At the Pantheon in Rome.
Hall in the Vatican museum. We couldn't go that way.
St. Peter's, Vatican City
Il Campo in Siena, during the Palio. We got a spot right at the starting gate.
Flag twirlers at the Palio.I've made it back to Vermont, where the hills are greener than anything I've seen in Italy. I should start from where I left off, though.
The goat farm in Bologna continued to be great. I got to make cheese, got a bit closer to the owners, and had some good practice preparing Italian cuisine. From there I went south to Siena for the Palio, a famous horse race. What a crazy event. I've never seen so many people so deeply involved in an event. The race itself only lasts about 2 minutes, but the build-up goes on for hours. We arrived around 11am for the 7pm start. The parade started around 4, with each of the contradas (sections of town competing against each other) presenting their best armor, weapons and flag twirlers. Some pretty remarkable acts. At 7 all the horses come out onto the track and start to line up. They get randomly placed in the starting gate and all start making deals with each other, bribing each other to slow down their enemies and help out their friends. When everyone is lined up, the 10th jockey can choose to start the race whenever he likes, based on the positioning of the other horses, which ones are ready and which are not. Once he starts, there is often a false start, which I think happens when one of the other horses starts too soon, or something. Anyway, with much prancing around and jostling for position and three false starts, the race ended up happening around 9pm. Two minutes later the Owl contrada had won, fans rushed the track and the losing horses and jockeys were quickly ushered away so as not to be attacked by the enraged crowd. The crowd is always enraged because the nine losing teams are furious.
I ended up spending a week at Spannocchia, relaxing a bit, making focaccia, meeting the summer intern group and playing quite a lot of ukulele. It was strange to be back, especially in a non-working capacity. It is really a magical place, especially being able to see past the farm politics and drama that started to get to me towards the end of the internship.
I booked a hostel in Rome and ended up staying there for 3 nights and 2 full days. Of course, not nearly long enough to see perhaps the greatest tourist city in the world, but I packed in just about as much as possible. This was the most I felt like a tourist during my whole trip, but it's hard not to feel like a tourist in Rome. At the hostel I immediately met a great group of Brits and Canadians, including another ukulele player. We spent our nights wandering around the Spanish steps area and the Colosseum. Monday we went to the Vatican, which was mind-boggling. St. Peter's is the most lavish building I've ever seen, just unbelievable. The Vatican museum is packed with artifacts from all over the world. They have so many sculptures that they just fill rooms with them, lining all edges and not even labeling anything. It's almost as if they're showing off the vastness of their collection without allowing you to actually appreciate any of it. We spend the rest of the days stopping at the rest of the major sites on our way back across town, the Pantheon, Trevi fountain, etc. Tuesday I wandered around the ancient ruins and had a more reflective day, since it was my last in Italy.
The flight home was remarkably easy, quite a bit smoother than most of the travel I had gotten used to around the Mediterranean. British Airways provided three meals in two flights, so civilized. So now I'm back in Vermont, adjusting to wide roads, huge cars, being able to communicate with everyone I see, individualism and progressivism. I don't plan to continue this blog now that I'm back home, but thanks for reading. It's been a good way to organize and archive my thoughts.
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