On the dark side of the moon

Buongiorno!

Today is day four of being in Italy and I am having a wonderful time! After my long day of travels, I am getting into the routine here. The site, Carsulae, is beautiful. It is only a couple miles from the hotel up a windy road. We are still doing cosmetics to the area we will be putting our units- weeding, moving dirt, etc. It is dirty and exhausting work! But everytime I stand up to stretch my back, I am met with an open view of the valley below and the Italian countryside stretching out around me. Lines of olive trees create grids across the hills and terra cotta roofs stand out again the green.

We wake up at 4:00 am every morning Monday- Friday to be at breakfast at 4:30 am. Breakfast is yogurt, cereal, cheese, jams, toast, crackers, pastries, and fruit with of couse delicious strong Italian coffee and tea. We are in the cars and on site a little after 5:00 am, working by the first light of the day. By 8:30 am, we are ready for our second breakfast at the bar (cafe) where we eat focaccia bread with cheese and tomatoes with our 80 cent cappuccions and sit on the porch under the big umbrellas smelling the lavendar, overlooking the ruins.

By 12:00 pm we are ready to come back where we brush ourselves off and eat lunch at the hotel. Today we had farro, tomato, and cheese salad with gnocchi in a cream sauce with mushrooms and peppers- fantastic. We always have salad and bread with every meal, with lots of olive oil and balsamic.

We take our siesta until 4:00 pm. This is normal in Italy- everything in San Gemini is shut down and closed, people are off the streets, the entire town is quiet. I go on the computer, read outside on one of the many balconies, or nap. From 4:00-6:00/6:30 pm we have lecture or lab. Since we haven't started digging, we've had lectures on GPR, forms, and other general topics.

Dinner is at 7:30 pm and is always delicious. Last night we had the most incredible roast beef that melted in your mouth along with zucchini and red means. And of course, salad and bread. For dessert we had a coffee cake roll thing- Mom you would have loved it!

Last night was also a treat in that there was a concert at Carsulae to honor the lunar eclipse. After dinner, we all piled back into the cars and traveled the familiar road back to our site with the rest of San Gemini. It was the event of the season! There were at least 200 people, if not more, relaxing on the grass a stones throw from where we work everyday. The entertainment was an Italian Pink Floyd tribute band. We sat on the grass with our bottles of wine and plastic cups and listened to the Italian version of Pink Floyd. It was really interesting- not the best cover band I've ever heard, but you have to give them credit.

The venue was amazing. You could see the shapes of the ruins through the darkness, illuminated by the band's lights and the flashes of cameras. The midnight sky was only lit by the zillion stars and the faint moon, eclipsed in red. The mountains were dark outlines against the Italian sky, like a high school drama set, perfect hills rolling in the distance.

Everyone is really friendly- in the program and on the streets. I am trying hard to learn Italian. I basically say hello and thank you a lot, but I can now order my own cappuccino and greet good morning, evening and night. The hotel is lovely and I will post pictures as soon as I can. I think we are taking a day trip this weekend to another country town closer to Tuscany (we are technically in Umbria) and I am excited to see more of the countryside. I miss home and everyone there. I hope everyone is doing well! I will try to remember to post as often as possible. Til then... Ciao!