My Explorations

In the last few days I have done a bunch of exploring; first of the small town of Corciano which is within walking distance, then of Perugia which requires some driving/training. I walked to Corciano a few times (I deserve a medal for willingly walking up that hill several times) and explored a bit of the town, attempted to talk to some locals but my Italian is still lacking severely (I can successfully say my name is Michaela and nice to meet you though). 

 Looking out of Corciano at the greenery below.

Sunset over Perugia? (whichever town that was it was beautiful)

Yesterday we all went to Perugia for the day to do some learning at the Archeological Museum and get to know the city. Rossa (she runs the Villa) gave us great tour of an old church, we were allowed places most people aren't because of her connections. The paintings and sculptures were amazing along with the history that went with them. Next we ate lunch which was fantastic, we had pizza I'm not sure I'll be able to accept american pizza anymore. Then we were off to the Archeological Museum which was quite fantastic. We saw a lot of etruscan pieces of art ranging from ceramics to elaborate pieces of jewelry. We spent a few hours there looking at all the various pieces and then headed to the city center to explore. There was a flea market going on so there were many people walking the streets and sidewalks. I learned a valuable lesson about being in large crowds in a foreign country but luckily the pickpockets were not successful. Also I've come to realize that we must have an invisible beacon surrounding us marking us as vulnerable but I'm going to do my best to extinguish that beacon. Any way here are some pictures from yesterday.

The outside of the church.

Some awesome ceiling paintings.

More awesome ceiling paintings.

The garden outside of the Archeological Museum.

Adorable little sculptures.

More tiny sculptures, they're like little army men.

I love the ceramic pieces with the gesso for the details.

Another small figure.

I really loved the pose made by this ceramic piece.

A street in Perugia, I apologize for the random Italian in the shot.

This water fountain has three women (goddesses?) standing in a circle spouting the water, its absolutely beautiful and I love these pictures with it silhouetted.

More gorgeous water fountain.

The fountain was right next to this church and I watched the wedding come out, it was a beautiful day for a wedding.

Today I packed away all my things for Sicily and Rome. We leave tomorrow morning for the airport at Rome then fly to Sicily. We are there until the following Monday then we fly to Rome for the rest of the week. I will not have my computer with me on the excursions as space is limited in my bag of things so I most likely won't be able to post about the amazing places I'm going until I get back to the Villa. 

Ciao!

The first few days in Italy

So I arrived in Italy I guess only yesterday though it seems to have been ages ago already. The flights I had to take to get me here started on Sunday afternoon and were not very pleasant as sleeping was impossible due to small children crying.  The bus ride to Perugia was long, as much as I wanted to stay awake for it to see the sights of Rome and the country side it was impossible. We arrived at the Villa Pieve finally and I could not wait to get some much needed sleep, but alas we still had to unpack and eat dinner. Having not eaten all day the food tasted amazing or maybe it was just that good. We came across a litter of 5 stray kittens which can only be about 3 weeks old. Pictures of them on this blog are inevitable so you better like kittens. Finally the time for sleep came and it was glorious.

Today I learned how to order gelato in Italian (which is a very useful skill in Italy) and explored the town of Corciano which is only a short (very uphill) walk from the villa. If memory serves correct the town is over 500 years old so there is a lot of cool history, architecture, and art to marvel at. Next to the villa is a castle that one day I hope to explore.

There are small walkways all around the Villa I intend to explore more in-depth when I have time.

 A town the Villa overlooks, I don't remember the name of it currently.

 Corciano, how cute is it!

 The stray cat was posing for us, they're everywhere and quite friendly.

 The church bell tower as it rang 5 o'clock .

The lovely castle that the Villa sits next to.