January 18, 2009- Day 6-They Know Obama In A Medieval Hill Town

Yesterday was our excursion to Todi and Titignano. I must say, beautiful places but a horrendous trip. I think my head is still spinning from all the hard twists and nauseating turns the huge bus took to get from place to place.

At 8 am, I stopped into a shop and got a tiny cup of cappuchino to go and a nice pastry with cream. On the way to Todi, I sat on the bus with Katherine, one of the very few students here that goes to Lincoln Center. The bus leader, a teacher at Temple, asked someone to volunteer to read part of a Sermon from the 1300's by Saint Benedict. I was sitting right near her so I raised my hand. I read a short few paragraphs about the value of a woman, a wife, and how she tends to a home and basically how men would be lost without their wives. So true and fitting. Half way through the ride, I took one dramamine to try to cure a bit of nausea. I'm actually getting kind of sick thinking about it as I type. We got off the bus at Todi which was a beautiful old hill town. I couldn't ever imagine living there, but supposedly Time magazine did a review of various places in Italy to live and Todi was at the top of the list for the best standard of living, lifestyle, health, food, etc. It was a sleepy town up on a hill, all made of stone and wood. We went into a church where Saint Jacob was buried and took some photos. We were basically let loose during the trip to go wherever we wanted and to see what we desired. I basically stuck around with Mia and took tons of photos of the streets, people, the piazza there, and the scenery in general. We ran into Jason, a friend I made via Facebook, and some of his friends and took pictures and chatted as well. We saw some shops including one with a very creepy looking KKK type religious wear supposedly used for precessions (which I recall seeing on posters throughout Rome during Easter on my first visit here). Finally we ran into an old man who lived there and asked for directions to the piazza to find a cafe for food and drinks. We discussed America and NY and he congratulated us for having Obama as the next president and said he was sure Obama would fix many problems in the American (and world) economy as well as the disputes between Palestine and Israel. We hoped he was right. He was really lively and funny and asked us why New York was called the big apple if the state wasn't shaped like an apple. He also mentioned that he heard about the United Airlines crash in the Hudson and I told him our school (Fordham) was only 18 blocks away! He showed us to the piazza where I bought some postcards and went into a cafe for a cappuchino. I ate my pastry and my special cappuchino (which the woman working there decorated and wrote "I <3 Italy"), and we saw the biggest jar of Nutella EVER. YUM.

We got back on the bus where I took yet another dramamine for the 45 minute ride to Titignano. The estate was beautiful and cold, and everything was made of stone. The awaited meal was a bit out of the ordinary, starting off well, turning disgusting somewhere in the middle, and again delicious at the end. Outside, they started off with different pizzas; cheese and tomato, onion, and rosemary with olive oil. Everyone was basically a scavanger so I only got two small pieces. At the sit down dinner, we sat at huge tables for our multi-course meal and I made a few new friends. To start, we had different hams like proscuitto and mortadella and a crunchy cheese tort with brie (I think?), then moved on to risotto with peas and asparagus, pasta with wild boar sauce, chicken and lamb pieces with potatoes and spinach, lettuce with vinegar that tasted like nail polish remover, and finally a wonderful tiramisu and almond biscotti. They served dessert wine and mini cups of espresso as well. Red and white wines were served as well as sparkling and mineral waters. The meal was not all it was cracked up to be but it was a nice experience anyway.

On the bus ride back, I passed out. I began to fall asleep at dinner but I really knocked out on the bus. But somehow in between, I was woken up by the excruciatingly neausiating twists and turns throughout the hills between Titignano and Oriveto (where we stopped to use the bathrooms). I thought I was going to throw up all over the place, but held it in well. Upon returning to Rome, I walked back to my apartment, put on pajamas, took 2 pepto bismol gross chewables, and slept for 3 hours. I woke up again to speak to Roger on skype, and then headed to bed for the night. Overall, a nice but exhausting and sickening day. Oh well!