Prima Settimana

Ive always been very comfortable leaving the country and exploring on my own. Just last December I flew off to Quebec with a roommate just to experience the French Canadian culture compared to the typical French culture. I had no idea what to expect from this experience. I would be traveling alone in the sense that I'd be leaving my friends and family at home behind me, but at the same time I knew I'd be joining a group of people who could potentially become life long friends.

Our house resides right outside of the city walls, but I don't mind it. It's a short walk to the main street which means it's a pretty short walk to the restaurant we eat at weekly. The view from our patio is absolutely gorgeous. Honestly, the view from the entire town is gorgeous; it's hard to believe that this is going to be my home for 6 more weeks still.

I wish someone had warned me about how popular sparkling water is here. Italians stick it in a bottle that looks nearly identical to the natural water but the trick is that it's not. The only way to really know if you got sparkling water or not is to drink it and ultimately get disappointed (as it turns out the bottle says "frizzante" if it's sparkling water and "naturale" if not but that's for another day).

Friday we were so lucky to have a wine tasting set up for us by a close friend of Ken Hill and Kennesaw State. We got to taste a white wine, and two red wines, all native to Tuscany. Il Secreto Di Giorgio, was a wine that really stuck out to me. The wine her brother wanted to make before his passing was created and it is a wine to share in good company. I like to think we did that. 

Having no one but 17 other students to talk with for over 7 weeks really affects how you interact with those in your classes. Generally I would just go to class, take notes and go home but here I actually know my peers names. We're forced to eat dinner together and to live together and we only really have each other to talk with locally. A week in and I feel as if I've known some of these students for much longer. 

Our first trip outside of Montepulciano was to Orvieto, a town with quite a lot of charm about an hour and a half away. I have never been blown away while visiting a historical church but the Duomo of Orvieto is absolutely gorgeous. I don't know if it's because it stands alone in the middle of the town piazza or because of the enormous size of the church but it truly is gorgeous. 

Orvieto had a different type of charm to it compared to Montepulciano, but it certainly had more tourists. As I understand, the month of August is peak tourist season throughout Europe and it shows; nearly everyone was accompanied by a camera of sorts.  

We explored the town and visited the caves which lay underneath the city. Apparently, if you own a property in Orvieto, you likely own a cave underneath it. This sounds kind of cool until you learn that the caves underneath most properties are around 80-90% humidity, which makes them very uncomfortable. 

I really love using public transportation in Europe. It's so efficient to just pay for the distance and have flexibility as to when you actually get on the train. If we missed the train it would have been no problem because we could board the next arriving train (now if that train doesn't come for another hour then it's a bit of an inconvenience). 

I am really excited to see what these next 6 weeks hold for me. Week one has taught me so much so I cannot wait to see whatever other cultural events I'll experience.