Getting around in Italy

Waking up here, in Orvieto Italy is truly surreal. I am here with a group of 17 including our Chef from Dallas, Texas. We have been here three days and before heading over I took the effort to try and learn a few key phrases and such. I will say this though. A few weeks of Rosetta Stone help a little. It is very expensive though, so I glad someone allowed me to "borrow" their copy.


Typical day, for the three we have been here, starts off with waking up, taking a shower, and heading to the local cafe for an espresso. This I will walk around and enjoy until it is time for me to be in class.

Sometimes I sit down and just am amazed that I am actually really here, and sometimes I just take it in. While having my drink this morning, I decided to create this blog. This is more for my memories than anything else, but I think I have friends and family that would like to "share" my experience. I have a family that is really supportive of this as well.

So I am here with 15 other students and one Chef instructor. I am going to try each day and get out on my own and walk around. Orvieto, is not a huge place at all. The number of residents we have been told always hovers around 25,000. And 16 culinary students from the U.S. stick out a saint bernard at a beagle convention. Coming from Houston it is a hugely different experience. Cars zip down streets that would be considered alleys where I am from.

I will not try to explain the experiences of past three days for now though; there will be plenty of time for that. One of the things I decided to do was to take a little time each day to walk around and try to experience things. This has been mostly in the mornings as I am usually the first one up in the house. This has been an experience in itself. Walking around by myself in this city, watching people and the world go by you can learn a lot about them and yourself. The locals here are really great so far. You can tell that they are used to a lot of tourist that come through and have no intention of attempting interaction with them, so they seem very appreciative and patient when you try and are showing the real effort.

I was walking down the street the other day, and have noticed a gentleman outside. He has always had a stern face when it came to the group of guys. I was by myself and when he looked at me with the stern face just said, “buon giorno”, He got a huge smile on his face and said “buon giorno”. But the look on his face said a lot. Same at the cleaners this morning I was trying to drop off a few shirts, and well the lady and I tried to discuss it. I think we got our conversation to the point of bring them back on Tuesday and they will be ready Wednesday afternoon. I will let you know Tuesday.

Well need to head out to try and take care of some things. So ciao till later.