We have now been in Urbino, Italy for a little over two weeks and it has already been a bit of an adventure. Fortunately we have great organizers in Italy who take care of our every need. It is hard to miss noisy San Antonio and electronic luxuries such as television when waking up every morning to the smell of clean air and a picturesque view of the county side. My dorm window view is incredible, old cottages and farm homes crown hill tops and the landscape seems undisturbed by the changes of time and the deterioration of major infrastructure.
The town of Urbino has narrow cobble stone streets lined with disorderly joined buildings, the stores are small yet functional and many have surprisingly little if no exterior signage. The piazza is always occupied and most nights filled with students. The main mode of transportation is walking which has been a delight, plenty of exercise every day that I know is doing me much good.
One of the first places we visited was the ducal palace of Federico da Montefeltro here in Urbino. Being my first encounter with a building centuries old I was highly impressed and a bit bewildered not only by its astonishing craftsmanship but also surprisingly by the ingenuity used to furnish humble luxuries.
Our first weekend here we visited the beach on the coast of the Adriatic Sea and perused the Saturday market for produce and cheap trinkets.
We visited a winery the second weekend here which was even more fun than the beach! We started the day by helping harvest red grapes from the vineyard, and then we watched as our tractor load was rapidly pressed into grape juice and sent to storage vessels. After all of our work was done we sat down to a charming lunch on a covered patio overlooking the widespread vine covered surroundings while tasting resident wines.
