In Italia

We left Charlotte Airport right on time, and flew over 8 long hours to touch down in Munich. After a long night of not sleeping on a crowded plane (with decent food, actually), we boarded this puddle jumper bound for Florence, Italy.

After we get there, we were welcomed to the large city of Firenze.

We took a train to our town of Arezzo, just over an hour away on the fast train. The rest of the day was spent getting to know everyone, the rules, and our wonderful villa that we're staying in. This is a view of the Duomo from on top of one of our buildings ("duomo" being the generic name for the main cathedral in town).

Saturday was spent shopping for little things like food for weekend meals, and adapters for our electronics. Sunday we get to experience one of the biggets events in Arezzo: the Giostra, or Joust. Held twice a year, the town holds a week-long celebration celebrating the medieval history of kingship and land distribution. On the final day people gather in the center of town and reenact an actual joust, with each section of town having a representative scored points on the target dummy. The town is divided into 4 sections, or porta; our section is Porta Crucifera.

During our walk through town that day, one of our directors' friend's was talking to his barber, who happened to know someone involved with the Joust and we were able to sneak into the Lance Room and look at all the costumes and real lances they used.

Shortly after we headed to the center of town, to the Piazza Grande (Big Plaza), and watched them perform. They started with flag dancers, a procession of the armies, and a reading of the rules of engagement.


After that, each knight had 2 chances to get as many points as they could by hitting the target dummy.

We lost horribly.
The town of Arezzo also has most of the original wall left, looking at least 30 feet tall. Standing on one of the old fort's outposts was another great view.

We started school on Monday: a light breakfast at 8, Italian 9-11, Music History 11-12, Conducting 12-1, Lunch 1-2, and then twice a week we have a movement class for an hour and a half, a lesson once a week for an hour or so, a couple of community meetings.
Yesterday (Wednesday) I had to go to Florence again with a frienc to pick up my rental cello and his bass. It was our first unaccompanied trip, and although we didn't get to walk around the city, it was a good experience to learn how the train system works and try out all the Italian we've learned. All the music students are going to Florence tomorrow for the day anyways. Right outside the train station is a large church, and it's not even the city's Duomo.

The instrument dealer was nice, and the cello is ok, but of course I wish I had my own.

This weekend we're going to Florence, and a short hike into the moutains on Saturday.
As a general side note, there are a lot of lizards, flies, and sandwich shops.