Vittorito

Inside the winery

The winery's courtyard

Very old church sculpture

Today is more relaxed as I got an extension on my final paper. I will present my 'group' project in a few hours. Jack McCarthy (former TV7 newsman) has agreed to help me. I will be James Lipton interviewing him as Clint Eastwood playing the Man with No Name in 'A Fistful of Dollars'. He's quite the ham so it should be good. We've been collecting props. I had to write the script and then write a paper about what it all means. I can expand on that for my final paper. I was going to do a metaphysical analysis of Primo Amore but time's awastin'. So finally Raffaele is officially embarassed about the drunkenness of students and is cracking down. The kids peeing in the laundry room set him off. We will be locked in the monastery at 12. Last night we were bussed to Vittorito 40 minutes away. It is in a huge valley full of vineyards, home of our favorite montepulciano d'Abruzzo. The town is much older than ours having been settled 400 AD instead of 1000 AD. It is not a hill town like Gagliano but up in the mountain they had a watchtower that served several towns at once and could communicate readily to those below in case of invaders. We had a very long tour of the winery, then a tasting-not all montepulcianos are the same-a tour of the city after dark-the church was built in 500 AD over a pagan temple and had lots of original artwork. Then we had dinner. I was so hungry as we usually have lunch at 12:30 and it was after 10. Again the townspeople paid and served us. Very good. More wine, bruschetta, sausages, and pasta. Never do we get dessert. I later tried to get gelato from a little store that sells 'soft serve'. It presses these little blocks of frozen ice cream through this machine but the old lady didn't have the strength to do it so my cone was very small. it was free though.We ate on a piazza with the townspeople standing around us watching. They hired a DJ who was quite funny. He kept showing off his English, which consisted of saying I love you repeatedly. The Italian dance songs use broken English. I fly so high I want to fly. high. fly want fly high. He played alot of Puerto Rican music which I preferred. So the students danced in the square while the locals watched. Another very late night. Some people had tests today and no time to study. I got up early to run. Since at least my muscles were fresh, I went the hard way to Secinaro but no animal sightings. Another movie night tonight about the mafia'i centi passi' (A Hunderd Steps). I will be home in less than a week. Time has gone by so quickly.