Season of Gelato gives way to Cioccolata Calda

With a sudden drop in temperatures, time has started whizzing by.

I’ve been in Italy for seven weeks now. I’ve found that I can successfully buy bus and train tickets, order at restaurants (even if I’m not quite sure what it is I’ve selected), and make bad jokes to my host family (Olga, gesturing at my plate: Do you like it? Me: Haha. No, me no like, that is why I eat much a lot of it. Haha)

The academic side of my stay here has been educational in many ways—I’ve learned about the Italian “academic fifteen,” which is quite different from its American counterpart, the dreaded Freshman Fifteen. In Italy, there’s a generally acknowledged pillow of fifteen minutes (more or less) between the appointed start time of class, and when you’re expected to be there. Our Italian teachers were the ones to actually inform us of this practice.

One week ago, I was still wearing shorts and feeling slightly guilty about it. Since then the weather has turned: a fifteen degree temperature drop and spiteful wind have brutally proved to us that summer ends, even in Tuscany. Since Italian families tend to eat foods that are in season, bean soup, pumpkin risotto, and some kind of deep fried bread dish have been making appearances at the family table. The desire for gelato after every meal has been replaced with pastries or hot chocolate. We American students have been scolded by our Italian teachers for complaining about the constant cold, which has been difficult to adjust to. Apparently in Italy heating systems are regulated by the government, and so most public buildings, and many private ones, won’t be able to turn on the heat until a prescribed date in November. Which means a damp and chilly day…will be a damp and chilly day inside and out.

Yesterday Angela and Erikka and I clawed our way to the European Chocolate Festival in Perugia (catching three trains or varying lateness and battling menacing crowds of chocolate fanatics). Pergugia was absolutely swarmed by thousands of people who descend each year to taste and buy some of the best chocolate to be had in Europe. It was the coldest I’ve been in Italy thus far, with wind whipping up and a down the narrow streets and the sky grayed over with thick clouds. But there was something exciting about the onset of fall and the threat of winter in the air. The delicious feeling of a cup of cioccolate calda warming your numb fingers while you walk aisles of chocolate kebabs, chocolate French fries, chocolate covered apples and chocolate dipped bananas wouldn’t be the same in summer weather.

After a brisk walk home from the train station, I put an extra comforter on my bed and nestled up with my warm computer (for an episode of Freaks and Geeks), and nibbled on chocolate dipped apricots before falling asleep for twelve hours.

I’ve got two weeks of classes before the start of my ten-day fall break; I hope I don’t go into full hibernation first.