A Rainy Morning in Fiesole

This morning I woke to wind and rain outside Villa Bonelli. Last night, after some of the group got back from the bars, they got a little loud and rambunctious. All I really remember is some loud noises, a few slamming doors, and one girl hiccuping. And then when I awoke this morning to rain, I wasn't feeling the greatest. The dreary weather was not conducive to chipper moods.

Breakfast at Villa Bonelli consists mostly of yogurt, fruit, orange juice, and a croissant with Nutella, this chocolate spread that is just delicious. Today, I had cherry yogurt and slipped an orange to take back to the room for lunch. I don't really eat a large lunch mostly because dinner is always so big that it makes up for it.

Today, my first class was History of Florence. Our teacher is originally German but has lived in Florence now 26 years, if I remember correctly. It was interesting in class today because I could literally see her translate in her head from German to Italian to English. Her English is good, not great, but definitely better than my Italian is right now. We talked a little bit about the history of Florence, starting with the Etruscans and then decided to go visit some of the sites in Fiesole.

She wanted to take us to the Roman theatre but the cafe, where we needed to enter through, was closed today. So instead we walked around Fiesole. She took us by this Etruscan tomb that is just down the street from Villa Bonelli. It is the most amazing thing. There are no ropes blocking people from getting too close, it is just in this gated area just off the street. We walked into the area and around the tombs and then read the little sign that was posted that described the tombs. The walls are stone fitted together so neatly that it's really unimaginable that people like 2 thousand years old could accomplish the feat. There was the tomb and what was the house right next to each other, the tomb lower elevated than the home. But it just was overwhelming.

Next, she took us to this dining place, Casa del Popolo, with it's amazing view from the terrace. This place also offers free movies on Fridays and some of the titles were familiar, even in Italian: Memoirs of a Geisha and Dark Knight. We walked around for about a mile and a half before returning to Villa Bonelli.

At 2 pm we had our second language course with Chiara. Today's class was very fun because we were going through the consonants that are different sounding than English. The 'c' and 'g' have two different pronunciations depending on what comes after them. Then we split into two teams and played a pronunciation game against each other. My team, team B, won. There were words like spaghetti, chiave, gnocchi, asia, usa, and aria and we had to pronounce them in Italian. So usa would be pronounced "ooh-sah" and chiave would be pronounced "key-ah-vey." Anyway, it was a fun class and I am learning so much better here than I was back at SMU.

For dinner, we had to walk up this really steep hill, past the seminary and bishop's house, but before the Franciscan Monastery to La Reggia (again, my spelling is probably very off). We were all winded by the time we made it to the restaurant but the food definitely was worth it. Unlike Etrusca, were we all sat together at this very long table, tonight we sat in groups of 4 or 5. Ania, Allyson, Betsy, Michelle, and I shared a table, 4 bottles of water, and great dinner conversation. The meal consisted of spaghetti with a meat sauce, first course; slices of roast beef with seasoned potatoes, second course; and tiramisu for dessert. Oh, my, let me tell you that dinner was delizioso.

We talked about everything from childhood exploits to fun times at SMU. I don't know how we got onto the topic of Dane Cook or who started the conversation, but somehow we moved onto favorite Dane Cook moments. Creepy guy at work, dream house, superman t-shirt, "I was washing a dish" and many others were mentioned. Sorry if you don't understand this but it's a Dane Cook thing. We then moved onto other comedians we like or have seen as we progressed from the restaurant back to Villa Bonelli.

Overall, it's been a really good day and I cannot wait for tomorrow. I wonder where we'll be going and what we're going to see tomorrow. I definitely want to walk around Fiesole some more, which I'll probably do this weekend.