It’s raining. This is apparently the first rain they’ve had in almost six months, but it has cancelled our fieldtrip to the vigna (vineyard), so I’m not as appreciative of it as I should be. It’s been pouring, non-stop, for the last day and a half. Yesterday we decided to get soaked and walk into town, to the supermercato and tabacchi (both basically what they sound like) to buy food, laundry detergent, and stamps. It’s about a half-hour walk to downtown Otranto, which is full of little shops and gelaterias. A large part of the tourist downtown is in the castle, which is now just a walled in section with tiny crooked streets lined with tiny oblong shops. Most shops spill out into the street and have awnings that almost meet each other in the center, making a largely rain-free tunnel. Pedestrians must share the streets with the city’s drainage system (or lack thereof), however, and some streets are essentially rivers. I was rather glad I wore my open sandals, because keeping your shoes dry became a moot point. We (Kayla, Kelcey, Matt, and I) mostly window shopped, wandering in and out, looking at fancy colored pastas and ceramic espresso cups and beautiful leather sandals (I think I’m going to have to get a pair before we leave). I ended up buying a nice black shirt (just so I can say I have some Italian clothes), and a pair of earrings for Julie (yes, I just gave away the surprise, Ju-ju). We then meandered through the supermercato, deciding on some maccheroni (the real form of macceroni), cachiotta di Lecce (a fairly local, semi-hard aged cheese), blood orange juice, salame Napoli (salami of Naples), and fresh rolls that turned out to be full of zucchini chunks. We also got a very cheap bottle of local vino rosa (pink wine) before trekking back to our rooms through the rain. After all drying off, we spent a very pleasant afternoon enjoying our food and wine together- we’re all getting quite used to meals taking at least an hour and a half, and being very social, conversational events. I do quite like the Italian way of eating.
Today, since it was still pouring, we all had a long breakfast and then went about whatever indoor activities we could find, which are rather scarce here… being a summer resort, they aren’t used to having to keep guests occupied in the rain. I cleaned my room and then did essential laundry in the bathroom sink, because the Italian washers are very small and cost 3.50 euro a load, and there are no dryers anyway. We’re going to pool our money and do one washer load with all of our uniforms, but the rest of my clothing is easily washed by hand. Every edge, hook, and door in our room is now hung with drying laundry. Pino, our host and owner of the resort we’re staying at, said we can take a trip to Lecce this afternoon, as it’s supposedly not raining there, and the city is larger than Otranto. There are ancient Roman ruins and a huge cathedral, and much classic baroque architecture to see, or so I’ve read. Right now, anywhere that’s not in my room with the rain beating down on the roof sounds wonderful to me.
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