"Gubbio, Family Dinners, and Friends"

I have less than a month left in Italy, and it seems that every day I fall more in love with this wonderful country. I feel like a plant that has finally put roots down in my new home and in a short time I will be uprooted! It seems that as soon as though I have a grasp on the language, culture, and feel part of the community (no longer like a tourist!!) my time here starts to wind down. My saving grace is that every day seems to bring new adventures and new experiences, and great memories. My first Italian family dinner, new acquaintances, and another beautiful Italian town were just a few things packed into another spectacular weekend in Italia.

I have learned that in Italy family is the foundation of life. On Friday I had my first dinner with my host family, which was even more exciting because I teach two of the three children! Molly and I had dinner with Sara, Giorgio and their three children Margarita, Riccardo, and Francesco. Margarita is in my fifth grade class and Riccardo is in my first grade class. The youngest son, Francesco is three and the most adorable little Italian boy ever! Molly and I were warmly welcomed into their home that was filled with the aroma of tomato sauce. Little Francesco (or Franci as he was fondly referred to by his parents) peaked from behind his mother’s legs and Riccardo smiled shyly. Dinner was very cozy with all seven of us seated around a table eating pasta with tomato pancetta sauce, roast pork, bread, and to my surprise French fries (I found out later that three other families also served French fries). I first thought that my family served us French fries because we are American, but after I asked the children if they liked them I realized that they are a stereotypical American food that has been incorporated into Italian culture. Between Molly and me, we were able to keep a steady flow of conversation in Italian. I loved my family, and they made me feel instantly at home.

This weekend I was also able to hang out with my new Italian friends whom I made on Halloween night. Italians around my age are very fun to converse with, but much to my dismay still correct my Italian when I speak (I guess it can be a plus for improving my conversational skills). I have learned new card games, or learned the correct way to play the Italian card game Scopa (I was told on multiple occasions that I was not playing correctly). I also taught them some American card games which I think they enjoyed. Most surprising is how we communicate. It is a mixture of Italian and English with the Americans explaining a concept in Italian and then the Italians translating to his friends who didn’t understand, and the Italians trying to explain something to us in English when I could better understand in Italian. It’s all very confusing with two languages flying around, but at the same time fun!

On Saturday morning (quite early in the morning) we all took a bus to Gubbio, a town about an hour’s bus ride away in the region of Umbria, and a town that dates back to the Bronze Age. Gubbio is also known for the discovery of the Eugubine Tables, or a set of bronze tablets that are the largest surviving text in ancient Umbrian. Before I traveled to Gubbio the only knowledge I had of the town was it is the arch rival of Sansepolcro (Sansepolcro plays Gubbio in the Balestra or cross bow tournament), and according to all of the local Italians I asked there is nothing to do in Gubbio; it is only una bella citta or a beautiful town. Similar to Sansepolcro Gubbio is also a walled town, but the buildings are almost entirely built of stone whereas Sansepolcro contains primarily plaster covered buildings. I was thrilled to find out that we would take a chair lift to the top of a hill to see the Basilica of Sant’Ubaldo (the night before I had been told that the chair lift might not be open at this time of year). The chair lift consisted of small bird cage shaped ‘chairs’ that held two standing people. The difficulty was that they never stopped. Two of us would stand on large red dots and as the chair rounded the corner we would jump in with the assistance of a worker who would then latch the gate. Getting off was a similar process that involved using the arm of a cute young Italian to hop down. The lift carried me up to the top of the large hill that provided the backdrop on the beautiful city of Gubbio. About 20 feet below my feet was a rocky and tree covered terrain that was dotted with the last of the fall colors.

The Basilica of Sant’Ubaldo is named for its bishop Saint Ubaldo Baldassini who helped Gubbio win a battle in 1151. The church held the large wooden prisms that are used to hold small statues of Saints in the Corsa Dei Ceri, or a run, on May fifteenth that carries the statues from Gubbio up to the top of the mountain. The wooden prisms are each four meters tall and weigh about two hundred and eighty kilograms. In person they are very impressive! The area near the Basilica was surrounded in trees draped with moss and lichen, giving it a distinctive and regal feeling. After visiting Gubbio I was able to see a section of rock just outside of the main city that was once part of the sea bed but had been uplifted. This portion of rock had a section with a high level of Iridium, which is an element not commonly found on earth but mainly in meteorites. This section of rock represents the K-T geologic boundary. The K-T boundary is a geological formation that has a band that separates rock from the Cretaceous and Tertiary period. This rock has been tested to see if it can provide evidence for a meteorite being the cause for the death of the dinosaurs. Being able to actually touch a rock that is about a million years old and significant to the science community was exhilarating!

I have visited so many neat and wonderful places in Italy and it is heart wrenching that my time here is winding down. I love trying to use my Italian as much as I can but I have also found that Italians love to practice their English with us (making it difficult to choose). Gubbio was another charming and fascinating city I have visited and like Sansepolcro has rich history and traditions. A movie night, a Sansepolcro soccer game, cooking class, studying, multiple trips to the café for coffee, and lot and lots of homework rounded out the weekend.