Well after approximately 13 hours of flight time from Phoenix, to Philadelphia, then to Rome, I finally made it to Orvieto on bus and have been in town for a few days now.
We were driven to campus right from the airport in Rome which took about 2 hours, which I was passed out for, and woke up when we got to our mountain town of Orvieto. We then split up in groups of roommates and set off to our apartments in the city. I live with 4 other guys, Matt, Patrick, Keith and Mike. Four of us are in the same photojournalism class and are journalism majors, so we get along pretty well. Not to mention our fondness of Orvieto wine and it's really not a problem for us to hang out.
The apartment is on a corner right outside the Cathedral where the town usually congregates on the weekends. It's basically the town square. In the picture below, the apartment is the first door on the right.
You have to be careful that cars don't come around the corner and hit you, otherwise you're kinda screwed because they fly right around the corner without looking. Most have been pretty good about braking quickly, but there have been a couple times some of us have had to dive out of the way. Even then, they absolutely beat Tucson drivers.
Once you're in the apartment it's pretty nice. We have a living room, with a small tv, but two couches and a table to sit around. Don't have a picture of it right now, but believe me, it's not that impressive.
We then also have a small kitchen with a small table we don't eat at haha. We cook sometimes, but we don't even eat that much since we are so busy around the city, and doing class stuff now.
Then we head up some stairs to the second floor to my room which I share with one of my roommates. Small beds, about military cot size, and stiff as boards, but they do the trick.
Again, no need to see the stairs and bedroom. It's small and uncomfortable. On the real tho, the pictures wouldn't load up to the net, so if I ever get them up ill show em.
We also have a nice patio where we sit, drink wine, and fight off swarms of mosquitoes that haven't made it into the house yet.
After checking out the house we headed out to see our new city and took cameras with us. The terrain is all cobble stone really, and it makes it for a tough run. I went running a couple of times in the morning, and it takes a toll on your feet. Not to mention the uphill running which works out your entire lower body.
The alleys are pretty narrow, and although they look small, cars can fit through there. No sedans or SUVs here, every car is super small and fits through anything. They even go through the alleys with lots of people walking through them.
We go through this daily to get to our internet spot, the Blue Bar where the french owner speaks english and gives us dap hahaha. We get everything for cheap there, and we can sit and use the internet until the place closes.
As you can see the owner in the white opening, we had already been outside using the internet for about an hour before he opened. Matt is sitting there writing to his GF probably.
This is the daily nuisance we have to put up with on the daily. Loud, obnoxious and it just sounds like there is a group of people beating the crap out of it.
Comment at the bottom, say hello and let me know what you're up to! I'll try to upload more pictures to facebook and on here as i'm able to find internet fast enough to do it. Hopefully, I can also upload videos soon, but with only slow internet available in Orvieto, it's pretty hard to do so. Oh well, off to Rome this friday!
Arrivederci!
- Eddie Law
