Tuesday was, as some of you may know, Fat Tuesday…in the States we commonly call it Mardi Gras, because of the orgy that is New Orleans on that day. In central PA, it’s the time for those amazing, artery clogging donuts. Fat Tuesday, if you didn’t know, is called that because it is the day before Ash Wednesday, which begins the season of Lent, and it’s the last day that (traditionally) people eat meat before fasting from it. Not many actually stop eating meat anymore, but the day is still observed. We were pretty excited for it, because this is the closing day of Carnival, which we all know about from Venice’s masked infatuation with it. We watched the movie Luther in the afternoon (first time I’d seen it…I liked parts, but on the whole I thought it kind of lacked cohesiveness), and then headed out into the streets.
In Orvieto, and in much of Italy, most of the people go out and walk in the early evening, around 17.30 until the evening meal begins at 20.00. Tuesday, however, even more people were out, and some were dressed up in costumes (and, of course, masks). We got the impression that this was their version of American Halloween, since all of the bambini were dressed up (animals were the common theme). The rest of the youth did not so much dress up as they did run around throwing bags of confetti everywhere and spray silly string and shaving cream on themselves and buildings. We had a good time walking around through it, stopping in shops to look at different things. My friends here, Jake and Jenn, love shoes and are always dragging me into different shops to look at them and try them on…it’s fantastic. After dinner, however, there was not a whole lot going on, which disappointed us; I guess all the parties that we heard about were deep inside peoples’ homes. Our food that day was the best so far, though…and this is out of many excellent meals at Locanda del Lupo, the ristorante at which we eat. Who can refuse steaming bowls of mushroom risotto and platters filled with bread, cheese, and slices of prosciutto and capocola? When we finished dinner, the ristorante owner, Mauro, let us stay and watch the football game; it seemed like every Serie A club from Italy was playing every English club in several games all at the same time. We turned on the Roma – Arsenal game, Mauro brought out vino tavolo, I ordered a digestivo, and we sat back and watched the game and had good conversation.
Wednesday morning I woke up a little earlier and walked down to Montenucci’s, an amazing café about 7 minutes away, with my friends Jenn and Allyson. I had already had their pistachio cream puff pastry on a walk we had taken a couple days prior, so I bought a cappuccino and an apple pastry and we sat down and got to know each other better. We got back to class, which was essentially another walk around Orvieto to see more historically important sites: the monastery/church in which Thomas Aquinas wrote the liturgy for Corpus Christi and had a vision of Christ telling him “well done”; the castle built by the papacy to protect its holdings over the area; a famous wine cellar where they do tastings (I will certainly be back later); and the old monastery at which the Orvieto program used to be located, which was stunningly beautiful. In the early evening a number of us went to the Ash Wednesday mass at the Duomo. We had seen it many times from the outside, as it is just up the street from us (I can see it outside my window), but this was our first time indoors…it is every bit as awing as the façade leads one to believe. We sat towards the back and shivered as the priests moved around with their incense and song chanting, and all went forward to receive the ashes on our heads. From dust you were made, to dust you will return. For most, they placed the ashes on the tops of our heads instead of marking our foreheads; we speculated that this would be in keeping with Christ saying not to show outward signs of fasting. The mass as a whole was beautiful, with different clergy from around the town taking part (including the priest from San Giovanale).
Class has been really fantastic so far, even if a lot of it is review for me. We are learning about the Reformation, and the consequences it had for Europe in particular…I love being back in a historical theology class, and our professori, Tal and Agnes Howard, are great, very knowledgeable but also very clear and down to earth. Our classes have been filled with lively discussion, as well. I really love being back in school, especially amongst others who want to learn so much.
Yesterday, Thursday, we ended class a little early so that we could go down to the open market in Piazza del Popolo, which apparently comes through every Thursday and Saturday mornings. In the afternoon, a portion of us went on a hike out and down from Orvieto, into the valley, and up the side of one of the surrounding hills to visit a Capucin (Cappuccino) monastery. We didn’t do a whole lot there other than walk around the grounds and take in the beauty of the landscape, but we had perfect weather for long walks, and I enjoyed just walking through the sunny countryside, smoking my pipe and talking to friends. Our program director, Matt Doll, and his wife and their children came along, so it was fun watching their antics and keeping them out of trouble. We also had some worship and devotional time, before dinner with other students, and afterwards with our guide and friend Alessandro and his guitar. It was nice to get a taste of that again, and the Italian worship songs Alessandro taught us were pretty cool.
The music didn’t stop there, though…a small group of us headed to Café Cavour around 22.00 to see an Orvietani band play. Everyone was crammed into this small space, and it was pretty loud, but such a great time. We got some beers, took the seats of these two gorgeous Italian girls (woops…they actually turned out to be pretty cool, I talked to them a little bit afterwards), and grooved along with everyone else. The band was amazing, some of the best guitar, bass, and drum playing I’ve seen in a while…they played mostly instrumental blues/rock/jazz fusion stuff, and a cover now and then. A couple of their friends from the crowd got up and sang along with them or played flute or something, which was really cool, I love it when the music is that intimate. I was talking to Bernardo, one of the band’s friends, and he said that every Thursday they have live music there, and that it’s the best thing to do in Orvieto. I agree, it was a blast, and reminded me of home…we will definitely be back.
Today we don’t have class, so I slept in and started writing this when I woke up. Didn't do a whole lot today, which was nice, but tomorrow we wake up super early to go to Roma for the day. It will be great going back there. Right now I'm sitting in one of our favorite cafés, the Café del Corso, sipping a gin and tonic and taking advantage of the free, slightly faster internet.
Here are some pictures, finally! Walking on our way up to the Cappuccino monastery:
A view of Orvieto across the vineyards...our monastery (San Paolo) is on the other side.
No comments:
Post a Comment