exhile!

whirlwind...

john loved it here so much that he just couldnt even fathom going home on monday like planned, so he changed his flight to wednesday and we settled in.

monday night we went to this fun artsy theatre in town called Visionario, where they have a little rooftop cafe and a book shop that specializes in books about art, film, and other things hip. they also show a surprisingly vast amount of italian films (and a few american), in a really nice theatre with reclining seats and track lighting. john and i saw a movie called 'il pappa di giovanna', which was in italian, but very good. it was based in bologna in the 1930s and the scenery and waredrobes were great. also, every now and then i could understand a phrase or two of what they were saying. i think watching movies like this will help me to listen and understand the way sentences are phrased, etc...

we didnt sleep at all that night. i seriously doubt if either one of us lost consciousness at all. we had to wake up at 7am to go harvest grapes with simone and luigi, and by 6am we were looking at the clock and wishing time would hurry up. the bed i have is a twin, a tiny tiny twin, thin as a board and scratchy. we put the "matress" on the floor in order to pretend to have more room, but we woke up sore and ill and exhausted.

we went to the university experimental farm with simone and luigi. its this big, vast field out in the country where the university grows all sorts of vegetables and plants to harvest and experiment on. there were rows of apple trees, kiwi trees (yes, kiwis grown on trees, and did you know that italy is the number 1 producer of kiwis worldwide?), sunflowers, MARIJUANA, corn, etc. they also have the grape vines here. several differnt varieties of grapes are grown by the agriculture team, and currently they are trying to cross pollinate certain berries to produce strains that will be more independent in the wild. the vineyards went on for ever, and the 4 of us went around to certain vines and clipped bushels of grapes off and brought them back to the lab to do experiments on them i.e. determining their sugar content. luigi let me clip off all the the grapes, which was so much fun. simone, who lived and studied wine in california last year, quipped that "in america, they have mexicans picking grapes. in italy, there are americans". the farm is beautiful and surrounded on all sides by vies of the alps; to the left north austria, to the east slovenia...

once all the grapes were picked, we brought them to a green house and checked their sugar content. this is done by using this strange metal rectangle. you squeeze the juice from the grape onto a piece of film, shut the rectangle, then look through it to the sun. the number that comes up is its sugar content. science is v. easy.

after we were done we went to have lunch at a MENTAL ASYLUM. apparently the experimental farm is on land that the university bought from the mental home. so right next door is a pretty good cafe where university employees and out-patient crazy people can have lunch. luigi told us that just last week a girl student at the farm was attacked by a knife weilding psycopath. so awesome.

lunch was delicious, though. everyone eyed each other in a knowing, suspicious manner, trying to sum up the patients from the university students. i was so baffled by all of this that i asked simone, "who, exactly, eats here?" he replied, "oh, you know, farm people, the workers...and keelers" (killers).

john and i got back to my dorm from our hard day of harvesting and scientific experimentation and were looking forward to a long, possibly restful nap. we were sabotauged.

about 1 minute after we got to my dorm, there was a loud knock at the door, and the evil man who is in charge (the one who yelled at me the other day) burst in like there was a fire.

"you have guest!! you have one! without asking me?!"

didnt tell him that john had already been there for 5 days, just said, "um...you didnt tell me we couldnt have guests?"

he damanded that we accompany him down stairs. we walked with him in silence down to the basement, where he led us to a darm, prison like room with a table and folding chairs.

"you want a guest, you may speak here. that is all."

john and i stood in the room, kind of in shock, for about 2 minutes. what were we to do? obviously he couldnt come back upstairs with me, and i didnt want to sneak him in after hours because the last thing i need is to be kicked out of my dorm. so i told john to wait outside, i went upstairs and packed his suitcase (and mine!), and we fled to venice.

john was scheduled to fly out of venice the next morning anyway, so i figured it was sort of convenient. venice is about 1.5 hours away on the train. we caught the next departure, called a couple hotels out of my lonely planet, and arrived shortly before 8.

our hotel was WONDERFUL!!! a sweet little one-star tucked away in an alley. big bed, shower in the room, and 3 huge windows overlooking a canal!

we walked the streets and found a perfect little restaurant with actual italians in it. we dined on carpaccio, a venetian original, and yummy pizza and house wine. my mind has totally changed about venice. yes, it is filthy and stinky and full of tourists. but it might be the most positively breathtaking city on earth, and when you factor in the knowledge that it is even real, not a made up dream land, it is nothing short of amazing. the best thing to do in venice, i think, is to walk around and keep your ears perked, and spy into windows and listen to the italians and imagine what it would be like to actually live there. i know thats what you do in most cities you visit, but venice is especially intruiging to think of this way, because it just seems like an alternate universe.

anyway, we had a blast. photos are here:

www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2431763&l=6a0d0&id=4913936

john has gone home, and its back to work for me...

theres another food and wine festival in a neighboring town this weekend so i think i might check it out...

i love you all...