Two months and still ticking

Canal leading to Lake Garda in Peschiera del Garda

Another month has flown by, and I’m sorry for not keeping my blog posts frequent. I’ve been in Italy for 2 months now, but it’s felt like more. Time really does get away from you, and I’m not really sure where to begin for this next blog entry. I’ve done so much in the last month, with classes starting, and several trips. Classes started in end of September/ beginning of October. I started out taking Archeology of the Landscape, Speleology, and Sedimentology and Stratigraphy. The first week of classes I only went to the archeology class, because the geology department didn’t start until the following week. But I’ve since dropped that class, for several reasons. One, it met at the same time as speleology on Friday, which I really wanted to take. Two, the professor rarely used PowerPoint, and mainly just talked (in Italian), so it was very hard to follow the lecture. Three, the exam would be an oral exam in Italian based off of articles that were impossible to find. So, I’ve since picked up a General Linguistics class, which is very neat, and the professor is much more entertaining and his Italian is much easier to follow. My sed/strat class consists of about 30 people, but I’ve only chatted with a few of the other students. (They all are Italian, so I’ve been a little nervous to approach them and chat in Italian.) The professor is great. He lectures in Italian, but due to the nature of the science, many of the words used to describe geological structures are in English, so I am able to follow very easily. Also, many of the charts and diagrams used in lecture are in English. Lecture is two hours, and to keep us on our toes, he gives the class a 10 minute “pausa” after the first hour has passes. During that time, he typically will come up to me as ask “tutto bene?” basically to make sure I’m following everything he is saying. Or if I don’t understand something that he mentioned during the lecture, I can ask him, and he will explain it in English. Sometimes, he will even throw out the English translation of something he is lecturing about to make sure I’m caught up with the class. My other class is speleology, which is taught by your stereotypical older Italian professor. Speleology is the science behind caves, which basically dips into all forms of science. The class is small, with me and two other students, which works to my benefit because it is almost like having a private tutor and I can ask questions if I don’t understand something during the lecture. This professor also lectures in Italian, but is able to speak English. Both of my exams for my geology classes will be orals, but in English. Yes.

View from hostel in Trento


A river runs through it, Trento

I’ve also been on a few trips during October; the first was to the Alto-Alpines, which is the western end of the Dolomites. There were eight of us that went to Trento, a lovely town in this area of the Dolomites. But only six of us stayed the night. We were: Maria (German), Emily (English), Kasia (Scottish), Carlos (Spanish), Maarten(German), Chris (English), Declan (Scottish) and myself the American. We got there just around lunch time, but instead of eating right away, we found the hostel and checked in. The six of us that stayed the night (all minus Kasia and Declan) shared a huge room and only had to pay 16euro each. The hostel was very nice; it was clean, had a bathroom in the bedroom, a nice view, and breakfast the next morning. After we checked in, we ventured our way to the town’s castle, and grabbed lunch along the way. We spent the better part of the day in this castle, and once we were done we headed to the river with individual bottle of Prosecco and fruit. A little after the time came for Declan and Kasia to leave, we decided to pack up too. It was a good decision, because just as we were going up the steps away from the river it started to pour! We ran back to the hostel and all napped until it was time to grab dinner.

The gang with castle in background, Trento

The next day, we left Trento and went to Pescheira del Garda on Lake Garda, which is south on the way back to Bologna. On our way into town from the train station we found a little shop that was selling rotisserie chickens, so we bought two to make a picnic lunch. Further in town we got bread, cheese, tomatoes, and we had fruit left over from the night before, and set up camp on the end of a dock on the lake. While eating our amazing lunch, we got the idea to rent a motor boat, if it didn’t cost too much. And it didn’t! We rented a boat for an hour and drove around a very small section of the lake for 9 euro each. Not bad. After, we did a bit of the town, and headed back to Bologna.

Sometime during the end of September/ beginning of October I befriended a group of German guys that are all doing internships at Lamborghini. Yes, you read that correctly, Lamborghini, as is very nice, expensive, fast cars. I spent most of the past weekends with my friends and the Lamborghini guys out and about, and I even went to see an Opera with one of them. I went to see La Boheme for 10 euro, and it was absolutely fantastic.

Verona's Roman Coliseum

I also went to Verona with a group of 12, which was a lot of fun. We again, took an early train and got there just in time for lunch. Well, actually before lunch, but we had to wait for Chris and Carlos, who missed the first train, and took the one the following hour. Verona was beautiful. It’s known for being the setting of Romeo and Juliette, and it still has the famous “Juliette’s Balcony”, which I personally think is a bunch of hokus-pokus because Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliette. Yes, the two family really did exist, but I’m pretty sure not in the sense of the way Shakespeare made it out to be. There is also an intact Roman theater, which is still used to this day for Operas and Concerts in the summer.


Chestnut's roasting on an open fire, Verona's Saturday Open-air Market

I feel like I’ve done a lot more during this past month, and I’m sure I have, but I just can’t seem to remember it at this moment. But now, onto a new month, with new adventures, and hopefully more frequent blog posts!!

The river of Verona