Sense of Place

I'm Home!

Doing the London Thing

I woke up, looked at the clock, and realized it was 12:00. We got up quickly, and had a delicious lunch of organic salads and bread. After lunch, we hopped on the Tube, and went to the V and A museum. It is a great art museum. The photography exhibit, though not huge, was varied and interesting and had lots of examples of artists pushing the medium.

After the V & A we took the Tube to find Coby's family friend's art gallery so he could say goodbye. We walked around the very upscale section of London where the gallery is, being sure to stop in Harrods, the only single location super store in the world to make 1 billion pounds in one year. After this, we went to the British Museum. There is an overwhelming amount of stolen things in that one building. It was very nice, but hard to get over all the imperialism wrapped up in it. We were there for about two hours, when the museum kicked us out for closing time.

We walked from the museum to the theater to pick up our tickets, and went to a pub for fish and chips. We had a heated discussion over dinner, that resolved with more understanding than we had before--a successful argument. After dinner we walked back to the theater. We saw War Horse, a play about a boy whose horse gets sent into battle in World War I. It was a beautiful play, the stars of which were the horses--live sized puppets controlled by three people, with amazing amounts of expression. After the play, we just went home, I had a wicked headache, and I fell right into bed.

Return to Civilization

I woke up around 11:30, feeling well rested and grateful that yesterday was over. After a shower, Noon and I made breakfast. After eating, his mom drove us to the station, and we took a train into Victoria. There, I waited a bit for Coby. He found me, collected me, and took the tube to Notting Hill Gate, where the hostel is. I dropped my stuff off and we headed to Camdentown. We walked around for a long time, ate food from a stall, and looked at everything for sale. It is an eclectic place with lots of alternative shops and people. I was on serious sensory overload; at any one point I could see more people in Camdentown than people that live in Tornareccio.

We took the tube back and walked down Portobello street, lined with very quaint boutiques. After a short rest, we went to dinner at a pub slash Thai restaurant, with very good food. After dinner, we walked to the movie theater, and saw Inception. I am still trying to regain my balance. It was amazing.

Some Highlights and Lowlights

Tornareccio

The view from the flat

Wednesday was the last day of work. Just before lunch, I finished all of the photography that I was expected to finish, 13 gigs and more than 1,500 photos later. Of course, I'm not nearly finished with the job, because every photo needs post processing, which will take about as long as the photography. Fortunately, Susan has told me that I can complete that in a private reading, so I'll have the whole semester to complete it.

Wednesday afternoon and Thursday were all about moving. We packed things up, made many trips from the school to Sam and Susan's flat, and did lots of cleaning. We went to Papillon, the only restaurant within a ten minute drive of Tornareccio, for dinner. We'd gotten pizza there twice during the season, but this time we got pasta and a meat course. The pasta I got was incredible. It was a ravioli in a cream sauce with truffles. Perfect. As it was Alex's last night, we went out to the futball field, for the final in the town's futball tournament. There is a small bar down there where we'd spent a lot of time during the season, and the local "DJ" was playing some music. Again, I failed to secure even one dance. After the music stopped, Alex and I walked back, and found Noon coming to find us. Alex went to bed, and Noon and I went to Bar Sport. Soon after we got in there, everyone else left, and we spent the next three hours talking to Fabrizio, the bartender, in a mixture of French and Italian.

Friday morning, Noon and I went to the honey factory at the edge of town. Tornareccio is known as the Citta de Miele, and produces twenty percent of Italy's honey. We tried several different types of honey, and then we got a tour of the factory. It is small but fascinating. She showed us how the cut off the wax, wash the wax and honey, and how they extract and separate the honey from the wax. We also got to look in the giant vats of honey; large enough to swim in. She then explained how they make the different kinds of honey from different plants. It is all spatial--to get orange flower honey, the hives are located in a massive orange plantation--and she showed us pictures of the different plants and plantations.

Friday afternoon, Noon and I babysat Ed's kids, Emma and Susannah. They are really, really cute kids. We played a lot in the apartment, made pasta for lunch, and played more. We read books, drew pictures, played with cars, among other things four- and six-year-old girls like to do. Though it was fun, and the girls are great, it was a long day. When Ed got back, we got gelato, printed boarding passes, and had a rest. We went out to dinner in Atessa. It was a delicious meal of seafood pasta followed by fried fish, but it lasted for several hours, and we were exhausted. We finally made it home, went to bar sport to say goodbye to people, and fell into bed.

Saturday was the day from hell. We hung around the apartment, packing and cleaning til 10:30, when Ed took us to Atessa. We then had until 2:45 to wait for the bus. It was rainy, and everything was closed for most of the time for siesta. We parked oursleves in a bar, ate some pizza, and played cards. After an hour or two, we left our bags in the bar and took a walk around the town. We got back, got on the bus, which took us for about fifteen minutes, and stopped on the alta strada. There, we got on another bus which took us to Rome, on a very convoluted and long route. We got to the Rome Tiburtina station at about 6:30. That place is a total dump. We took the subway to Termini station, grabbed some mediocre pizza, and hopped a train to Ciampino. There, I had to run to find a cash machine; we'd spent our bus money on pizza. I ran back just as the bus was about to leave, and we got to the airport. The airport was horrible, all the shops are on one side of passport control, with no seating. We spent some time out there, and then went through. Our flight didn't board til it was supposed to take off, with no announcement or anything. Ryan air is a horrible airline. They were very late, didn't explain or apologize, have uncomfortable chairs, and advertise things throughout the entire flight, despite the fact that it was after midnight. We got to Stansted airport, and took an hour long bus to Victoria. There, we ate a Kabob, and got on another bus, and then another. We didn't make it to Noon's house until 5 am. Nothing could have been better than falling into bed this morning.

An Update

The view from the school where we work

Work has been going great. Some highlights have included gorgeous terracotta tiles with depictions of dolphins found nowhere else in the world, a tiny bone carving to ward away evil spirits, and coins. I only have a few more days of work, and I leave here to head to London on Saturday.

This past Saturday was our day off, so Noon and I went to the beach. The bus leaves at 7:55 am, and takes about an hour, with a few stops in between. The beach, on the Adriatic Sea, is a very typical Italian beach. On the edge, there are some shops, bars, and restaurants. The actual beach is crowded; there is a small strip of public beach, flanked by two large plots of chairs and umbrellas set up in rows for rent. Chris and I set up in the public space, read for a few minutes, and then got in the water. There is a barrier between the rest of the sea and the beach, giving a fairly large but shallow area to swim. I dove for a frisbee Chris had thrown, and landed hard on my shoulder, unaware of the sand bar in the middle. We then swam up to the barrier, and climbed along it to a place marked as safe to jump off.

We spent the rest of the morning in and out of the warm water, had some pizza, and then got back on the bus at 12:30; the only bus that day back. Though the weather was beautiful while we were at the beach, about ten minutes after we got on the bus, the heavens opened up. The lightening was very impressive, as was the hail. We got back, at some pasta that Alex had made, and relaxed for the rest of the day.

Before dinner, Alex and Chris and I walked up to the Cemetery above the town. It is different than any other I've ever seen. Each family has a mausoleum, built like a house; better built that most of the houses in town in fact--they are the eternal resting places. In the mausoleums are an alter and drawers; each with a photo of the deceased on the drawer. The people who don't have money get a drawer on a shared wall of drawers. Walking through the cemetery is like walking through a town, between each mausoleum are streets. Some doors are open, some shut, and they are all very elegant metal and glass.

Tournareccio was a medieval city, and still has a small section of town. After dinner yesterday we took a short walk through it. There are winding streets, many with just steps. There are very old walls, arches, and lots of empty houses. It was very charming; young kids were running through playing tag, and stray dogs were chasing each other too.

This little town

I am way overdue for a post; so sorry this has taken so long.

I am having a wonderful time. I'm working hard, relaxing a bit, and hanging out with very cool people. I've made friend with lots of locals, and since this village is so small; I see them every day. Let me tell you about about where I am.


Tornareccio's population is 1,800. It produces 15% of the honey in Italy, and is also a large producer of mozzarella cheese. We eat mozzarella cheese with lunch most days, and wouldn't dare eat it if was made yesterday. It is a very typical Italian town in so many ways. There are no restaurants, two very small groceries, and four bars. When you walk down the street--there is essentially one street in the town--everyone says hi. At all hours of the day, there are many older men lining the streets, just sitting on the benches and chatting. Often, I often see them when going for a morning coffee break, and see the same people, in the same places, six hours later. The same goes for many men at the bars. They are drinking campari--a local favorite made of cochineal--at ten in the morning, four in the afternoon, and, presumably, all the times between.

People are very friendly. Today, we were walking to coffee, and the carpenter pulled us into his shop, just to show us a shelf he built. he brought us in, talked about making it for a minute, and then had each hold it. This, though a bit strange, was not at all an unusual occurrence.

Women between the ages of twenty-five and forty-five don't seem to exist here. You see everyone else all the time, but never young women. Presumably they are all at home raising families, while the men sit on the benches and go to the bars at night. It is never hard to locate people here at night, they are always at their bar of choice or at the futball field down the street; as the annual competition is going on right now.

I'll write some more soon, and put up a few pictures; though I haven't been taking many apart from work.