Everything Thus Far

July 21st, 2009 – Lyssa in Roma entry

What can I say… Tuscany is gorgeous, the excavation members (Scavi as we call them) are fantastic, and I am having the time of my life. We sit in trenches all day with our pick axes, trowels, hammers, and buckets, digging up ancient artifacts that haven’t been touched in over 2000 years. You could say I’m livin the dream. I’m going to start from the beginning though with clippings of what I’ve written over the past week I’ve been in Vescovado.

July 10, 2009 – Los Angeles

Well… I’m in the airport, sitting at terminal 48B, and waiting for my connecting flight into Chicago. I just said goodbye to Mom and Liz, and it was really hard to watch Mom cry as I was entering the security checkpoint. It makes me think about how long six months really is—at 20, I have lived through 40 six-month periods. In any case, I will probably be back home before anyone knows I’m even gone. By the time I get back, I will have traveled to Germany, France, Greece, Spain, and of course, Italy. This isn’t including any spontaneous trips I might go on; who knows, I might even throw out my day planner (obviously this isn’t going to happen, I have to plan to be spontaneous!). I have only a few goals on this trip of a lifetime I am about to embark on, 1. Find myself an Italian boyfriend and get dual citizenship, 2. Eat as much pizza, pasta, and gelato as possible, 3. Experience Roman culture as a Roman does (When in Rome…), and 4. Go on as many adventures as possible. My goals are simple, unlike my everyday goals, so this should be easy!

July 10, 2009 - FLASH FORWARD - Chicago

I burst through the airplane doors and found myself in beautiful Chicago. I love this city, and I’ve only been to the airport. As we began our descent, I peeked over the few people to my right, and saw the most beautiful deep green I have ever seen. The city is lined with parks, masses of trees reaching out from each other, cloaking the city in green. I think the Southwestern Style McDonalds salad I ate in this airport is possibly the most delicious salad I have ever eaten. I am still sitting in this glorious airport, as the plane is delayed, sitting and listening to the six or so French kids to my left, and the Italian couple on my right. I can’t understand a word they are saying, but both languages are so beautiful, I wish that I could be staying in France longer, and I can’t wait to get to Italy.

July 11th, 2009 – Train to Chiusi (connecting to Siena)

Traveling alone is lonely… getting in arguments with stupid Italian men is angering… but meeting sweet Italian nuns who serve you Fanta and homemade candied almonds, after you enter their convent sweaty and smelly, makes all of that so much better. I took a detour from Fiumicino airport to the convent next door to my Fall study abroad home before I took another train to Termini to get on this train. I made it to the Via Venti Quattro train station, and started walking the four blocks to the Centro. About a mile into it, I realized that I was walking the wrong way. So, I turned around and walked the mile back to the train station (uphill), and about another mile (uphill) to the convent. By the time I reached the street, I was dripping sweat, my shoulders burned like Hades, and my legs felt like collapsing. I really should have worked out more while I was at home. As I approached the door, I saw a nun sweeping the front step, so in my best broken (and non-existant) Italian, I introduced myself and tried to describe why I was there. This nun introduced herself as Suor Jessica, and brought me inside to meet Suor Pietrina, the nun whom Franco had talked to about me dropping off my luggage. I was quickly introduced and instructed to put down all my gear, and I gladly did, and then was politely directed to living room of sorts. Suor Pietrina doesn’t speak a lot of English, so Suor Jessica translated as I answered her questions, first attempting in Italian and eventually defaulting to English. The sisters’ hospitality was above and beyond kind—they even offered a bedroom for me to sleep in tonight in case I wanted to travel the following morning. I politely declined, though they still wanted to show me around, as their building and the Centro are connected and share a garden. They pointed to the windows of our bedrooms, and pointed out the kitchen and the gardens where most of the students study. All I can say is that the Centro and the connected convent are both gorgeous—I cannot wait to be living in this historic building that looks and feels and is in the very distinctive Italian style. I had to leave, so that I could make at least the last train to Siena tonight, so I thanked them and asked if I could come visit them when I return in the fall. Their answers were so sweet; I wish I could write the Italian. I’m on the train now, though, and we are about to start moving, so PEACE!

July 11th, 2009 – 11:00 pm almost ready for sleeping

Well I’m alive, and I made it… though none of you would know that because I don’t have cell service (apparently I turned the international plan on, but Sprint did not), and there’s no Internet here. Looks like its just me and my Microsoft word.

I just met some of the scavi diggers, and everyone seems pretty chill. It’s a very tight knit group, I’m pretty sure most of these people come back year after year. They say that there’s not a whole lot to do in Vescovado, or even in Murlo for that matter, so mostly at night people hang out at the bar across the street or on the steps on the Scavi residence, which is beautiful by the way. This year they rented out a small hotel, and it is really nice. It feels like an Italian style dorm room with your own bathroom and plenty of room. I’m not in the exact room I’ll be staying in; the people I’m supposed to take the place of haven’t left yet.
During the workweek, we all wake up around 5:30, so that we can get dressed and head out to the dig site by 7 (we walk about a mile away to get there), where we stay working until 3:30.

I’m exhausted, I cant even finish this… more later.


July 12, 2009 – 9:23 pm

After I left my room this morning, I was immediately invited to go on a nature hike into La Befa, a town just 6 kilometers from Vescovado, wth Ben and Nina. As the taxi driver had told them, in La Befa there is a small Osteria where you can get the best pasta you can find in the area. The only directions we had to get there were to follow the road along the creek, and then take the trail along the creek. We crossed over onto the first trail and began walking… it is absolutely gorgeous. I still cannot believe that I live here! We veered from the trail a few times to dip our hands into the creek and sit in the shade, I took several pictures and I don’t think I took one bad shot… that’s how beautiful the Tuscany is in every frame. We followed the path into a field of wildflowers and tall grass, we followed it across the creek a few times, all the way to a dead end. The great part was, none of us were at all disappointed when we realized we took the wrong path, we had beautiful scenery, good conversation, and good company. As we began walking back, we hit another trail, so what the hell, we decided to follow it. About a ½ km down the road, we hit the right trail! We followed this one across two bridges, one made of steel with steel netting at the bottom so that you could have an unimpeded view of the creek (scary), and the second a wood and cement bridge with the original Roman foundations.
As we walked on and on we finally hit the city of La Befa—it is a city made up of about 13 buildings, all residential except one Osteria; the exact one we were looking for. The legendary owner is Stella, a large black woman who speaks Italian and English with an islander accent. She made us our tagliatelle with meat tomato sauce and tortellini with tomato sauce. The tortellini was, to say the least, the best I have ever had. It is made with fresh local ingredients, and just downright delicious. The six km there, plus however many we walked in our nature walk, was well worth it, all for this one delicious meal.
On our way back, we had extremely intense conversations about Vergil, the Aeneid, the gods and how they do not feel grief like mortals do, how Achilles tries to reject his mortality by depriving himself of food after Patroclus dies. We also talked about the gates of ivory and the gates of horn. We talked about epic heroes, and Dante, and how he would fit into the modern ideal of a hero. This is a part of why I love being here—I can have the most intense conversations, and learn so much about the subject I love, all while walking through the Tuscan hills. This is where I belong.

July 14th, 2009

On to the Dig part though… Today, me and the other “newbies” (as we are called) woke up early for Mag duty (5:20 am), and helped put together breakfast and make the coffee—it really isn’t an ideal meal, nor is it very good coffee, but it really isn’t as bad as everyone says it is. After breakfast, all us new girls got a ride up to the Mag (Magazino—Italian for store room) and got an introductory lecture from Tony, the in charge professor, and Theresa, a grad student who has worked in Murlo for 6 years. The Mag is underground, down a driveway below Murlo (it’s a fortified castle city), with four store rooms on each side of the walk until you hit a dead end where there are two rooms facing you, one for conservation and the other for cataloguing. Inside, they described to us the importance of the dig site, and what was there (or what we think was there), and the general things you’ll find at the dig site. Theresa showed us a lot of the special finds, how they organize it, how they figure out what is ‘special’ and what is ‘bulk’ (that would be expatriated back to the site). After Theresa’s introduction, Tony drove us to the entrance of the forest where we have to walk ever morning to get up to Poggio Civitate. I found out the site is in a forest, actually, which makes it harder to dig around, but more beautiful to be around.
After an introduction to almost all of the trenches, I jumped into Kate’s, the Dig Director, with Angie, Mike, Irena, and of course, Kate. She told me short hand what they were doing, and threw me into the trench for a pick pass. Basically, I used a pickaxe to loosen up the dirt, or rather, demolish the earth, below me. Immediately thereafter Mike said “what?! Why’d you pick there!!”, thus freaking me out, so I yelled back a frantic, “WHAT?!?!?!”. Mike and Angie quickly told me that I had ruined the stratigraphy, basically screwing up the whole trench. Obviously I was freaking out, but soon caught on that they were messing with me, and that really, I should get used to it. It definitely goes along with being called the ‘new girl’. The rest of digging was fun, we also had lunch up on the hill, and then we headed back down with Chris, a trench master who’s been coming back to Murlo for six consecutive years. He brought us back down to the Mag, where we met up with Steve the conservator. He taught us the different ways to clean the fragments of special finds and regular bulk terra cotta; we used toothbrushes for dry cleaning and paintbrushes and toothpicks with self-made cotton balls for wet cleaning. He gave each of us a special find, I started working on what looked like a black vase with incisions around the lip. I was so scared to mess it up, or break it, or just do anything wrong, that at first I was extremely hesitant. After I got over my little bout of self-consciousness, I started cleaning it and actually had a lot of fun. In truth, the work is fairly tedious, and I’d rather work in the field, but it was definitely interesting to see all the sides of archaeological work, seeing how they all fit together in the grand scheme of eventually displaying the item.
Following our conservation lesson, we had our twice a week lecture which was held this time by Joe the RISD guy. He gave us an architectural design lecture, which I have all my notes for, and was about to fall asleep through. It was interesting for sure, but I was so tired by the end of the day. We got our first assignment, which I should start working on this week, but for now… I’m just ready for dinner.


Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 – Garden at Scavi house

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY!!!

Well today was another eventful day in beautiful Murlo, I began my day bright and early with a nature hike up the (not so) treacherous Poggio Civitate hill. I was really excited to start, and I really enjoyed the hike.—I hope this feeling lasts. As I was working today, I started to think “wow, I paid for this?? Wow.” But then you start realizing how cool it is that YOU are the first person to be digging up and touching the tiled roofing terra cotta, or bronze, or any of the finds in almost 3,000 years. Kinda crazy, huh? I found three special finds today—a tiny piece of bronze, a plaster mold of a wall feature, and the remains of a broken up pithoi all in one spot. It was really exciting, and very rewarding. I’m exciting to go back out tomorrow, but I’m also very tired… It’ll be another early night.


July 21st, 2009 – Magazino at lunch

This past weekend was our one long weekend to go anywhere for three days. I had to choose between Cinque Terre and Perugia with Jordana and Lizzie, or Rome with Paul, Rebecca, and Brooke. Rome ended up being more affordable, so that’s where I headed off to. We had a great time walking all around the city; we hit almost every one of the biggest monuments in Rome, leaving our hostel at 8 am, and coming back between midnight and 2 am. Having already gone to Rome, Rebecca and I became co-navigators (though I am for sure giving Rebecca more credit for this one), while Paul was along for whatever, and Brooke inserting her opinions here and there. It was a great group; we all worked really well traveling together.
Both nights in Rome, we walked into the Jewish Ghetto for dinner, and ate at a restaurant called Il Giggeto; it was definitely a lot nicer than what I would typically go for (being budget minded and all), but the food was great and we all got dressed up to go. The first night, we shared these fried rice balls with some sort of cheese in the center, and all got our own individual pastas. I ordered a Sphagetti Carbonara and shared some of everyone elses dishes. The next night I ordered the Tagalerelle, which was basically a carbonara with peas and onions. We shared the house wine, which is miles better than what we drink for table wine at the scavi house.
All in all, it was really nice to go back to Roma. Having already been there, and learning so much about the monuments since then, I felt more equipped to really see the monuments for what they were. I also felt like I could enjoy the city more just being there, instead of being totally rushed to see everything. I have realized that my favorite part of being in any new city is just being there and trying to see the city as a local does. The best part of Roma this time around was sitting at dinner, drinking wine and talking to good friends, or hanging out at the Spanish Steps, again just talking and hanging out. Ahhh how I love Italy.

August 7th, 2009 – The Dig in a Nutshell… from a hostel in Berlin

Well my time in Vescovado has come to an end, and my writing I feel has just begun. The first leg of my European adventure could not have prepared me better for what was to come next. I met some amazing people, who I hope to remain friends with, I have learned a lot about myself, and I have also learned a lot about what I want to accomplish academically.
After Roma, we continued digging for the next week, and then headed off to Firenze for a guided tour through the Etruscan Museum there by our Dig Director, Tony Tuck. It is interesting to walk through museums now, being fully able to appreciate how much time and effort goes into the end product of displaying a single item; from the digging and finding process to conservation to cataloguing to displaying and everything in between. Our tour was quick, and gave us the rest of the day to walk around the city. Britt had lived in Florence for a semester, and Theresa in Padova for a summer, so they became our guides through Florence. Britt took us to the restaurant that she frequented the past year—the owners remembered her, and so they sent over sandwiches for us all to try, on the house. We all split up after this, Theresa, Britt, and I all ventured off to find the particular hair salon Britt had gone to, again while studying abroad. As soon as we got there, we were introduced to our hair stylists—mine was Fabio, a gorgeous and charming Italian man, probably one of the most attractive men I have ever seen. He began by telling me all about my hair in broken English; “too dry!” and “keep long, not too much”. I felt confident in his hands, he complimented my curly hair, and kept laughing when he would pull a curl and it would bounce right back up. After about 15 minutes, he said, “I’m Done. No more”. And that was it. I had a great haircut. Thank you Fabio, this is the best cut I’ve ever gotten.
The next weekend, Paul, Frederick, Maggie, and I headed of to Siena for the night. We had an impromptu lecture on Friday, as it was the last day of real archaeological work, so we had to run down the hill to make the bus in time. Upon arrival, we walked around to get to our hotel, dropped our stuff and cleaned up, and then headed off to diner. We ate at a place called Ristorante Mugolone, as their “drunken rabbit” had come highly recommended by other Scavi-ers. I ordered the Tagliatelle Alla Sienese, and the Antipasti Fantasia to share with Paul. I had no clue what either of these items would be like, unaware of what the traditional sauce of Siena was, and the Fantasia being a ‘sopresa’ anyways. The Fantasia came out as a series of bruschetta, crostini, and a selection of meats. The Tagliatelle was mixed in with a cream and truffle sauce. Everything was great, and we all really enjoyed our meals. After, we got gelato (nocciola and tiramisu) and drank a bottle of wine out on the campo. It was a mellow night, and we were all really tired, so we headed back to our room fairly early to get a good start on the next day of walking around. The following day, we all met up and walked around Siena; Maggie and Frederick left early to get back to the Scavi house, while Paul and I stayed back and ended up running into Britt, Theresa, Rebecca, Brooke, Rachel, Julia, Ashley, D, and Karen. We shopped around the streets of Siena, I found an electric blue t-shirt with caricatures of the main tourist attractions in Siena and quickly snatched it up, and also shopped around the Chinese store (legendary for Scavi-ers, it is basically the santy alley of back home all in one store). This weekend trip reminded me of the travel lesson I learned in Roma, that with good company you can have fun anywhere—the destination, although important, does not mean as much without good company.
With the close of this weekend, came also the close of Scavi. On Monday, all we had left to do on the hill was backfill. We all started out dreading the process; after all, backfilling is just piling dirt over tarped trenches so that they reach ground level. It consists of carrying dirt back and forth from dirt hill to trenches. As the day progressed however, thunder approached—and soon after, rain. At this point we had nearly finished about 80% of the backfill, however we needed to finish that day. Once the rain hit, we all began running around, speeding up the process, filling buckets and wheelbarrows as quickly as possible. I became the runner between the bucket fillers at the bottom of the dirt hill and the bucket carriers at the top of the hill. Because of the rain and mud, it became progressively harder and harder to run up the hill without slipping and losing a step here and there, however, this day was my favorite day on the hill. The intensity of everyone running to get the job done, pushing through fatigue, and soon after finishing the process, was exhilarating and fun. It reminded me of a CIF basketball game from back in high school, when the opposing team is up, though the underdog pulls through for the win in the end.
On Monday, the first wave of Scavi was leaving for Roma, which included one of the closest friends I had made in Vescovado. On the following morning, nearly the rest of my good friends were leaving for Roma as well. So after we saw that first wave off, all of us girls planned a slumber party in my room, with Rebecca, D, and Rachel. At the slumber party, I threw out a crazy idea… what if I went to Roma with them the next day, for only a day, to be a “sopresa!” to my friend that had left that same day. So, in an ultimate act of spontaneity, I packed a day bag, woke up the next morning, and headed off to Roma for the second time this trip. It turned out to be a great idea, our friend really enjoyed the surprise, and we were all able to hang out for the last time, walking through the streets of Roma. We decided just to wander around, talk, and stop every once in a while when we hit a place we liked. It was hard to see everyone off, everyone that I had become so close to in so short an amount of time. I hope to see these people again, and am looking forward to planning my cross-country road trip to see them all.
And now, finally, I am in Berlin. I have found several pieces of terra cotta roofing, an in situ pot, a fragment of a loom weight, a full profile piece of pottery, and a few other fun finds. I have also worked in conservation with some of the same items, and in cataloguing as well. At this point, I am able to look back at the dig from an outsider’s perspective, and am able to see that although I had a great time, archaeology may not be my true calling. I have learned a lot about this area of study, and I find working in the field an unmatched experience to learning the same subject in a classroom. Additionally, I really enjoyed that the dig brings together such a great amount of people each year of the same or similar interests. It was also interesting to find pottery or bone or terra cotta fragments and realize that you were the first person to see and touch this item in over 2000 years. I think, however, that I would rather work in the later steps of archaeology—perhaps museum work, or teaching Classical art history. Grad school, like before, will come next. I hope to find one in which I can study in both the Classics department and Art History, so that I can study everything I enjoy—Classical Art History, Latin, and Greek.

Goodbye Beautiful Vescovado, I hope to see you again.