar and documenting what I have done each day, down to the hour...ready, set, go!

A Week in Review

My flight left from Dulles Airport on Saturday, August 29th. I pitstopped in London, switched airports from Heathrow to Gatwick, and arrived in Torino around 7 pm on August 30th. When I arrived, the family that I am living with was waiting at the airport with a sign, "WELLCOME CHRISTINE!!" :D I am living with the most wonderful family of four, Patrizia, Alberto, Filipo, and Ruggero. I cannot get over how wonderfully welcoming and kind they are. Oh and the city!! Out my window there is a balcony, and because this building is 100 years old (seriously) the windows are roughly the size of a door and there is no screen. My view of the city out this window is the Alps. It is a truly breathtaking sight, even more so as the sun sets behind them (Turin is kind of on a peninsula, with mountains surrounding the city). Talk about motivation to wake up in the morning.
Pretty much the rest of the day on Sunday was dinner--my first real Italian dinner. In Italy, meals are casually formal. I mean in terms of the courses. Did you know that pasta is a first dish, and meat is a second dish? Me neither. I was trying to be helpful, as I was not all that talkative in my jet lagged and exhausted state, so I picked up the meat platter to take out to the table. Alberto met me in the doorway, wisked away the platter saying, "That's for second plate/dish." So we ate our first dish of pasta, and then we all got brand new, clean plates for the meat course and then brand new little plates for the dessert/fruit course. Now I know to get more plates, but it still seems strange/excessive to me....
Monday night we went into town--we live in a district called “Crocetta” or “Little Cross,” as it is between two large and old churches I think--and we ate at Patrizia’s favorite pizzeria, “I Fratelli la Conna.” It was designed by a famous Turin actor, but I don’t remember his name. Anyway, it is characterized by caricatures of famous people throughout the interior, bright (mostly red) walls, excellent pizza (approved by the Napolitano Pizza Association, I kid you not), and seafood (‘Le Conne’ means mussels). This restaurant is in Piazza del Castello where the national library of Turin is! As well as the first Parliament house of Italy because Turin was the first capital! It was very cool :) After dinner we walked around a little bit, stopping of course at a gelato place. We did a big circle around Piazza Castello, hitting Via Roma (all of the insanely expensive designer stores), Palazzo Reale and Teatro Regio (This season they are doing La Traviata, The Nutcracker, Wagner's Tannhäuser, The Barber of Seville, and Le Bohème, just to name a few), Piazza San Carlo, and probably some other ones. I was exhausted still, and not to mention that they don't start to think about dinner until 8-8:30.
Tuesday, Sept 1 started with taking Fillipo to his grandmother's house and then going to the post office to get the forms to legally stay here--my first brush with Italian beauracracy...At lunch, an American aupair who was good friends with my predecessor joined us. It was a surprisingly amazing feeling to hear and speak coloquial American English with her! After lunch, the boys just played in the house and at the huge, quad-like-except-mostly-pavement park across the street until 6 when they went to a birthday party. For dinner, Lindsay and I went to what is called Apperitivi--essentially you pay for a drink, and in return you get not only the drink but an all-access pass to the appetizer buffet that is out. It was great! 6 euro for dinner, holla. What is an Italian dinner without gelato for dessert? Incomplete. Lindsay and I walked to the city center, wonderful gelato in hand, while she filled me in on her almost year long experience. Lindsay got to Torino last October, and is leaving October 12, so she imparted some wisdom about Torino on me.
Wednesday was pretty uneventful, just trying to work out some sort of routine. The boys played together the whole day at home or at the park--Patrizia and Alberto were concerned that it would be too much for me on day 3, but they were well behaved. Ruggi's birthday was the week before and he had received play models of Egyptian boats, Pirate boats, and the corresponding sailors, so clearly there was a war between the Pirates and the Egyptians. The day ended with a lovely dinner outside on the back porch....at 8:30pm....hopefully I'll get used to that...
Thursday was a little different--Patrizia came home for lunch so that I could go to the University to register for classes. Well....even though I had a map, had gotten googlemap step by step instructions, and had even 'walked' through the route on googlemaps, I got lost. Way lost. I took the bus almost to the next town! And I definitely did not make it to the University before they closed at 4pm. I spent about 4.5 hours on public transportation/walking back to the house. blegh. But when I met Patrizia at the park aroudn 6:30, her sister had brought gelato! A lovely little treat after an exhausting afternoon. Thursday nights Patrizia and Alberto go out, so Fil, Ruggi, their friend Francesco and I ate dinner together and played until 9:30 when Francesco went home and Fil and Ruggi went to bed. Guess what story they are reading/I read to them?!?! The Indian and the Cupboard!! :D I was psyched when they asked me to read it! Well done Lauren getting them hooked on a great story!
Friday orning Filipo and I went to his dentist appointment and then together we found the University! Hooray!! Unfortunately so did about 50 other people, so we had to wait 30 minutes to get anything done. I found out that I couldn't do anything without a special code that I get after turning in all of my paperwork. But the lady who helped us was great, and I filled out all of the paperwork that I could so that basically I just need to go there, give them the code, and register for my class. Lunch was at home with everyone--all 5 of us--and then to the sea! They have recently acquired (they rent it but longterm) a bungalow in a town called Lerici. It is the first or second town south of Cinque Terre. Breathtaking. Their cottage is on top of a hill, so when the sun sets it is over the port with 400,000 small sail boats. The town is only about 3 hours away from Torino luckily enough. When we got there, around 5:30, the boys and I played soccer on the front yard for almost 2 hours, boys vs. girl. Dinner was in a restaurant called: Cicciulo. This restaurant is built into the side of an ancient castle and the only way to get to it is through the passageway under the castle/hill; a not so secret passageway.
Saturday morning breakfast was on me--Pancakes and bacon! yummmmm! After we all were stuffed Patrizia, the boys and I went to the Lido, the only real beach because the rest is mostly rocks, while Alberto went to a neuroscience conference one town over. Beautiful day! The waves were perfect, no clouds in the sky, we had 2 lounge chairs--ahhhhh paradise. At 3:30 we took a ferry to Portovenere--the southern most town of Cinque Terre, and the home of Lord Byron's castle. Across the cove from Portovenere (literally 5 miles) there is a little military island that is mostly beach with only 15 residents. We headed over there to catch some rays, play in the water, and hike up the mini mountain that overlooks the ocean. Patrizia and the boys stayed on the beach while Alberto and I hiked the trail. It was nice, it gave the two of us time to talk some politics, :). The last taxi boat back to Portovenere left at 7. Once back in Portovenere we visited Byron's Castle. It is at the top of the hill/mountain overlooking the ocean and right on a curve, so on one side is the town and the other is the sublime; huge waves crashing into the ragged rock of the mountain. Right next to his castle is an ancient church, that is still used! There was a wedding there that day! We saw the bride and groom as they walked down the oversized stairs to the main road of Portovenere. For dinner we ate in a Slow Food restaurant--interestingly enough the slow food movement began in Torino. It was delicious, very quick and cheap, a good trio. The last ferry back to Lerici left at 8 pm--right before dinner--so we took a bus back to Lerici, roughly and hour journey.
Sunday morning I woke early to go to the tiny, beautiful church in town only to find that the mass advertized was at the bigger church somewhere in Lerici. I was pretty disappointed, but I was able to spend some alone time in reflection, prayer and reading of the Bible in the church. I treked back to the house for breakfast and then on we went back to the Lido! This time it was just Fil, Ruggi and me, because Alberto and Patrizia had some house-work they wanted to do. When we came back for lunch, it was out of a story book. I'm not kidding, a typical Italian lunch. It was outside on the patio, under the trees so the lighting was speckled like that Renior of the Moulin. The table was covered with a white table cloth, the ceramic plates were a brighter white than that of the table, and there were small glasses of white wine. At the table was Patrizia, Alberto, Patrizia's sister Cinzia, her husband and mother-in-law, the landlord for the bungalow [an former sea captian of about 81, named Nilo], Cinzia's brand new baby Federico in a basket crib behind the table, Fil, Ruggi, and myself. We had an elaborate meal (as all meals seem to be) of a specific pasta baked with parmigiano and zucchine fresh from the veggie garden in the yard for the first plate and salad with 5 different lettuces, peppers, and tomatoes. For dessert there was a special cake, fresh grapes, apples, and peaches. Then coffee, where everyone gets both an espresso mug/cup, a saucer, a coffee spoon brought out on a tray with the cream and sugar in their own containers as if it were high tea. It was easily a 2.5 hour affair with Nilo telling stories from the old sailing days, story swapping about babies, and all embellished with Italian gestures which became more elaborate as the white wine flowed. :D
After lunch, it was back to Torino for Ruggi, Patrizia, Alberto and me--Fil would stay until Wednesday, coming back on the train with Cinzia's mother-in-law. As we drove through Liguria (the region where Lerici is) we learned that there were fires in Genova, preventing cars from driving on the [private] highways near there so we had to go back by another way. We drove up the coastline and then into the hills on National [less maintained, less nice, less direct] highways adding about an hour to our return time. No worries though, we were accompanied by John Legend and his "Once Again." :) We got back pretty late, deciding on a quick pasta [gnocchi and cheese--to die for] and omelet for dinner, and hopefully and early night. It was not to be. Uncle Inriche and cousin Marta dropped by to give Ruggi his birthday gift from them, and Lauren (my predecessor) called in the middle of dinner from Oakland, CA! So in between courses one and two we talked with Lauren, 9 hour time difference. Then Patrizia and I spent almost an hour filling out the paperwork for Italian beauracracy, to be filled the next day. Not an early night at all, but a wonderful first week!