For some reason, I kept waking up this morning in increments of about every fifteen minutes since six. I guess it was meant for me to wake up instead of lying in bed. I finally got up at eight.
At around eleven, we found out that the some of us who stayed this weekend were able to go to Citta di Castello for the day. I was thrilled because I heard it was a small but dainty city.
We weren’t all quite sure at what time we were leaving until all of a sudden Dr. Webb comes in asking if we were going to go; then we all fled out the door. We ran down to the bus station for Jen and me to buy our tickets, but it was too late so Mr. John Rose let us use his and Dr. Webb’s.
Citta di Castello was a fairly close city; we got there in less than an hour. When we arrived, the first thing we always do is check the bus schedule to see when would be the right time to leave. After that, I had to go buy tickets to return to Sansepolcro for me and Mr. John Rose and Jen had to buy two tickets, for her and Dr. Webb. It was lovely to be able to speak in Italian and have the saleslady understand me.
The next thing was for us to find the Information Office. Luckily that morning, I glanced at a map of the city and had a slight clue of where it was; but to be sure, I went back to the saleslady and asked her for directions, in Italian! We arrived to the information station shortly after. We were all able to get maps of the city.
Since today was Saturday, there was a big market out in the main piazza. The market had just about everything from clothes to raw food; but for some reason, this market closed a lot later than the one in Sansepolcro.
As the market came to a close, it was time to meet up with Dr. Webb, Mr. John Rose, and Mrs. Mary Susan for lunch. On our way to meet them, we also saw Bekah and Chelsea a well; they joined us for lunch too. Our lunch was probably the first ‘Italian timed’ lunch I’ve had. All of my lunches usually last no more than an hour, but his lunch lasted almost two! After lunch, there were not many places open because of their closed hours from one to four in the afternoon. Instead, the “ragazze” walked around the city to a lovely church. This church used great accents of gold to bring out their sculptures, frames, and a few of their paintings.
In the side chapel of the church, it looked like someone just had a wedding. Everything was decorated with cal lilies and lacey ribbons. This church, or any church in Italy, would be perfect for a wedding.
The church had such great detailing in all of its frescos. There were domes after domes covered in artwork. The main dome in the church, right above the altar table, was painted with many people. The people seemed to be rejoicing in a blissful occasion. By looking at the painting as a whole, it just made me want to smile. Everyone in the fresco seemed to be connected in some way or another.
After walking around the church, we left. As we walked out the door, there was an exquisite park on the opposite side; it looked as if it was waiting for us. It was a regular ‘fun day’ in the park; I have not had one of these days since I was in grade school. It was nice to be reminded of old memories. In the center was a statue of Vittorio Emanuele II, the King of Piemonte and the King of Italy in areas where the Pope was absent. All around him were trees of great heights to cover for shade and gives the park a calm feel. We felt like little kids running around the park taking pictures. There was a wall on one of the outsides that was pretty far up. But the wall was so thick that we saw a few people sun bathing and napping on it. I would be scared to fall; but all of us jumped on the wall and took pictures. There was such a beautiful backdrop that it was hard not to take pictures.
We all left around four because Dr. Webb and Mr. John Rose had an appointment with the Belgians for tea at our palazzo. It turns out that the Belgians had stood them up; no one arrived or called.
It was getting late, so Dr. Webb and Mr. John Rose figured that the Belgians blew them off. All the girls decided to go to the cinema to watch an Italian movie!
It’s almost movie time! Ciao!


The cinema was incredible; it was named the Teatro Dante. It looked like it was from an old movie. There were four stories of ‘boxes’ for us to sit in and there were also chairs on the ground in the middle like any other theater. Everything was bright velvet red. The ceiling had an elegant chandelier in the middle of gold and crystals and all around it were painted flowers and borders. It looked like one of the theaters that you would watch black and white movies at. We were lucky to get such a perfect box. The movie was at eye level and straight ahead. There was no need to left my head up high or stick my head down low.
The movie was a cute comedic romance. We watched The Proposal in Italian! It was titled Ricatto d’Amore, which Bekah said means a love contract. The movie was just as good in Italian as it was in English. It could not have been better. I wish you all were there to see it!

We learned a lot of new vocabulary today in Italian! We can all now label our classrooms and our bedrooms. I’m glad that the class is learning new stuff rather than learn the same thing over and over again. We got to run around the classroom and the bedrooms to label everything; this way, we would gradually remember all of the vocabulary.
In Travel to Learn, we learned more about our upcoming travel to Florence and what to expect as a tourist. Dr. Webb got all of us a really nice hotel to stay in, too nice according to Mr. John Rose. We will all travel there together, but to better know or learn our sense of directions, we have to find our ways back to Sansepolcro. I can’t wait till next weekend!
There was a crowd for Margherita today. It was a fairly full table for lunch. We had numerous guests, one lady from Sansepolcro, one couple from the Netherlands, two of the Professor Bankers, and Mrs. Mary Susan. It was interesting to hear stories from all over. It was quite a treat.


For Art History, we went to Arezzo. Who in Art History can say that they traveled around Italy for class? We can!! We went to study more about the frescos painted by the wonderful Piero della Francesca. He was amazing at what he did. Too bad I can’t show you because we were not allowed to take pictures. In the church, in the very back behind the altar piece were the paintings of the “Legend of the True Cross.” It was great to see it on paper but to see it in real life, it was remarkable! No words can really explain what we were lucky enough to see; but I’ll try to describe it.
There are ten frescos put together in a complicated order. The first one was in the top right corner and was a depiction of the death of Adam. A few pieces of the fresco were gone but the painting itself was fairly straight forward, nothing to explain except the fact that the painting was divided in half by a tree painted in the middle. On the right of the tree was Adam on the ground being fed the “seed of knowledge” that his son found for him. On the left of the tree was Adam dying; he being was surrounded by a crowd of people. In the far back of the fresco, just to the right of the tree, were two angels, I guess overlooking to see what was going on.
The second painting was right underneath the death of Adam. This fresco was split into two as well by a pillar. On the left, Piero did a painting of the wood, the one that will be made for the cross of Jesus, adored by the Queen of Sheba. And on the right was the meeting of Soloman and the Queen of Sheba.
The third painting was just to the left of the second. This painting showed the burial of the wood.
The forth painting was just below the third. This painting was about Constantine’s dream. Constantine was the general of Rome and he was going to be in a battle with Maxentius in about 1311. Constantine dreamt that an angel came down and told him that his men will not kill a single person and that he will win the battle that way; and the angel gave him a lit symbol of the cross. There was a miraculous mystery behind the stars in this painting. The stars are known to be the exact arrangement from the sky in 1463 at that same exact location. The only difference was that it was a mirror image of the sky. There is no proven belief to why Piero painted the sky this way.
The fifth painting was to the right of the forth, which is also right under the second painting. This painting was described as the Battle of Mialein Bridge, which was the battle between Constantine and Maxentius. As described in the forth painting about Constantine’s dream, Constantine did as he was told. At the battle, Constantine and his men did not kill a single person. Constantine held the lit symbol of the cross that the angel gave him and he ran Maxentius and his men down the Tiber River; and Maxentius and his men drowned.
The sixth painting was to the left of the third one. The painting was a depiction of the tormenting of the Jews. In this painting, the Jews were represented by Judias. He was being tormented because he seemed to know where the original cross of Jesus was but he would not tell anyone. The men of Constantine tormented the day lights out of Judias, and still he did not tell them. Constantine wanted the original cross to make Christianity the main and only religion in Rome. Judias being Jewish did not wish for Constantine’s plan to succeed.
The seventh painting was to the left of the sixth painting. This painting is described as the discovery and proof of the true cross. The Romans finally found three crosses, but they did not know which one was the “right” one. As you can tell in the painting, the Romans found the true cross by waving it over a dead man and the man was then alive again. If you look in the far back left side of the fresco, it is a painting of Arezzo.
The eighth painting was right below the seventh. This scenery told the story of the Battle of Heraclius, the Emperor of Rome, and Chosroes. If you look closely, there seems to have one man looking straight at the viewer. This painting shows a great deal of foreshortening, overlapping, contrast, and balance.
The ninth painting was above the seventh painting. This painting portrayed the exaltation of the cross. The painting shows when Christianity became the main religion.
The tenth, and the final painting was below the sixth painting, which was also in between the forth and the eighth painting. This painting is known as one of the stages of the annunciation. The painting shows that there is a pillar splitting the painting in two. The Virgin Mary is on the right being approached by the archangel on the left of the pillar. In the top left corner, there is a depiction of God. Looking closely at all the frescos together, there are two of the same faces, God in the annunciation painting and the surrendered King in the painting of the Battle of Heraclius and Chosroes, the eighth painting. No one knows exactly why Piero did this but it was “bold” according to scholars because who would ever depict the image of God in one painting and in another, the face of God as a failure. I believe that he was illustrated this way to show him as a “person;” people have their ups and downs in life but that should never stop them from anything.
The Church of Piero della Francesca, in Arezzo, was a great way to see up close, some of the works of Piero. I learned quite a lot from just this one church. It was incredible to see the frescos in person. The people in the paintings were just about as tall as I am. The fresco was a sight that just has to be seen by everyone.


After the church, we left on the latest bus to go back to Sansepolcro for the city balestra; it was against Porta Romana and Porta Florentina. The “Balestra” is a competition involving crossbows.
Amanda and I came a tad bit late, so every seat was taking and still hundreds of people were left standing or squeezing themselves through others just to see what was going on. Luckily, I found a great spot where we were almost front row; the only problem was that it was Porta Romana all around us. It was still okay because we still cheered for Porta Florentina.
The balestra was amazing! We are Porta Florentina (because our side of the city leads to Florence). It was such a tight competition. These men were amazing at shooting crossbows as if they were born to do so. It was a sight to see for yourself; something that is just unexplainable. The crowd was so spirited and had great pride and joy for its side. The shooters went one-by-one. First one side and then the other, and then judging time to see which side got closest to the center. There were about eleven rounds total. It was such a close game; the sides were almost always at a tie. Luckily, or skillfully, Porta Florentina won!!

Today we went to Perugia by train and we left around 10 in the morning. We all learned that you should buy tickets before hand and not wait to buy them because some places with tickets would be closed. Almost everything is closed on Sundays. The train ride knocked almost everyone to sleep; especially considering the fact that we just woke up a bit before.
It took us about an hour and a half to get there. Perugia is where our Italian professor is from. There happened to be a market on the day we were going. There were vendors covering the main street selling from balloons to purses to food. Luckily Prof.ssa Chiara gave us brochures and maps beforehand so that we pretty much knew where we were going and how we would get there.
Hannah and I wandered off finding a place to eat. We were surrounded by American tourists everywhere. It got really annoying to actually hear the fact that according to Mr. John Rose, Americans say “like” way too much. We got fed up and left.
We start wandering off and looking for places and stores to go to; but everything was closed. We got lost many times and ended up in weird alleys with sketchy men. Luckily we left early with the rest of the ragazze and came home on the early train.
The one thing that we would all love to come back for would be the European Chocolate Festival in late October.
We came back, did homework, walked around, and now are about to watch Dark Knight. Buonasera!

I woke up this morning refreshed and ready for travel. We departed Sansepolcro by bus around 9:15 to go to Anghiari. Anghiari was beautiful! We walked around everywhere to learn more about the place. Anghiari was so calming that it was recommended for us to escape here to study or to just take a short break from the palazzo. Although there were hills everywhere, everything we saw was too picture-perfect. I ended up taking most of my pictures for the day here. We spent about an hour or two here and went back to the bus stop to head out for Arezzo.

At the bus stop, we met two elder ladies who had family that fought in the war or who were in the holocaust; it was a quite interesting.

As for the bus, it was late; I guess it was running on Italian time… this bus was overly crowded. It was so rude to be stereotyped or judged as I was going to my seat. The four obnoxious Italian guys were singing some song calling me Filipino. I loved the fact that they did not even bother to ask my nationality.

Well the bus ride was about an hour and a half of scenery watching. It was insanely beautiful. We reached our Arezzo around noon. We learned that the first thing we do once we reach our destination is to check the bus schedule to see when a bus will take us back to Sansepolcro. After that, we were to find the “Information Office” to get a map of the city in case we needed directions or got lost.

There was a great antique show near the cathedral in Arezzo. We all walked through in different groups just wondering around to see what we could find. The antique fair here was by far better than one in Raleigh. There were so many things and such great history behind each of them. I was astounding to see what others collected over time.

Well it got smoldering hot and we were all sweating out of our clothes. We went in to a few clothing stores to look around and cool down. There was no where around here that had air condition. We found a cute clothing store with pretty modern clothes for a fairly good price. I got a cute plaid skirt for only 7 euros.

A few of us decided to go back on an earlier bus ride back to Sansepolcro. So then we were just trying to kill time before our bus came. We left around 3:35. We wanted to come back because we were tired and I wanted to rest before our city “Balestra.” The balestra is a competition involving crossbows if you didn’t know.
Well it's nap time before the pre-Balestra

Oggì è vernerdì.

Today was an okay Italian class. We studied all class. Therefore there is not much to say except I have to study for the Italian Check Test on Monday... we’ll see how that goes.

After class, a few of us went to the bus station to buy our tickets for tomorrow’s trip (Anghiari and Arezzo). I got to ask for them in Italian!! I was so happy that she understood me.

Posso comprare tre biligetti, uno da Sansepolcro a Anghiari, uno da Anghiari a Arezzo, e uno da Arezzo a Sansepolcro per favore.

I could not have been more proud of myself for using what I learned to real life experience.

After lunch, a few of us went to the post office to turn in our permeso, and again I used Italian small talk to get the lady to understand me. It all worked! Now we just have to wait and go to the police station to finalize our stay in Sansepolcro.

Since all went well, I went shopping with a few friends! ;)

Everyone was able to find something which was great!

I bought a purple dress and a grey shirt that came with a necklace.

For dinner, Jen and I went a little outside the walls and ate at a nearby restaurant. It was delicious, but nothing compares to what Margherita spoils us with. While we were eating, a British man, of mid-twenties we believe, walks up and introduces himself to us. Jen was in awe of his accent so I ended up doing all the talking. We invited us to his friends bar for drinks.

After coming back to the palazzo from dinner, the British man had mentioned knowing John Rose and Dr. Webb, so of course I asked Dr. Webb who he was. From the sound of her description of him, he sounded very sketch. That was a No-No; so instead we went on the nightly “passagiata.”

Well it’s about time for bed. BUONANOTTE

Oggi è giovedì. Today in Italian class we learned about job occupations and how to ask for contact information.
In our Italy Toady class was awesome! The mayor of Sansepolcro, Prof. Franco Polcri, came in to talk to us about some history of Sansepolcro. He was very interesting; he has been to the United States twice. Prof. Polcri speaks Italian and French; English is very difficult for him. Before becoming a mayor, he taught literature and history in high school. Prof. Polcri wrote a book about the Accademia olegi Sbalzati found here in the Palazzo Alberti. The Accademia was a place used to be for poets to recite there poems to others. After the Alberti family moved out of the palazzo, the Accademia moved as well. The palazzo was used for many things since then. First it was used for the Alberti house; then it went from being for the people in the town to use for the study of Piero della Francesca. Near the end, it became a place to gamble. But today, it is a place of culture and knowledge for the Meredith College abroad (and a few other businesses on the ground floor as well).
The Alberti family was a known as one of the ‘greats’ in Sansepolcro. Everyone had great respects for them. They were a big family of artists; eighteen of them to be exact. Some worked for the pope in Rome and painted gorgeous frescos that I will have to see soon. In the palazzo here, there is a beautiful fresco in the Sala della Fama, which is a room of importance where they have meetings for the town sometimes. The fresco was painted by Cheubino Alberti and it consisted of two angels wrapped in a long wide ribbon like fabric. His use of vivid colors brightens the room entirely. I will take a picture of it as soon as possible.

Well that’s enough for now =]
Ciao!

It was such a long night last night. I did not finish talking to my family on Skype until about 3 o’clock this morning. I was glad I was able to see everyone even though it was pretty late. I miss them dearly and have been frequently home sick. I hope some traveling will help me ease out of that phase. Having a great big tummy ache did not help me to sleep either. I pretty much stayed up until 4 or 5 in the morning. I am well aware that lack of sleep is not healthy but it’s just too hard to sleep sometimes. The people in Sansepolcro don't even go home until about 2 in the morning.
We learned our numbers in Italian today. We can count up to a few billion. I still can’t help but use either Spanish or French when I’m speaking Italian. I am really trying hard to break this habit. I hope it works.
In Learn to Travel, we found out that Dr. Webb has planned our travels for this weekend as a whole group. We are going to go the Anghiari, then Arezzo, and then back to Sansepolcro. I cannot wait to travel outside our city walls. The only thing we have to do is buy our tickets, in Italian!
Art History today was beyond amazing! As a class, we went to the Museo di Sansepolcro. I was amazed by all the neat art works they had. Back then, Italians were more known for painting frescos than anything else. I just hope that I can paint like that one day. I felt so good about art today that I started a drawing myself; it’s an angel sculpture from one of the churches we were lucky enough to see.
After the museum, we went to go see Signor Andreini, Prof.ssa Sara’s father. He showed us a lovely church called the Church of San Francesco. Signor Andreini was marvelous with all the facts that he was able to share with us. It was very interesting to know an Italian perspective of my religion. It was so cool to see what other people were not able to see.
We got to go under the church altar in a room where Berti Reniari was kept in a casket. He was a great man of his time. Everyone knew him and spoke greatly of him. He was almost a saint; that’s how important he was. He has been at the Church of San Francesco for seven hundred and five or so years now. Two or three years ago, someone had snuck down to the casket, pried it open and oddly, stole his right arm! No one really knows why but they think it’s because people believed that having the bones or remains of a highly respectable catholic, saint, or clergy men was good for the soul. They believed that the remains will help them in the long run.
Today was one of the best days ever here so far!

Arrivederci!

Today was interesting and long; probably the longest day here so far. Everyone was out if it and tired. I, myself was really pooped. There were many things that happened today though even though not all of them were as fun as previous days here.
In Italian class, I learned to say the date and the days of the week!
Che giorno è oggi?
Oggi è martedì il primo di settembre.

In our Italy Today class with Prof.ssa Sara, we learned about the up comings of Sansepolcro and how it became a city. It was quite interesting to know that Sansepolcro means “Christ’s Tomb” in Italian. We were told to take certain pictures within the city walls that give evidence to the history that we’ve learned thus far. Everything has been so intriguing. I hope we are able to learn more about the Italian culture and way of life.
Lunch was awesome as always. We had pasta in tomato paste, artichoke heart, cucumber and tomato salad, and sliced pork. Don’t you wish you were us?
We had our first ‘community meeting’ as the Meredith group community. We talked about our arrangements here at the palazzo and a contractual agreement as members of the community. The contract consisted of courtesy, boy hours, and personal time.
We did not go out for dinner; instead we ate leftovers.
Around 7:30 pm was our Learn to Travel Lab part of the course. It lasted for almost two hours. We talked more about knowing where we would want to go and how we would do so. It is very important to plan ahead what we are doing so that we are not delayed in any way that would mess up our travels. It’s nice to know that we get to try out our travel experiences first as a group with Dr. Webb and Mr. John Rose. I am hoping to learn a lot from them.
After our meeting, we girls decided to go out for some gelato…
I learned the hard way that I should lay off the dairy considering the fact that I am lactose intolerant. It still hurts painfully right now as well.

Well it’s time to Skype my family. Ciao!