Notes from Italy: The Roving Editor and Verukah Storm the Boot!
This is the group of Masters' of Liberal Arts students from SMU, joined by Sarah, who joined the Editor in a three-week adventure through Italy.
Saturday, June 29:
Italianate greetings from the Editor and Sarah, who are experiencing the country in the very best way: alternately spending days on end digging in the dirt atop a hilly Tuscan promontory for 2700 year old bits and pieces of antiquity, then coming down to the greatest that civilization has to offer in Florence and Rome. We are not complaining. The Editor herself has brought up some great pieces of Etruscan bucchero, highly prized black glazed pottery from the 7th century BC, a large piece of a platter, some "black lace" painted pottery sherds, and a whole lot of DIRT. Here are the Girls of the "Femme Trench", with Sarah shown second from right; on Trench Tour Day:
We feast "a la campagna" up at the dig for lunch on rough Tuscan bread, tomatos, cheese and delicious italian cold cuts, and dine al fresco in the evenings at two local farmhouses while we discuss our adventures in digging. We may erect a small shrine by the side of the road to "Mr. Bill", our generous benefactor, and are currently working with the commune of Borgo San Lorenzo in the Florentine outskirts to arrive at the appropriate location and size of the project. Our first two excursions have been to Florence, where we visited the Archeological Museum to see the requisite Etruscan collection, and worked in enough other sights to bring us to the point of happy exhaustion; and our current foray to Rome, where we drop into an internet bar once a day to check email and give updates such as these.
July 30:
Today Sarah and I wandered the Roman Forum, the Collosseum, and went to church in the local branch. Great day, we are tired and ready to head back to the hotel to collect our packs and train back to Florence. Rome has been a terrific experience. Last night we both could have had great dates, Sarah on a Vespa and me with a grizzled cell-phone-Romeo, but we declined in deference to our previous commitments!
