Quando sembra troppo vicino.

Last Saturday we took our second day trip with the school to a little town in Le Marche (a mountainous region East of Tuscany) called Urbino. They took us there because it is small but beautiful and home to a huge palace, but practically impossible to get to by means of public transportation. After three hours on the bus through winding mountain roads we were introduced to Urbino, a tiny walled city nestled within the hillside. We took a tour of Palazzo Ducale, but then were let loose in the city, to explore and eat for the rest of the afternoon. The town was small, there was lots of brick, we had pizza and drank wine for lunch, lost ourselves in tiny alleyways, took pictures of hanging laundry and vast vistas, before heading back to the bus.

The day in itself was nothing spectacular. Driving home however, watching the sun set as we descended the mountain on switchback roads, facing the Italian countryside spread open before us, leaving the little walled town behind, the three short months I have ahead of me finally seemed entirely too short.

I have since taken to waking up a little earlier, and staying out longer during the day, reading on church steps, watching people in piazzas, chatting with baristas. When days pass this quickly its all I can do to try and slow them down a little.
This afternoon I decided to climb the cupola of the Duomo for the first time. The monument that stole my breath when I first drove into the city in September has since become just one of the many churches I pass on the way to school in the morning. Every now and then I take the time to look up and see the façade just as striking against the blue Florentine sky as it was my first day here.

The view from the top (after over 400 steps and no elevator) was incredible. I fell in love all over again with the panorama of the city that I now consider my home. The red terra cotta rooftops littered the horizon up until the hillside in all directions, and I could pick out the streets, the churches, the towers, and the piazzas that I walk on, past, and through every day. I couldn’t bring myself to leave my post up there, at the top of my world, for over an hour. Even though the days rush by and the beauty all begins to look the same, I continue to be mesmerized by this place.

Beautiful Urbino:


Palazzo Ducale in Urbino:


The sunset from the bus:


Top of the Duomo: