Friday Friday, Gotta get down on Friday!!!!

What a view!

As you know, our school offers field trips every Friday for us students to attend.  The first one I am going to talk about is Civita Bagnoregio.

Saw this along our hike...along with an abandon bath!

Civita Bagnoregio was founded by Etruscans over twenty-five hundred years ago (as with every other city we visit), but has seen its population dwindle to just FIFTEEN residents over the course of the 20th century!  The city is falling off the edge of the cliff, literally!  This “island” eroding is now only accessible by a long narrow bridge by foot and mopeds- no cars!  It has recently become a tourist site because its freaking awesome!  This city sits atop a plateau, which is why its population varies from 12 to 100 people, so crazy!  I’m not surprised that it’s on the Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites, because its erosion and unregulated tourism!

To begin, we got there bright and early and started our journey up the long narrow bridge to explore the town, after our short time in the city center, we followed our advisor, Massimo, on a off path hike through hills, creeks, caves, bushes and muddy ponds of Civita Bagnoregio.  After about 1.5 hours, we finally were able to relax on of the edge of a random steep cliff, then headed back from the exhausting journey!

Before I was feeling the burn....literally.

The following morning, took the bus to Tarquinia beach (with black/grey sand!) resulting in a very painful weekend for me, I was stupid and didn’t use sunscreen- I mean how strong could the sun in April be...I got the absolute worst sun burn of my entire life and am still paying for it.  Never has my skin ever gotten that bad, I even missed school because I couldn’t walk and had to get medicated burn cream- MISERABLE!!!!!

Hand Painted....NBD

A week later, my legs still red as can be , I went to another FRIDAY FIELD TRIP (whoo hoo!!) This one wasn’t as cool, but I’ll just talk about it anyways!  We went to the town of Caprarola to Palace Farnese, three words- Alice in Wonderland.  This palace had magnificent paintings and a garden- OMG this garden was super neat , one could tell royalty lived there.  There were mazes, fountains, statues, rose bushes, and it was such a beautiful day out too which added to it all!

RIGHT after Massimo tricked us

But, our trickster advisor Massimo told us to stand in a little gazebo, wondering why we are standing there- water SHOT up from the ground on us!  Massimo is laughing his head off as we see our tour guide turning the water off! So funny- Iva was confused thinking she lost control of her bladder and started peeing- I thought it was refreshing- supposedly the cardinal played this trick on many friends- and of course Massimo played it on us!

Feather Hats!

After that, I had a very relaxing weekend filled with running, cooking, shopping and studying!

S/N This year has been 150 years of official Independence for Italy, and a famous marching band has been traveling around the Lazio region (where I reside) and came to Tuscania, I saw them perform, and their outfits looked like those in the Harry Potter Movie the Goblet of Fire when Hogwarts plays host to a legendary event: the Triwizard Tournamet…anyways the guys who were in the band were wearing hats with feathers on it!

They were ALL STARING at me, it was kind of creep

S/N 2- I have started running again since my sunburn and allergies or sickness has gotten somewhat better, and the other day I was running and distracted the cute dogs herding the sheep, gotta love living in Italy!

S/N3- I noticed all Italians fold their side view mirrors inwards, and it just occurred to me why.  I'm not sure if you are all informed, but Italians are seriously CRAZY-INSANE drives, and the mirrors would be knocked right off the car if they didn't fold them in.  Their parking is those of only wack jobs and their speeding and passing cars is something of another kind- Just pointing out the fact that if they drove they do here but in America- fights, brawls and crashes would occur!

BTW only 4.5 weeks left! I am beginning to realize home is where the heart and love is, and true friends and family!

Another Day another Adventure!!
Ciao Ciao!!

p.S I love my mom and dad very much for sending me a GRANDE package filled with peanut butter, pancake syrup, flying saucers, Swedish fish, watermelon, chewy bars and MUCH MUCH MORE!!! :) :)

Love you Frank and Moe :)

Also THANK YOU SOO MUCH Jean for sending me a package with socks and Laffy Taffys' and a sweet wonderful card!!

Now I don't have to re-wear the 8 pairs of sock I have 2-3 times each! (dont judge- Im in college, and in Italy! :p)

I am SOOO blessed and thankful to have such caring people in my life!

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 Miss and Love you all! <3