First Week in Cortona, Italy

It’s hard to believe I’ve been in Cortona for a week  (well actually more like 4 days considering I went away).  Cortona is such a gorgeous town surrounded by stunning Tuscan countryside.  The town itself is filled with old stone and plastered buildings and a whole lot of churches!  I also underestimated the amount of hills here or more so how steep they would be.  I’ve been dying just a tad but I’m going to have legs of steel when I get home. Our hostel is really quaint and I’m in a room with 4 others girls – Anita, Nicole, Rachel, and Mariana.  Mama, as we call her, is an awesome Italian woman who does our cooking and cleaning in the hostel and to say she is a gem is an understatement!  The food here has been amazing.  Mama literally makes the best pasta ever and so far four days in and we have yet to have anything repeated.  I will admit though I am a bit in veggie withdrawal.

My classes so far have actually been pretty interesting with my favourite being the Italian banking course surprisingly enough.  The professors are really passionate about what their teaching but at the same time also very typical Italian and extremely laid back so we have had like no homework or readings to do thus far.  We also have like no idea what’s going on for our exams and papers but oh well I assume they will have to inform us soon!

The people I have met so far, I feel like I have known for such a longer time! The other students here are so nice and really awesome people to be around.  We tend to do everything in a pack so I’ve started referring to us as a mob and everything we do is because of the mob mentality.  Poor Cortona has to deal with our loud selves. Our first day we climbed up to the church at the top of the hill (and we all died) as their was a festival for Santa Margherita before we all went for a pizza dinner that evening.  There literally was so much pizza I thought I might explode (and yes I could have showed self restraint and not ate so much but what can I say I am a glutinous individual).  Laura, one of our coordinators here, took us for a tour around the town and showed us a bunch of neat little places and told us a lot of history as she is also a tour guide here.  I find her to be absolutely precious!   My first week here has been super chill so far, just meeting fantastic people and exploring around the town of Cortona.  Definitely a great start to my summer, although I do constantly need to remind myself I am in school still!

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