Salve! Ciao! I woke up early this morning for class and had a quick bite to eat before walking to class. My class is less than 50 steps away! It is awesome. During class we watched a video on the Piazza San Marco in Venice and read about the il Teatro Greco di Siracusa in Sicilia and the Piazzo del Campo in Siena, Italy. I can't wait to visit these beautiful places and see the architecture and art in the cities. We also went over grammar and discussed when to use the imperfect and passato prossimo tenses (two past tenses). Of course we have homework but just one worksheet.
Before we finished class we talked about Matera, a city in the south of Italy in the regio on Basilicata. It is about three hours away from Lecce and we are touring the city tomorrow. The city is known for being an ancient town called the Sassi di Matera (stones). These stones are known to some of the first human settlements in Italy. The houses were made by digging into the rock and the town is on a slope of the ravine created by a river. The town is currently renovating the old stone houses into hotels and for people to live. I can't wait to visit and take many pictures. Since tomorrow I will be spending 6 hours on a bus, I will be posting mostly photos of Matera in my next post. Stay tuned, it will be up tomorrow night.
After class, I went to the bank to exchange some money and to the grocery store to buy some daily items. I bought some fresh fruit and vegetables, canned ceci (chick peas) and frisella di orzo. This is bread that is hard and is softened with water for fifteen seconds and then eaten. It is very good and tastes like whole wheat bread that is crispy. After the market I went home and made a nice salad with tuna and fresh tomatoes and then I relaxed in my room for two hours and took a power nap.
At 17:00 my roommate asked if I would go with her to a camera store to buy a digital camera. The store was over two miles away but I did not want her walking by herself so I said of course. Her camera broke a couple days ago, and it was important that she get a new digital camera to take pictures for her blog and for her family to see. We ended up walking to the address that our program director gave us, and there was no store. Then we walked around the residential section of Lecce, stopped in the supermarket for a drink and snack, walked to the center, walked all around the piazza, asked the information desk, went to two different photography stores that did not find cameras, and finally found a camera store called Carafa. It seems like we did not walk that much from my description, but we were on our feet from 17:00 till we got home at 20:45. She bought a camera, and we were both happy to find the store. During our journey, all the Italians we asked for directions were very nice, one guy chased after us from the store because we were going the wrong way and two guys offered us rides to a camera store. But we denied because that was not very safe to accept a ride from a stranger.
When I finally got home I jumped right in the shower and then made myself a well deserved meal. Even though I do not know the exact distance we walked, I am guessing we walked over eight miles plus I walked two miles to the bank and grocery store earlier in the day. My feet were exhausted. I made myself eggplant, tomato, chick peas, hot peppers, hot pepper flakes, tomato paste, and balsamic. It was one of my favorite meals by far and tasted like a spicy stir fry. After dinner I watched a movie and fell asleep almost immediately. It was such a long day, but I am glad I was able to walk around Lecce and explore a different part of the city. Tomorrow (like I said earlier) we go to Matera, and Sunday we are going trekking for 14 km nearby one of the beaches. It is going to be a long and fun filled weekend. I miss everyone and I look forward to hearing from you.
Con tanto amore,
Samantha
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