Layers

"Would you like some drinks, or would you like to see the caves?"

This is a real question posed by a real person. This person was the beautiful Alessandra who not only gave us wonderful espresso and pastries, but also took us down for a free tour of the thousands of years old caverns that her father-in-law happened to find under their pastry shop some 40 years ago. We descended not only down in to the earth but down thousands of years in time to the Etruscans, and I touched a tree root that had been fossilized by volcanic movements even before the time of the Etruscans.

Orvieto is so full of these layers in all areas of landscape, architecture, culture, personality, etc. I am so tempted to push through slightly open doors that might lead to elegant chapels or some interesting leather journal and stationary shop. I am here at such an important time not only in my life, but also in the life of Orvieto. It is the 2-year jubilee in honor of the 750 year anniversary of the Miracle at Bolsena when blood dripped from the Eucharist which means that I get to enter through a Holy Door to the stately Gothic Duomo cathedral.  My program is now moving to a new monastery which will give us many more opportunities that will be different from past years. I get to experience living next to the Duomo and having class in the Palazzo Simoncelli, but also living in a monastery closer to Locanda del Lupo (our food source) and the Piazza del Popolo where the market happens on Saturdays.

I have also had the most unique and wonderful birthday of my life so far. I would never have guessed that I would spend my 21st birthday drawing and smelling the smoke from the Orvietani's chimneys, listening to inspiring poetry and prose in the courtyard, gazing at the sweeping Italian countryside below me, enjoying delicious food from Enya's magical hands, uniting with my fellow Christians in a Charismatic Catholic worship service, and enjoying some local wine and limoncello. For such a small town, it is so full of so many layers of things to explore and inspire and give joy. As I start to finally figure out where I am in the city and delve deeper in to side streets and alleys to look for drawing sites, I continually find more things I have never seen before.

I am starting to recognize people in the streets. I always wave at Slavik when he's working in Montanucci's. I have heard angels sing in the form of nuns at Buon Gesu.

Every day and every meal gets better than the last.