Orientation and Southern Lazio

After three and a half weeks of living with host families and school, it was time to give the students the chance to get away and talk about their first experiences. The students wanted to know how to say no to food, as in the families are serving them three course dinners each and every night. The answer: don't snack so much around 7PM if dinner is at 8PM, pace yourself and if you're full leave food on your plate. If you clean your plate your host Mom thinks you're still hungry. Plus the whole pushing food onto you is part of the game each Italian kid has to play so our kids have to play as well.

One other funny thing is why do most Italian families insist on wearing shoes in the house. In the US, it's all about not getting the floor dirty with your outside shoes. In Italy, if a host Mom sees your dirty feet of socks, it's a sign of her lack of ability to clean her floor. These were questions that students were asking and mostly laughing about, but it gave us a chance for us as a staff to give them some perspective on how to live with their families this year.

But, of course, living in Italy, it's living history. Orientation was a three day, two night excursion to a beach resort in Southern Lazio, about halfway between Rome and Naples. This being the end of September, the crowds were gone, beaches uncrowded and weather perfect. First stop: Terracina!

Terracina, the first of the three towns going south is watched over by the remains of the Temple of Jupiter Anxur which celebrated the child-god. Here's a model of what it probably looked like.

This is the set of arches which served as the base upon which the temple was constructed.

In the arches

One of the few walls that remain of the temple.

In Italy, obituaries are not published. Instead, they are posted in public areas in a town.

My 13 advisees pictured at dinner

In addition to host family discussions, we had sessions about wellness, drug and alcohol issues as well as the ubiquitous role plays.

Sunrise at the beach

Students swimming at 645AM

I did too.

The second days sightseeing took us to Sperlonga. We ate in the old city and then walked down to the beach.

Here's a photo for my Italian Men on benches series.

Great food at all times, but this fried fish dish was the highlight.

Every students in the program is required to take Latin. Here we have a dramatic reading on the beach.

Yes, yes, the stereotype is alive and well.

Here is Odysseus slaying the Cyclops. This statue is a reconstruction of one that in the 1st Century AD that was a part of....

...thhe Roman Emperor Tiberius' grotto. At the end of the beach in Sperlonga, is a cave, in which Tiberius built a set of pools and little stands for art.

The circular pool inside the cave.

Looking out from inside the grotto with Sperlonga in the distance.

The remnants of one of the stands up one which the sculptures were placed.

Over the entrance of the cave is the statue of Ganymede, the sandal bearer.

I had to take a picture of this sign. I laughed and asked one of the Italian teachers what this was about. She asked the vendor and he said that because the prosciutto used was thicker and heavier, it made the pizza flatter and less puffy. Sometimes, the English language can be used so much better by non-native speakers.

The third and southernmost town in our excursion is Gaeta.

Gaeta's harbor was home to a NATO port, but recently has been turned over to the US and houses the US Navy's Sixth Fleet. Notice the booms that protect the ship from attack.

In Gaeta is the Montagna Spaccatta. Just like most of my experience so far, I didn't have any clue what we were going to see, and this is what we got. Spectacular!

These are the people and places in my neighboorhood

I've been here just over 5 weeks and am settling in for the year. These are people and places that are a part of my life.

Viterbo-Porta Romana Station

Trenitalia leaves every hour (every other hour on weekends) for Rome and the entire journey takes about an hour and 45 minutes because it's a local train and stops 15 or so times.

Generic looking architecture...

....houses a new pool. It opened in the past two years. The pool is outside the walls about a 15 minute walk from my apartment.

The cafe I go to each and every morning at 630AM. Often I'm the first customer of the day.

The proprietor, Massimo, is a master of customer service. He knows everyone's drink and says hello to everyone and is sincere. I don't even need to order anymore. I walk in, am handed my chocolate croissant and my morning has started.

Right now, my Italian is lacking, but I find that I learn most by reading the sports page. I can figure out what's going on in the pictures and then read the captions and learn words that way. By the way, steroid in Italian is, "steroid."

My morning habit. Massimo puts chocolate in my drink every morning. I get the caffe latte and then he squirts chocolate sauce, always in some funny picture. The seltzer water is key as it cleanses the palate after all that sweetness.

This is my bakery of choice. It's closed for the afternoon, like most stores in Italy.

Fruits and Vegetables!

Here's the inside of my local fruit and vegetable shop.

The owner is nicknamed "the jeweler." Why?

Because he doesn't let you touch the produce. He's such a charming man and is patient with me to teach me the names of all the produce. I can now go in there and do all my shopping in Italian and it's not even a stretch. He's also really good and getting me to buy more than I originally ask for.

The wine store is simply 12-15 vats of wine. You can taste test.

The choice is made.

Full bottle (which lasts me about two and a half weeks as I have one class a night and its watered down) is 1.70 Euro ($3)

Gigi and Mena's is my meat guy. Mena is his wife.  FYI, their son, Alessandro is best friends with Italian Serie A, national team defenseman AND Viterbese, Leonardo Bonucci.

Here's Gigi. He too is all about the charming customer service. My only problem here is that I can't get my porchetta and pancetta. I always want the former (ham) but ask for the latter (bacon). Every time, I get it wrong.

But Gigi's specialty is for me, his sausage.

We take our recycling and trash to bins that are located every few blocks. It's hard NOT to drink bottled water here as it's so inexpensive and the variety is incredible. The grapefruit soda isn't yellow, but made from real grapefruits. Yum.

This is my cheese and yogurt guy. Don't know his name yet, but we do the Italian thing too.

I have tasted fresh yogurt for the first time. A revelation as the cultures almost leave a burning sensation but is unbelievably addictive.

Here's my chosen gelateria. I am systematically trying each flavor. But as it has become fall, they've cut their choices in half. I wasn't done.

One of my two grocery stores. It's where I go to buy museli and bottled drinks and cookies, etc. The other grocery store I go to is called, get this, Emmy Piu.