Half-full or half-empty?

Today marks the exact halfway point of my semester abroad. If you look to the left, you'll see that I have two countdowns on my page: one for how long we have been here, and one for how long until it's time to head home. Today, they say "I've been gallivanting across Europe for 1 month & 3 weeks" and "1 month & 3 weeks til home sweet home :)".

So, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Do I think the glass is half-full or half-empty? Weeelll.. neither. This halfway mark is just a fact. [Side note: My answer to the half-full or half-empty question has always been "Well.. both. Two halves make a whole, so the glass must be both half-full and half-empty." Duh. ;) ] I've kind of gotten really used to just being here, and the whole excited "Oh my gosh, I'm in Italy!" feeling has kind of worn off, especially since I've spent the last couple of weekends just being a bum here in Alba. I've had to keep reminding myself how blessed and lucky I am to be here, because I don't want to lose that sense of appreciation for the experiences I get to have here.

I think the pace that time has been taking so far this semester has been perfect. Looking back, it does seem like time has kind of flown by, but I don't feel like I've been robbed of enjoying any of that time. I also don't really feel like I'm not ready for the semester to end, or like the end is sneaking up on me or anything (this may change as time goes on) - I'm not despairingly missing home right now, but as I've said before, I feel like I'll be quite ready and happy to go home when it comes time. :) I will definitely enjoy seeing my family & friends again (celebrating Christmastime together!! :D), sleeping in my own bed, lounging in hoodies & sweatpants, getting to eat a greater variety of foods again (Mom's cooking, Chipotle, salad bar at Ruby Tuesday's, Teariffic, Mom's cooking, Salsa's, etc.. :P ), and just being back home.

In the meantime, I'm still very much looking forward to the adventures that still await me during the remaining 7 weeks I have here. The rest of this week is going to be pretty chill - today was our longest day, with our 3-hour morning religion class, an Italian test, and 2-hour musicology class. Tomorrow we've got an all-day (translate: no classes!) excursion to Turin for our film class - we're getting a tour of RAI Studios, a film production company, in the morning and then checking out the Cinema Museum in the afternoon. Thursday we still have 3 hours of the religion class, but it's so interesting that I don't view it as a negative thing at all. We also have our Italian class in the afternoon, but we'll just be spending that hour going over the test we took today. I honestly feel like I did pretty well, but we've all experienced that our grades are generally lower than our expectations, so we'll see. I've managed to do pretty well on the last two tests, so I'm not really all that worried.

After classes are over on Thursday, we're on our Fall Break! Ten full glorious days off to do whatever we please. I think all of us are travelling, some more than others. One group of girls is hitting up 3 other countries - Spain, France, & Ireland! Crazy crazy. I don't think I'll be making it out of Italy this semester, but that's completely fine. Italy is the main European country that I've always really really wanted to see, so I guess I picked the right program. ;)

Classes

Classes? What classes? You mean I'm actually studying abroad and not just being a tourist abroad? Haha. That's certainly what it has felt like thus far, and we're practically halfway through the semester!

So our academic calendar here is funny. So far I've only been taking Music in History and Italian 101. The Economics of Wine class has already started and concluded, being just a 3-week course while Professor Don Stabile was here. I didn't take that one, but almost kind of wish I did. The other two classes are Film in Italy and Images in Christianity, both of which just started this past week.

I went into both classes without any real expectations, and I'm glad to say that both are interesting, since I have to deal with 3 consecutive hours of one or the other every Monday - Thursday. The Cinema class though, for whatever reason, is really really hard for me to get through. It's kind of more like a history through cinema class.. it's taught by two professors (whose names I still have yet to remember..) - one goes over the history of the time period (50's - 60's) and shows us clips of Italian movies from that time, while the other introduces a movie at the next class period and we watch the whole thing. It's not that it's uninteresting, I think it's just that the man who goes over the history part has a deep voice, so that in addition to the Italian accent makes it hard for me to catch everything he says and I kind of just zone out. I really really need to try harder to take notes in that class. :/

The Religion class has actually been a pleasant surprise. It's taught by Professor Lingua, the guy who gave us the 3-hour "introduction" to the Cuneo Summer School way back when. That didn't bode wonders for our religion class with him, but both classes that we had this week were absolutely fascinating, in my opinion. The first 2 hours or so of each class was lecture, and then we watched a documentary for the last hour of each class. I took 3 pages of notes on Day 1, and 4 pages on Day 2, even though he was sending us the powerpoint files that he was lecturing from, if that tells you anything about how interesting it was. Our course is going to be broken up into three parts, the first of which focuses on the Shroud of Turin. I think I had heard of it before coming here, but didn't really know what it was.

[To help you figure out what you're looking at, the body image is between the two darker vertical lines that have some triangle/diamond shapes on them (these are from when the Shroud was damaged in a fire in 1532). The top half shoes the backside of the man, with the feet on the top and the head near the middle; likewise, the bottom shows the front of the man, head near the middle & feet near the bottom. You can click on the picture to view it in greater detail.]

What it is is a long, old piece of linen that may or may not be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. There is an image of the front and back of a crucified man on it, and the wounds all match up perfectly with the accounts of Christ's crucifixion in the gospels. There's been a whole bunch of research on it, but there's still so, so much mystery surrounding it. The biggest questions about it are 1) When is it from? & 2) How did the image get there?

This is what they do know: the image is not painted or drawn on, it did not get there from bodily contact (the anatomy of the image is perfect - if the image got there from bodily surface contact, the image would be more skewed), the photographic negative of the Shroud has far more detail (the image on the negative is more like a positive image, aka how one would actually view the subject - this means that if this was created by an insanely detail-oriented artist, he/she was highly skilled in that they were working with an absolutely unfamiliar and unnatural system of shading before photography existed), and the bloodstains are definitely human blood, type AB.

In an attempt to answer question #1, they did a carbon-14 dating test back in 1988, where they sent samples to three different labs around the world, all of whom worked independently and got the same result: It's only from the 14th century - about 1300 years too young. BUT they've discovered since then that the sample used for the test was taken from a corner of the shroud that had been repaired in the 16th century - meaning that if the shroud is from the time of Christ, that particular sample had both portions of 1st century linen and 16th century cotton that had been dyed to match the old linen. Basically they took their sample for the carbon test from the worst possible place ever. This would make sense then that the result was a 14th century date b/c the carbon test works by counting the number of carbon-14 atoms in the sample - the older the sample, the less atoms it has (at least, that's how I understood things from one of the documentaries we watched).

So now, there's no way to get a more accurate date for the shroud unless they do another carbon test, which would involve getting permission from the Cardinal and the Church in general, but the chances aren't very high, since any sample used for a carbon test is destroyed. If the Shroud does turn out to be a holy relic, I'm sure people wouldn't very well appreciate that parts of it have been annihilated, gone forever and all that. Then there's also the question of, if they did get another sample, what possible contaminants might that have from years of handling, moving geographic locations, damage from fires, etc.

All in all, I just find everything about it so fascinating and intriguing. What if it really is the burial shroud of Christ? Just think of all the profound implications that would have! It's pretty crazy. Someone in our class asked what the Catholic Church's stance on the Shroud's authenticity is, and our professor answered that they are currently neutral - they consider the Shroud an icon ("single image created as a focal point of religious veneration"), as opposed to a relic ("object once connected with the body of a saint, martyr, or holy person").

One of the documentaries covered the topic of classical Roman crucifixions in more detail, pointing out that the nails had to go through a bony area near the base of the hand and through the heels in order to be able to support the weight, as opposed to the palms or the front of the feet, as Jesus is often depicted. I thought this was really interesting. It made me curious as to why Jesus is depicted that way in paintings and such, but in general the gruesomeness of it all made Jesus Christ in history that much more.. tangible to me. When I read his stories in the Bible, oftentimes they seem like just that - stories, with Jesus Christ as the protagonist. I don't often think of the Bible as a history book, but I guess it is, right? So now, considering those gory details about crucifixion (how driving the nail through this particular point in the base of the hand, which moves the bones around but does not break them, causes such excruciating pain and turns the thumbs in (the image in the Shroud has the thumbs hidden beneath the hands, one point of evidence supporting the claim that this was a real human victim)) just makes it that much more real what Jesus went through; all that he suffered through for our sins, so that we might have eternal salvation. It makes me appreciate that great gift that much more.

I look forward to learning so much more about the Shroud (look how much I've learned already in two class sessions!) and other acheiropoetai - images not made by human hands, like the Veil of Veronica, & the Image of Edessa, which I don't know anything about - over the course of this class. It's all just so interesting and thought-provoking.

Currently we don't have a field trip scheduled to go see the Shroud of Turin, but I think that would be sooo cool if we got to go do that. Might have to see if it would be possible to go see it anyway just on a day trip to Turin or something. We do have two excursions scheduled for the Film class though, one this coming Wednesday and another at the end of November. This Wednesday we're going in to Turin for the whole day; I don't know what all the day is going to entail, but I think the morning has something to do with film production, and in the afternoon we'll be going to the Cinema Museum, so hopefully that will be pretty cool. Our trip in November I think will be back to Turin for a Film Festival, so that sounds kind of exciting too. If only I could pay more attention and take better notes in that class! Haha.

Florence & Pisa

So I know I was hoping to get my updates about this past weekend up by Monday or Tuesday, but I guess I was just being too optimistic, haha. There's just too many pictures to sort through, sleep to catch up on, oh, & of course classes too, I guess. :P So now it's already Thursday evening and the weekend is here again! I love four day weekends. :)

Now, on this latest adventure:

Chelsea & I left Thursday evening, eager for an amazing weekend trip. We had about 9 hours between leaving Alba and arriving in Florence, so my plan was to have a big dinner that would hold me over for a good chunk of that time. Unfortunately, I forgot about the stick-shift Italian bus that would be taking us from Alba to the train station in Asti, and I'll just say that a big dinner plus the nauseating turbulence on my tummy was a bad combination. And then of course silly Italian train station bathrooms are open only from 6am-9pm, so Chelsea and I ended up brushing our teeth outside by the train tracks with our water bottles. It was a rather amusingly unfortunate start to the weekend.

Thankfully the rest of the journey was fairly uneventful. We arrived in Florence around 530 in the morning, tired and sleep-deprived, but still with another hour to wait until our hostel opened, and yet another 9 hours til we could even check into our room. We dropped off our bags and changed at the hostel after it opened, and then we were on our way again, somewhat refreshed adventurers out to explore the lovely city of Firenze.

Our first stop was to see the real Statue of David by Michelangelo at the Accademia Museum. We were among the first in line since it was early and there weren't any reservations available - it was a good thing we got there early, too, cuz that line got looong pretty quick.

This is the only photo I got in the Accademia, because shortly after it was taken I was yelled at by a snippy museum lady. Apparently no photos are allowed, which was pretty lame. It was mostly paintings & sculptures in the Accademia, & there wasn't a whole lot that we found particularly remarkable, but David was absolutely amazing. There was so much detail in the carving, like the veins on his hands and neck, and the statue just looked so smooth and life-like - he really looked like a real person, just giant and made of marble, haha. Chelsea tried to sneak a picture, but the same snippy lady showed up out of nowhere and scolded us again, so we didn't try again after that and just settled for buying postcards of him instead. What I thought was really cool about that exhibit though was that the hallway leading up to David had other sculptures by Michelangelo that were never completed, so it was really neat to be able to compare the rough, partially chiseled blocks of marble or whatever material to a stunningly pristine & magnificent finished product like David.

After the Accademia, we did some more exploring around Florence, stopping by its Duomo (fairly simple decor on the inside, & sooo impressively gorgeous on the outside), the Duomo Museum, & the Ponte Vecchio bridge (not as impressive as I thought it'd be compared to pictures I've seen of it, prolly b/c the water underneath it was kinda greenish brown & murky, but it was still pretty).

The stunningly beautiful outside of the Duomo

 

Prayer candle that I lit inside the Duomo

Makeshift panoramic of a piazza on the way to the Ponte Vecchio bridge

Me in front of a fountain in the piazza

Ponte Vecchio bridge

View from the Ponte Vecchio bridge

Me in front of the Ponte Vecchio bridge on Sunday

 Later in the afternoon we headed back to our hostel for a much-needed shower and rest. Our hostel was really nice; I'm glad that Chelsea found it in her guide. Like I mentioned before, we got a room that was for girls only, a computer was provided in each room, and we had our own private bathroom for the room (which was sooo convenient). The hostel was also neat because its guests could write on the walls. It was cool to see the hostel's history from messages from back in the 90's and by guests from all over - I saw some from Australia & I think even Zimbabwe, haha.

Mine & Chelsea's bunks in the room

Our own convenient (& actually pretty nice) bathroom

Room computer with internet that worked occasionally

Writing in our hallway

 

Saturday morning we took advantage of the free breakfast (made to order and actually really good) & then headed out for Pisa. The whole weekend was definitely amazing, but I do think that Pisa was my favorite part of the whole trip. The Field of Miracles was absolutely stunning, as was everything else we saw on this trip. The main attractions were the Baptistery, the Duomo, & of course, the Leaning Tower. Sitting in fields of clean-cut picture perfect green grass & set against bold, bright blue skies, all three of these buildings were so pristine and cleanly white, which is why I think I found the sight so amazing and impressive. 

Field of Miracles; I find it slightly ironic that from this angle, the Tower looks pretty straight, while the Baptistery & Duomo look kind of crooked, haha.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa!

Another gorgeous Duomo

The Baptistery

Silly tourists "holding up" the tower

Another silly tourist holding up the tower ;P

Chelsea and I holding up the tower [stolen from Chelsea]

Chelsea and I being normal in front of the tower [stolen from Chelsea]

After getting our necessary classic touristy pictures with the Tower, we chilled for a while in the field by the Baptistery (the one by the Duomo & its Leaning bell Tower was off-limits), just relaxing, basking in the sun, and taking in the view. This part was my favorite. It just gave me the most wonderful sense of peace, just hanging out by one of the 7 Wonders of the World in the most amazing weather.

[Side note: I thought I recalled from like elementary/middle school there being a set list of just Seven Wonders of the World, including The Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Pyramids at Giza, the Great Wall of China.. but apparently there are numerous lists of Wonders of the World, assorted into different categories. Interesting.]

Me & Chelsea chilling in the Field of Miracles [stolen from Chelsea]

Enjoying the sunny weather & people watching [stolen from Chelsea]

Eventually we did get up again to check out the Duomo. The inside of it, just like the outside, was (surprise, surprise) incredibly stunning. My favorite was the gorgeous golden ceiling; I could've looked up at it all day long, it was so pretty.

The daunting & impressive front of the Duomo

Close up of the gorgeous ceiling

Looking up at the inside of the dome

As late afternoon came, we did eventually (and somewhat reluctantly on my part) leave the Field of Miracles to get back to Florence.

Sunday was kind of our leisure day. The original idea was to take a train to Siena, but we changed that plan Saturday night when we saw that most of the sights to see in Siena had fees, and we agreed we'd both like to see more of Florence and spend some time shopping :P

So Sunday morning we got another free breakfast (a yummy & filling bacon & egg sandwich w/ hot chocolate for me) & were checked out by 10am. Thankfully the hostel didn't mind us keeping our stuff there all day, since our train didn't leave til half past midnight. We set off for Piazza Michelangelo, reputed to have a spectacular view overlooking the city of Florence. It did not disappoint.

Have I mentioned how absolutely stunningly gorgeous Italy is? :]

We hung out in the piazza for quite a while, saw about 4 newly-wedded Asian couples taking post-wedding ceremony pictures (also saw 2 more Italian just married couples later in the day... I guess a lot of people saw 10/10/10 as a good day to get married), tried on some Venetian masks at the stands, & then headed back for lunch.

Piazza Michelangelo

Me copying the replica of David in the Piazza :P

Awesome Venetian masks! Maybe I'll get one as a souvenir in Venice.. :)

If I do get one, it won't be this big, haha.

After lunch we hit up the Uffizi gallery, where we had made a reservation earlier (the line of people trying to get in without a reservation was huuuge!). Mostly it was just paintings, but it was pretty cool because they were all laid out in chronological order so we could see how the artistic styles evolved over the years. Among the works we saw was the original Birth of Venus by Botticelli, which was so beautiful. They told us pictures weren't allowed in this gallery just like at the Accademia, but they didn't seem as stringent about it so I probably could have tried getting a picture, but I decided not to bother, partially b/c I didn't want to get in trouble in case they did decide to make a fuss, and also because it was behind glass and not well-lit so I wouldn't have been able to get a great picture anyways.

The rest of the day had pretty much just one purpose: shopping. :P Many of the Florentine streets were lined with flea market style stalls selling mostly leather, jackets, purses, shoes, jewelry, and Italia/Firenze souvenir wear. Chelsea and I both left Florence having spent too much money, but still pretty content with our purchases :) She got her genuine Italian leather boots that were her goal to obtain sometime this semester (they're gorgeous!), I got myself three souvenir t-shirts (I <3 Italia, Ciao Bella Firenze, & one from Pisa where Snoopy is pushing on the tower saying "La raddrizza io la torre di Pisa!" aka I'm straightening the Tower of Pisa! - it's so cute :P), and we both got ourselves genuine Italian leather purses (we checked the labels to make sure they couldn't just peel off or anything fake like that) and were successful in finding souvenirs for some friends and family back home.

So I think this has been my longest blog yet, but in short,

Florence and Pisa were amazing.

(& I'm excited to go back again at the end of the semester!)



An SMCM-Funded Group Trip...

...is happening!

We didn't think we were getting a big trip for all 21 of us considering it's practically halfway thru the semester already, but DB just emailed us all saying that our questions now have a definite answer. The college is paying for travel, food, and accomodations.. to Florence! With a possible stop in Pisa. Yes, I know Chelsea and I were just there this past weekend (The blog about this past weekend is still in progress, but almost done, I promise!), but we loved it, so I'm definitely stoked to go back again. Nothing is confirmed yet (but they said YES! They can't take that away now or we'll hate them forever, haha), but it sounds like plans are being made for December 10 & 11, our last weekend here in Italy before heading back home. At that point classes and exams will be done, so it makes sense and it hopefully won't inconvenience anyone. I'm so excited to go back! Now I can go back and do more souvenir shopping if I need to (Dad, I can try to get the things you asked for in your email that was sent just a tad too late, haha) :] Also, since it will be December, maybe the city will be even more gorgeous (Is that possible?) decorated for Christmas and such!

This is going to be a wonderful way to wrap up the semester. :)

More excitement to follow once details about the trip are confirmed. :D

Homesick.

Another summer day
has come & gone away
in Paris & Rome,
but I wanna go home..
May be surrounded by a million people, I
still feel all alone.
I just wanna go home.
Oh I miss you, you know.

Another aeroplane,
another sunny place,
I'm lucky I know,
but I wanna go home..

"Home" - Michael Buble

So my weekend with Chelsea in Florence and Pisa was, in short, amazing. We had a lot of fun, were blessed with gorgeous weather, and made it back to Alba safe and sound. More details and pictures on the weekend to follow; this blog post has a different purpose.

Some crap happened recently that really just made me miss home. I was reminded of how differently I live my life compared to some of the other students that are on this trip. Everyone seems like a good kid, but we all definitely have different viewpoints when it comes to drinking and sex and whatnot. To each their own, I guess, but I'm proud of the way I live my life - you can call me a goody-goody or whatever, and that's perfectly fine. It's true; that's what I am and I have absolutely no problem with it. I don't need alcohol or sex or any real crazyness like that to have fun.

I still generally like all of the people that are on this trip with me, don't get me wrong; I guess I was just reminded of how different I am and it made me feel kind of isolated and lonely. I miss being around all of my friends back home who have the same idea of what having a good time is as I do.

I still love being in Italy, no doubt about that at all. I appreciate everything there is to see and experience here, but at the same time I've acquired an even greater appreciation for my life back home - I love my Mom & Dad for the way they've raised my sister and me; I love my boyfriend and best friends for having the same morals and general outlooks on life; I love my little sister for being the goof and good kid that she is and always looking up to me even though I give her a hard time sometimes; I love God for all that He has blessed me with. Basically, as amazing as my time in Italy has been and likely will be for the next couple of months, when it comes time to go home I will definitely be good and ready to get back to my normal, comfortable, and simple (probably boring in some peoples' eyes) life back home. :)

Week 5 Weekend Plans

So there hasn't really been much excitement since Sunday's medieval festivities, but that's okay. Today's Thursday, class is over, so that means it's the weekend already! :]

Plans for this weekend include... *drumroll, please*...

Florence, Pisa, & Tuscany!

I'm going with my friend Chelsea, and it should be a pretty fabulous time. She found us a good youth hostel that was in her student travel guide - it's reasonably priced & comes with quite a bit: free breakfast, free wifi (there's a computer in every room!), free walking tours.. pretty neat-o, i'd say. We've also booked a room that is for girls only, so we get to avoid any potentially creepy guys who like to stare or flirt when it's unwelcome, haha.

We arrive early Friday morning, and then the day will be spent exploring Florence, aka Firenze. Saturday we're hitting up Pisa, and then Sunday is possibly going to be spent gallivanting in the Tuscany area. Those plans are rough, they'll form themselves better as we go along. :P

We leave in roughly 4 hours & 20 minutes... so excited! Updates on this next adventure will come Monday or Tuesday, ideally :D

Medieval Parade & Donkey Race

So today, as part of the Alba Truffle Festival (no, not chocolate truffles unfortunately, but the earthy mushroomy type that apparently are rare and crazy expensive), all 21 of us in the program (22 including DanBear, our RA) got to participate in the parade, dressed in medieval costumes, and watch the Palio dei Asini, or Donkey Race. It was definitely a pretty neat experience. :)

Dan told us that we could start arriving at the Campus Center to start getting into costume and getting our hair done around 830am. I have a habit now of getting up earlier than everyone else so that I'm not rushed when getting ready and I don't have to fight for the one bathroom that we share between six girls, so I was there by 840. I was early by Italian standards; they hadn't even started setting up costumes or hair stuff yet when I got there, haha. Needless to say, I was the first one ready, although the other girls started showing up soon after they were done with me, so I guess it was good timing. By 11 or 1130am all of us were looking snazzy and ready to go, but we still had a couple of hours to chill before the parade actually started, so of course we took this opportunity to get a bunch of pictures in our medieval garb. :P

All 22 of us in our colorful Renaissance wear!

This is me in my bar maid outfit with our marching donkey friend, Pantichio (or something like that?)

Me with Daniel Blair, RA :P

Me, Sarah, Ally, Chelsea & Lilian looking legit in the courtyard :]

The boys (Dan, Craig, Andrew S., Nick, Andrew L., & James) showing some leg.. Scandalous! (Too funny :P)

Me, Lilian, & Elizabeth as lowly bar wenches showing some respect for noblewoman Nikki :P

I may have weirded this little boy out. I just thought he was soo cute, so I asked if I could take a picture with him (Posso avere un foto?) & he looked at me with this kind of "Why is this strange American talking to me?" look on his face, but I did get a picture. :P

I don't know what time it was when they finally rounded us up to get the parade going (We weren't allowed to wear watches or jewelry, plus my watch unfortunately stopped working out of the blue earlier this week even though I had just replaced the battery before coming to Alba. So sad.), but we eventually did file away from the Campus Center in two lines with our various props. Dan said there are about 7 districts/neighborhoods in Alba (called Borgos), and we were representing the Borgo di la Rane (rane = frogs... yeah, I don't really know). We got held up for a little while waiting for some of the other districts to show up, but after maybe another half hour of waiting, the parade was finally under way.

Our banner for the Borgo di la Rane

Waiting for the parade to start

I wish that I could've been in the parade and seen it all at the same time, because it would've been really neat to see the other towns in their costumes - there were also bands of some sort, at least with drummers and buglers, and some dancing that I saw from a distance. Once the parade got going, anything modern on us had to be hidden, so the camera got put away (I used the money bag I got from Mom as a mini-purse, cinched it around my waist, and hid it under the black part of my costume, hidden from sight but still easily accessible for later.. smart, right? :] ). Walking in the parade through a ways of crowded streets was definitely something - it was like being in the parade at Disneyland! It was interesting being on the other side of things, since usually I'm the one on the sidelines taking pictures of everything, but this time I was part of the show and I had a (small) part to play. Regardless, it was just really cool to be able to be a part of the festivities. :)

After probably 15-20 minutes of walking, we approached Piazza Cagnasso, which had been turned into a type of arena for the major festivities. Each town district got about 10 minutes in the spotlight to put on a little show; we hadn't really gotten much details on this part aside from just mingling like common townsfolk, so it was all a little hectic and felt really uncoordinated. After our ten minutes of fame, we got to sit on the sidelines and just enjoy the show, so of course the camera came back out :P

This district had a really cool, dramatic performance that involved a dragon that this woman somehow magically and miraculously slayed.

After all of the different district performances finally wrapped up, they started setting up for the donkey races :) This part I was definitely looking forward to, because come on, how could watching donkeys race not be a good show? They're stubborn as heck, so you know that hilarity is bound to ensue. I asked Dan the other day what the story behind the donkey races was, and this is basically my paraphrased version of what he told me (although he also said that the story seems to change every time he hears it..): 

Once upon a time, the nearby city of Asti used to hold horse races, and Alba and Asti were rivals. One year, Alba beat Asti, and so out of bitterness, Alba wasn't invited the following year. So Alba said "Fine, you know what? We'll have our own race! But even better, we're going to use donkeys!" just to serve as an outright mockery of Asti's horse races. After that though, they ended up being like, "You know what? This is actually kind of fun!" And so a tradition was born.

 Good story, yeah? Haha. The donkey races proved to be just as good a show as I had hoped. Each race consisted of five laps. There were two donkeys to each district, so each donkey participated in one of the two preliminary rounds; all donkeys that placed were then included in the final championship round. Some donkeys were calm, others were feisty and boisterous, many stopped whenever the heck they felt like it, leaving their jockeys to coax, pull, and shove to get them moving in any way they could. A couple (like our second one) moved at a steady pace, thinking that slow and steady wins the race (not exactly the case here), but not really accomplishing anything, while others ran so fast that their jockeys fell off and were left behind to run after that and try to jump back on, haha.

 

This was our district's first donkey & jockey, #16. Moments after this photo was taken, our jockey got down on his knees and begged the donkey to budge. All of the jockeys were good sports and had good senses of humor :P

 

All in all, today was a really neat experience and I'm really glad that we all got to be a part of it. It's just another tally to my list of awesome Italian adventures :)