Oh, That Guy Gets Horns!!

This past Saturday, Megan, Kate, and I, despite our lack of sleep, decided to wake up early to go to the Arezzo antique fair.  It happens on the first weekend of every month and, since we are not too familiar with traveling around Italy yet, we decided this would be a great first opportunity to go somewhere on our own since it’s fairly close.  That being said, we had planned on leaving Santa Chiara at 7:45 to be early to the train station so we could catch the 8:27 train to be early to the antique fair.  Of course we left ten minutes late and were rushing to buy our train tickets without being able to understand the language.  Can you say “stressful”?  It certainly was an experience buying round trip tickets, but thankfully there was a girl there who spoke English who helped us out.  It was now 8:26 and the next train wouldn’t come for an hour so when we saw a train approaching what we hoped was the correct track, we ran for it.  I suppose it could have been an adventure to get on the wrong train, but we somehow managed to just make it onto the correct one and were soon on our way to Arezzo.  Personally, I’m glad we got there so early.  When we arrived, we saw a few vendors setting up their wares on the main street so we thought maybe the fair just went up the main street to the Piazza.  How wrong we were.  Every junction we came to just opened up more directions for us to go, each with rows upon rows of tables.  There were fur stoles, jewelry of all shapes, sizes, and age, chinawear, typewriters, telephones dating back to the turn of the century, fantastic furniture, anything you wanted, all you had to do was take the time to search and it was there.  Some of the pieces were obviously junk but then others were precious metals or stones, amulets, broaches, name brand clothing.  Down one of the less crowded alleyways, I spotted something that looked familiar - a yad.  

There were actually two silver pointers, one with a large star on it.  Throughout the day, I also found a silver and jade-encrusted grager as well as another yad and a besamim shaker for havdalah.  Asside from that, I found a bunch of lighters (several marked Ronson though I think only one was actually legitimate) which would have probably been scoffed at by my father, masks  and mechanical banks that resemble some of my mothers’, porcelean dolls that probably would have appealed to my sister, as well as crystal and glass chandelier pieces.  If you have ever been to my house, you know that it is filled with each of our various collections as well as a lot of crystal, so, pretty much, this antique fair was just a super-extension of my home.  One of my favorite things was the writing desks with their leather  surfaces, inlay designs, and clandestinely concealed triggers which would open unseen drawers.  As we were ogling a table full of telephones, a drumming suddenly filled the air, soon joined by trumpeting.  We didn’t think much of it until we realized that people were clearing the road for a sort of procession in which there were drummers, trumpeters, soldiers, what I can only assume to be council men, flag-bearers, and five women, all clad in medieval garb.  They passed by us in what we thought was just a parade until they walked into the courtyard of the city’s government building.  Noticing that all of the Italians were following them inside, we decided to join in and while we didn’t understand what this ceremony was in the least bit, I am so glad we went.  People were clearly being honored, though for what, I am unsure.  

medieval ceremony in the town square

The drums would announce the honorees, each of which wore a bandana with a certain design, matched by one of the five flags, while other members wearing that bandana would cheer.  We were clearly the only Americans there but it seemed to be some sort of special experience for the Italians as well.  The ceremony ended which meant lunch time before nap time.  

Kate, Me, and Megan with our pizza

I got margarita pizza (what we typically call “cheese pizza” in the states but so so so much better) and then I tried potato which was also pretty good.  The guy behind the counter seemed to really like us because we kept asking him how to say things in Italian and then he gave us free cookies when we left.  Hands-down, favorite pizza place in Arezzo.  Though we certainly did not see all of the antique fair, we definitely got to see most of it, and certainly more than most people who took some of the later trains.  

Sunday was also a ton of fun.  Not wanting to just sit in Santa Chiara like most people, Megan, Katie, Kelsey, and I decided we wanted to walk across the valley and up our neighboring mountain to take a look at its adorning castle.  Might I just reiterate that every day, I see a castle out of my bedroom window?!?  It only took us an hour or so and it was not really that fantastic because apparently some old crazy lady lives in the castle and doesn’t like visitors so you can’t really see or get inside at all but it was still a ton of fun to walk there.  Plus, every other step we took just brought us higher and showed us a more impressive view of the valley and a look back at our own little town.  If I had had my rock climbing shoes with me, I might have seriously contemplated scaling the wall but, probably for the best, I restrained myself to just trying to look through cracks in the door. 

Kelsey, Megan, and Catie on our way up the hill with our valley behind them

Most of the walk back was spent taking photos and attempting to make olive branch crowns because, of course, we were walking past olive groves the whole time.  I wound up wearing an olive branch tucked into my hair the rest of the night.  Though dinnertime was fast approaching, I had yet to buy a Gelato, or even taste one no less so when we passed a Gelateria, we decided it was about time.  Honestly, I prefer spoons.  Don't get me wrong, it was good, but I think I'll just stick to probiotic yogurts.  Sunday night (well, actually Monday morning), of course was the superbowl.  Had it not been 12:30 in the morning and had I not been in a bar with a bunch of people smoking, and had there been the proper commercials, I probably would have enjoyed it a bit more.  As is, I stayed until the pick at the beginning of the fourth quarter and called it a night, it being 3:30 already.

Monday was the day that I started my stone carving class.  It's going to be awesome. My professor, Alberto Burri, is 81, can’t speak a word of English, and is probably the most gifted stone carver yet primitive painter I have ever seen.  His carvings are absolutely incredible, the most impressive of which is his world record setting stone chain.  It isn’t just like metal where the links are bent to connect inside each other.  This all comes from one single block of stone, around 12 feet tall and probably 3 feet in diameter, just to make a chain with 5 in long links.  It’s just unbelieveable.  Besides that, he has also done stuff like make a working tricycle, a guillotine, functioning grain machines, coats of arms, fireplaces; pretty much anything you can imagine and then some.  I’m really excited.  He has chisels and hammers made specifically just for us so we can take those, plus of course whatever we make, home with us.  I think that is going to be so much fun plus there’s a good group of people doing it so we’ll get along well and have fun.  

Other than that, I've been playing some ping pong and poker, most notably last night when my opponent went all in, I called (because I was just ready to go to sleep), but then completed a straight on the river to win the pot (20 Euro).  The guys were not too happy with that but I had a ton of fun which is really what matters, right??

I went to Florence again today, I'll post some sketches and write about that experience later but now it is time for sleep so until next time,

Ciao e a dopo,

Becca