Saturday, April 21, 2007

Back to the future...

Ok, my chronology is ALL outta whack, but that's ok! I'm now going to travel backwards in time, my friends. Observe and be amazed as I go from Easter... to an entire week BEFORE Easter!

Really quick, though... Double-you tee eff is up with photobucket? My pictures are starting to be less displayed, and more... implied. Oh well, I'll fix that later.

So, anyway, here we are, on April 1stish. We wake up bright, early, soon, and in the devilishly wee hours of the morning to head out to Orvieto. We get on the bus, I scream "17!!!" (Rome inside joke), and we're on our way. 1st stop: I don't remember the name, but it was the first church that St. Thomas Aquinas was assigned to. It even had the same Crucifix as it did then, though it was a little worse for the wear. Check the church:

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And it wasn't just brick facing, either!

So from there, we moved on to the Cathedral. I... don't remember what was PARTICULARLY special about the Cathedral, short of the fact that it was big and decorative, and all of the thing that Romans need to survive. Also, it looked really cool in the sunrise.

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Great picture, Joe!!

So we explored there, I stopped in a shop for a split... then we had lunch! But before we could have lunch, we needed one minor thing... see, Orvieto is known for it's white wine. It's true; you can ask anyone. So Liz, Megan, Bebop, Rock Steady and I all went to a quaint little shop for some quaint little alchohol. We got one (sigh) bottle, and started wandering around looking for a place to eat. We rounded a corner, and saw this:

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How's THAT for a view during a picnic?!

And actually, there was a little wall for us to sit on, so we set up.

Oh, by the way, Sarah Daley is Bebop and Sarah Berger is Rock Steady. I decided during that very picnic that those are their names. I'd be all "Hey, Sarah." And they'd both be all "Yeah?" and DUN DUN DUNN music would play in the background. I had to fix it.

I don't like dun dun dunn music.

Right, so we had a lunch of rice cakes, crackers, cheese, bread, salami and wine. It was quite quality! We finished our one (sigh) bottle of wine quickly, then Bebop and Rock Steady wandered away. But not before Bebop got a shot off:

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It's like I said on Facebook: What an incredible view!! And I don't mean the mountains... ;)

Nor do I mean the girls.

Actually, I can't backup my ego right now... I need a haircut so badly. I almost got Bobby to cut it, but Kyle talked me out of it. We're toughing through the entire semester without a single haircut. It's... rough. As you can see.

So then, we started walking... I was fascinated by some barred-off caves and was yelling into them until Liz quipped "Oh yeah, I remember them saying something about an underground sewer system..."

And then the smell came.

Needless to say, I cheesed it outta there as fast as my ankle would carry me! Which, it turns out, is pretty fast when faced with such an adversary! During our tactical retreat, we came apoun another scenic outlook, and Megan ran towards the dangerous ledge with a carelessness that would give the Easter bunny a heart attack.
I, having a slightly stronger heart than the Easter bunny, snapped a shot.

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I almost feel bad for pushing her.

Heh, just kidding. I don't feel bad.

As we continued our walk (during which I leapt over the cliff, as you all have seen), we searched for Liz's street. See, when we were waiting outside the church, we started looking at our maps, and realized that Liz has a street named after her in Orvieto! Viale Carducci. So we just HAD to find it, just HAD to. After talking to a crazy old Italian man, who APPERENTLY pointed us in the right direction, we found it!

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I had my suspicions that it wasn't REALLY named after her, but I kept them to myself.

Finally, it was time to go, so I went to another scenic outlook.
What? The Akers are ALWAYS late!

Actually, it was right by the station anyway, but looking at the opposite side of the valley. Also, it was a cool picture with the birds.
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I shot SO many birds.

Ok, so, that's the Orvieto trip. My next post will most likely be about Capri, unless I've forgotten another event in my life. We'll see. Oh, and yes, Mom, I made it to Capri!

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Old Italian guys talking on a park bench: Priceless. Especially when I photoshop it to make it look 70 years old. Isn't that just an instantly classic picture?

Ciao!
--Hich

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love that you shot that picture of the Italian men. That's local color at its best! Reminds me of my trip to Japan when I kept taking pictures of all the cute children.

6:26 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ummmm. About the haircut . . . Are you going to come home with a pony tail??

6:30 PM  
Blogger Scarcely Human said...

My hilarious mother, ladies and gentlemen.

No, mom, I won't come home with a ponytail. BRAIDS are the way to go!! Or, how about just dreads? Yeah, I can just not wash my hair for the rest of the week, then roll 'em on the plane! Is that what you want?

Look, Kyle and I are just toughing it out to see how bad our hair can get. Of course, he can pull it off a LOT better than I can... but since when have I backed down from a challenge?!

3:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's true...Joe does not easily back down from any challenge. I can attest to that! =)

12:27 PM  
Blogger MDHichborn said...

Joe, I haven't read your post yet, but I will ... But right now, you have a final obligation to perform while in Rome. Go, RIGHT NOW ... as in stop reading and get your butt over there ... to La Cisterna. It's a resteraunt that sits right on top of an old Roman prison, and after dinners there, they serve you (free of charge) a glass of 200 year old wine.

So you go now!!!

RIGHT NOW!!!!!

9:11 AM  

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