DAY 71: Quit MONKeyin' around

Blond Voyage is HALF OVER! Holy Hallucinogens did that fly by? Where'd it go? What have I done these last 2.5 months? Haha, A LOT. Let us recap:
-Gale-force winds on Cliffs of Mohr- Ennis and Connolly drive-by's- Pint-O-Guinness castle parties with cops in Dublin, Ireland.
-Lost & Found in Ashford- Training Day in Oxford-"Wicked" time in SoHo-London, England
-Macarooning and Swooning to jazz and Manet, the Parisian way- Frog legs, hold the mustard in Dijon- Family time in Marseille- Chickpea pancakes and sailin' with Cap't Jack Sparrow in Nice, France.
-Cocktails with Dolce & Gabanna in Milan- Hot chocolate in Torino- Running through the Alps and pizza parties in Graglia, Italy.
-Class excursions in Venice, Ravenna, Florence, Rome, Corciano, Assisi, Perugia, Cinque Terre, Arezzo and Cortona involving fabulous gelato, dance parties to the max, best pasta of my life... oh yeah, and some art... what am I forgetting???  PHEW! What a wonderfully witty, worldly wack-job I've become!

Today we took a day trip from the villa in Corciano  (in case you were confused as to where I presently reside...) to Arezzo and Cortona... first off, Arezzo: about an hour away, via the short bus... our main chore was to admire Piero della Francesca's frescos from the 1450's (roughly) in a ministry. Of upmost importance were the Flatulation of Christ, errr, the Flagellation of Christ (he may be holy, but everyone has gas)... P. Fran was known (in my book) for painting emotionless blank stares with zero depth, horse hooves that were too tiny, even for Bryer figurines, and people who shaved their foreheads (sign of beauty back then!)... suffice to say, I was overwhelmed with a peculiarly familiar feeling of... yawn. Not much can compare to Florence and Rome, and since our history portion has basically ended, I've pretty much checked out. After "The Harv" almost got kicked out of the church for the 23rd time this trip, we walked to another church where "Stevey" was tuning the pipe organ, and just as "The Harv" began to talk about the altar piece, Phantom of the Opera blared through the old Romanesque church. Spiders raced up my spine as we all turned to see "Stevey" having a little fun with his audience. "The Harv" yelled either "Bach Concerto!" or "Rock from the Quattrocento (14th c.)!" in his "Name That Tune" episode. I stood and watched the little man crawl all over the huge organ, creating pure magic- absolutely made my day... I doubt I'll forget that moment, standing in a big, empty, candle-lit church with natural acoustics, listening to one of the greatest pieces of music ever written. Unfortunately we only had a short time in the cute little town, full of unique shops and restos before we had to continue with the agenda...

Back on the bus to Cortona (where Under the Tuscan Sun was filmed with Diane Lane- hearts) where "Conga'" gave us an architectural photo assignment (mine was roof tiles). We arrived, took photos for an hour- I performed some Cirque Du Soleil worthy acrobatics to crawl up walls and fences to capture my subject matter... we all met up for lunch, which is always a terrible idea to cram 18 people into a tiny cafe for a meal... we got ripped off on anti pasta platters that we were to share, with barely enough food to keep a bird alive... "The Harv" was especially ticked off, so he led us to Snoopy's gelatoria to make up for lack of substance... and the schnoz berries tasted like schnoz berries! We hung out in the sunshine for a while longer and the group started to lose focus... the only difference between a group of college kids and Kindergarteners is that college kids are taller. They don't grow up, they just get taller... attention spans had diminished even though we had one more stop: a Monastery (with real monks!)... it was a beautiful and peaceful place with a small river flowing through the center... I could have fallen asleep on the bridge, listening to the water flow and birds sing... apparently it was a big Spring Break destination for St. Anthony the Great.

Nap time was challenged on the bumpy bus ride back to Corciano... we arrived in time for dinner- Tuscan Bean soup with noodles and pork chops with soupy mashers. I dream about my Jack La Lanne juicer at home... I don't even know what raw food taste like anymore! Except for my daily vitamin C brought to me by blood orange trees... have I mentioned my obsession with this phenomenon? A-mazing... more from Camp Italia tomorrow- ciao!