Days 8 and 9 in Arezzo!!

I'm going to keep this brief. I am not feeling very well. As most who would be reading this know, I have some health issues I struggle with at times.. Traveling out of the country has not been helpful in that area. I really do not feel good most of the time, and I feel like I do when my meds need adjusting or just don't want to work, but I'm sure it has more to do with my body not adjusting well to the schedule change and different life style that I'm in for the time being... Oh well.

We went to a fortress today. It was really neat to see, and we got to go inside and walk around the top. The fortress was built shortly after Florence conquered the city of Vonterra, partially as a control mechanism to stop unwanted rebellions against the new "leaders". What I found really interesting, and also revolting (to me) was that the fortress was built with bricks from all of the houses in the small "town" surrounding the fortress, which they tore down in order to create the fortress! In the area where the houses used to exist, there is now a really beautiful park, but I can't fathom the idea of tearing down people's homes for what I'm sure they considered "the greater good". It is a terrible idea. It is really cool to note that the fortress was built around a castle that had been erected many years prior (built around or before the 1400's I think is what he said) and you can fairly easily tell where the castle was and where the fortress "expansion" began because the bricks look a lot different. We got to see holes that were meant for cannons and for riffles, and there are huge vents above the area to rid the area of the smoke from the cannons. There are also little indentations in the wall where the person lighting the cannon could retreat, so they would not get injured when the cannon went off. They are turning this place into a museum, with a little wine bar and I think touring right now, so it was under construction, but I find it really interesting to imagine the life that occurred within this little piece of history. They said only 2 months ago they discovered this new little area, and just judging by the size of the room, they can assume that it must have belonged to someone important. The fact that so much can be told from this one "little" piece of a puzzle and yet raise so many questions is really fascinating to me.

After that we had our usually AM lecture, followed by a 2 and a half hour lunch period. Then, we had  a group study session in the afternoon, followed by PM lecture. I came back to the apartment for a little bit before going out to dinner with some of my O-chem group. The customs here are so odd to me. 7:30PM is an early dinner for native Italians. In fact, many places don't even open until 7 or 7:30  at night. Our courses are so fast paced and I find getting dinner frustrating for me most days. There is really no "quick" dinner option, unless you want pizza that's been sitting out on a heater for a while... It seems to take at least an hour and a half to get dinner anywhere around here, but at least the food is honestly really good. I unknowingly tried liver pate bruschetta yesterday, and I really liked it actually. Since I don't care for liver, that was a pleasant surprise... Outside of that, nothing new to say so I am going to hope my medicine kicks in to help with my swollen painful ankle (just too much strain for it, because I had torn ligaments and tendons when I was in gymnastics, so it does not take much to agitate it) soon and go to sleep!

Caio! :)

PS
We get to visit another vineyard tomorrow, and I am excited about that too!!