Meet My Neighbor, Pete

Everyone here is having a great time.  I know my way around the neighborhood of the hotel pretty well and am definitely starting to like the city.  We have eaten well for the past few nights, and I don't see that changing in the near future.  I had a piece of mozzarella so wonderful on Wednesday that I spontaneously grabbed my mouth and everyone thought I was choking.  Sleeping has not been so successful.  My jet lag has been bizarre: yesterday I got 8 hours of sleep but crashed mid-day, and last night, for no reason at all, I couldn't sleep a wink but have been fully energized all day.  I think it had something to do with any caffeine the tiramisu I ate last night- which I can do all the time whenever I want.  I'm going to have to find a good tiramisu/sleep equilibrium, because both are critically important to my continued wellbeing and I'm not sure I can have both.

I haven't found housing yet; the two places I visited on Wednesday weren't to my liking.  Other students are finding great things here and there and I'm not worried about it.  I've sent a few responses to online postings and we'll see what happens.  A significant number of the offers around here are girls-only, and I really want to be within the center or just outside the University area.  If things get really bad, I'm sure that there's a tent packed somewhere in my ridiculously unwieldy frame backpack.

Yesterday we took a grammar test for our sorting into Gryffindor and Slytherin the two language levels for the pre-session course.  It was all stuff I had been taught at some point but hadn't necessarily learned.  We'll see how that turns out.  We also had the distinct pleasure this morning of applying for our Permission to Stay documents, which involved a ten-minute process at the post office for each student.  That's almost as fun as it sounds, but we got to walk through some really nice neighborhoods on the way.

We also had a bus tour today, but as we learned last time, Italians drive as if the daily commute is a game of Mario Kart.  Our driver, heaving around the largest vehicle on the road, was paying absolutely no attention as he maneuvered us through tiny alleys and on the edge of a hillside.  The tour wasn't even particularly good, as he just slowed down in front of random churches, certainly old but visually unimpressive from a bus window, and then moved on.  The coolest spots I've seen so far are actually at the Piazza Maggiore, within walking distance from the hotel:

There's a fountain of Neptune in the Piazza:

This is Divus Petronius, and a quick Internet reveals that he's patron saint of the city.  Not much is known about him, says Wikipedia, but he seems like a nice guy to me.  Let's call him Pete.

Pete watches the Piazza from the Palazzo d'Accursio:

 The Basilica di San Petronio.  I asked about renting a room, but the price was obscene:

The Palazzo del Podesta:

 Next time, maybe I'll have a home.  We'll see.