Hullo, hullo. So yesterday anyone who wanted to could go on this day trip to Orvieto, could go for free, thanks to our program peeps. Unfortunately, going for free meant waking up ass-early, especially for us. 5am is not a happy time. We made it there early, though, which is a miracle for my apartment, piled about a hundred kids on two charter buses, and off we went through the countryside. Pretty much everyone slept the entire way there. I faded in and out of sleep, but what I did see of the scenery was very pastoral and pretty.
Our first stop was an Etruscan Necropolis right below Orvieto. They told us it was going to be cold, and I asked the internets about it earlier that morning, but they told me it wasn't going to be much colder than it had been in Rome. Do not believe everything you read on the internet. It was freezing. Seriously, it was probably around 35 degrees. And while going in a couple tiny tombs was fun for the first ten minutes, it got old really fast. Most of us just packed into this tiny bar [called Igloo. Thanks for the reminder.] and overwhelmed the one poor guy who was working there with cappuccino orders. To his credit, they were delicious. And warm. Yum.
We more than happily hopped back on the bus, and 15 minutes later we arrived in the little town of Orvieto. Just some background information for you: Orvieto sits on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tufo [tuff]. Hella days ago it was a major center of Etruscan civilization, before the Romans decided it belonged to them and killed everyone and destroyed everything. Gotta love those Romans.
Okay that's enough background for now. So we get to Orvieto, divide into four tour groups and away we went. My tour guide was an older Italian gentlemen. His English was pretty damn good, but I liked that he talked about how the Etruscans "make a party" all the time. Those Etruscans sure knew how to have a good time. Well, they did. While they were alive. Moving on... the tour was three hours long - a LONG three hours, but truth be told it was really interesting. We ended by going into Orveito's Duomo, which is really just spectacular. The architect, whoever he was, was quite avant-garde with his black and white striped church. I enjoyed the outside more than the inside. We spent a long time in this one chapel that was completely covered in frescoes, but I had my arrogant art history student hat on and I was less than impressed. The subject matters were interesting enough [the anti-Christ, Christ (duh), the last judgment, angels with laser beams (no really), etc.], but the actual paintings... in the words of Christine, "I've seen better."
After the tour we all met up and walked to what I think we all assumed would be a little trattoria, but was actually this huge multi-story restaurant, where we had a full-on, six course Italian meal. The Italians really like their pork, which is kind of a bummer because I don't really eat pork [no, bacon is not pork. it's just bacon. completely different animal.], so prosciutto is kind of a waste on me. But it was followed by gnocchi with truffles, fettuccine with a delicious tomato sauce, STEAK!!!!! - in the form of tri-tip with rosemary, a salad, and a marmalade pie. It lasted for a couple hours and it was really fun, because we were at these big round tables with a ton of other people, so we had great food and great company. Lovely.
After lunch we had the second part of our tour: we got to go underneath Orvieto because there is seriously an entire city underground. It's so cool. I guess they dug all these tunnels and made all these caves and rooms in preparation for invasions, but the entire system is just immense. It was crazy going up and down these intensely steep and narrow staircases to get from room to room. And apparently the Etruscans were all about eating pigeons. They bred them in underground chambers below their houses, and when they felt like a snack they would just walk down some stairs, grab a bird, and munch away. Finger-lickin' good.
After that tour we had an hour or so to run around the town by ourselves. There were these damn children everywhere, dressed up in funny costumes, shooting silly string and throwing confetti all over everything. We thought it was International Dress Your Kid Like A Douchebag Day, but it turns out that Carnival started on Friday so people are celebrating. Whoops. Everyone thought I was insane when I wanted gelato after that huge lunch we had, but I ended getting some AMAZING freakin' gelato. I got made fun of all evening for it, but I got pear gelato and it was JUST like eating a pear - the taste, the texture, the consistency... I was pretty much going ape shit over it. I split a small thing of half pear/half mandarin gelato with a friend, and then a few minutes later went back and got my own, because I am just that dedicated to dessert. I got a cup of this amazingly rich hazelnut gelato with huge, thick ribbons of Nutella all through it. Oh man. Best gelato I've ever had.
The bus ride home was rather uneventful, and I stayed in because I was way too tired to go out dancing. I seriously don't know how these people have all this stamina without caffeine or cocaine or something. Jeez.

We originally decided we were going to go to the Vatican this morning last night, but then we were all too tired and lazy to make concrete plans before we went to sleep. But we ended up sleeping in [thank god!] and heading out to St. Peter's around 11am. The last Sunday of the month it's free to get in [to the basilica, not to the museums or anything. them catholics love their cashmonies]. When we got off the metro with about a thousand other people, we were wondering why so many people were going in the same direction as us. We knew it was Sunday and people went to mass and shit, but it was still a little confusing. When we actually got to the Piazza, there were about a billion people already in the center with big flags and banners and signs. We thought we were walking into some sort of gay marriage protest because there were some rainbow flags. As soon as we made it to the group of people, we noticed they were turning in our direction and pointing upward. Before we could even think, everyone started going nuts because Il Papa himself was up stickin his lil head out of the window. Fancy that! So today I met the pope. It was chill. He has a surprisingly nice speaking voice, and he actually spoke clearly enough and slow enough for me to understand some of what he was saying to me. While he was praying with his people, we ran to the front of the basilica to avoid the lines into St. Peter's. There were big signs clearly stating that there were no pocketknives allowed. My flatmate Gilli carries a pocketknife with her, so she braced herself to give it to the guards. I told her that if they took it, the Pope would owe her a new pocketknife, which made it a little better. She came up to the metal detector, showed the guards her knife, waited for them to take it, and was highly surprised when they just told her to hide it and ushered her into the basilica.
St. Peter's is ridiculous. Ridiculous and amazing. Fuckin' Bernini, man. That kid knew what he was doing. The place is so huge and so cavernous that you feel like you've been swallowed by Catholicism and you're rolling around in it's marble-filled belly with these huge busts and pillars and gold-flecked everything. The statues are these giant people that have been frozen in intense moments of revelation, like some sort of Medusa glanced at them and now they're trapped in their marble casings, unable to move or change or get out. I've studied St. Peter's and a bit of it's interior and while I was very much looking forward to seeing it, I didn't expect it to be such an experience for me, but I just kind of walked around in silence, totally stricken by the awesomeness of it all. You could roam that place for years, I'm convinced, and never take it all in.
We tried to go into the Museum but we didn't want to pay, so I bought a couple postcards with my buddy Papa on 'em, we found some lunch and some more gelato [obv], and metro'd home, where we've been resting ever since.

Now it's homework time. Christine comes tomorrow! I'm quite excited. Buonanotte!