The first time she basted a turkey was hilarious

I've typed the first sentence of this post and backspaced the entire thing about 6 times. I don't really know how to give Cortona an adequate introduction. Maybe an onomatopoeia...

Bloop! 

Cortona is unquestionably the most beautiful place I have ever been, and this program is a little slice of heaven for an art student. Logistically, the location, classes, surroundings, schedule (or lack of) is SO conducive to making art. On a different level, the attitude of both the professors and the students is completely ideal. Here is a typical day in my newly-adopted Italian life...

7:15 am Wake up, get dressed, eat cornflakes, coconut yogurt, nutella on toast, fruit (if I stole it from dinner the night before) and drink really weak "American coffee."

8:00 am Depending on the day go to Painting or Relief Printmaking class till 11. I have 2 paintings underway and am about to pull my first set of prints. Paintings are of a very boring still life of bottles, and an italian turpentine can with really exciting typography. The print is a foot, which sounds odd but I will post pictures when I finish it. All this after only one week. Ridiculous. 

11:00 am Go to Drawing or Bookmaking class until 2. In drawing we have done 6 drawings. SIX. That's a lot for the amount of time. Mine were of various kitchen appliances. Italy has super retro appliances that make for very exciting drawings. In book arts we have made 3 little prototypes and have our first book with content due next week. It's a recycled book, meaning we have to use things we find or already have and spend no money at all on the book. No plan for that yet... except that I stumbled across a huge container of used batteries on the street today. Slightly sketchy, we'll see. 

2:00 pm Lunch! I either get a panini at the grocery store in town or cook! I have kept an extensive journal of my grocery lists, recipes I've thought of/plan to make, and things I've actually cooked. Produce is SO cheap here. I got 4 tomatoes, 2 bananas, 2 apples, an onion, an avocado, a head of lettuce, a red pepper and a clove of garlic for 4 euro. On Wednesdays, there are no classes till the afternoon and one of the professors wife teaches a cooking class. so far she's taught us how to make Rosemary Chicken and ZUPPA! which is really just soup but sound twelve times as exciting. 

3:00 pm Go into town to buy groceries, get gelato or a cappuccino, go to the art store, wander aimlessly, go for a walk, sit and stare, sketch, daydream, dance, paint, run, pick flowers, buy cheap wine for dinner (there is literally and 85 cent bottle in the grocery store, and the 2 euro bottle is really decent), write postcards, etc, etc, etc.

5:00 pm On Wednesdays and Fridays I have art history in a warm, dark room in the middle of the afternoon. This generally translates into difficulty staying awake. 

5:30 pm This is the only mass time I could decipher from the Italian schedule posted outside the closest church. It is a HIKE. Super steep incline, all cobblestones. The first Sunday we were here I left too late and had about five minutes to get there in time. I was out of breath until the homily and coughing until after communion. But it's worth it, the church is really, really beautiful inside and  having been twice now, I think I might even know people by the end of the semester. 

7:00 pm Leave for dinner. Monday through Friday we have dinner at a restaurant in town called Toninos. It's supposed to be one of the best restaurants in Tuscany, but we eat in the basement and I seriously doubt the people upstairs are getting the same thing. As you go down the flights of stairs the decor gets progressively tackier, and the food less tasty. But it's still really good and on nights where there is a wedding or party upstairs, our food improves a little. Dinner generally lasts 1-2 hours and is between 3 and 4 courses. Sometimes they throw a random veggie course in the mix, but it's usually pasta, then meat, then dessert. My favorite was when they added "the bean course" where we were served several different types of beans in succession. Very odd. 

9:00 pm Depending on how much work I have to do I either go back to do art or go to the Lion's Well, the only pub in Cortona that everyone frequents, including the professors. Cell phones are really, really not necessary here. People are either in class, in their rooms, in a studio or in town. Which is really only about 4 streets. Very manageable. 

11:00 or 12 go to bed! in order to get up for class the next morning. 

It is becoming more and more apparent that all I am expected to do here, to both do well in school and get the most out of my experience, is eat, drink, make art and let Italy inspire me. Which it has. Even just from traveling in Rome and Florence and being here for a week I have SOOOO many ideas for art and life and I haven't been this excited to make art in a really long time. Which is a good thing since I am expected to make a lot of it, and often. Pictures soon, and a more detailed account of the adventures and hoopla that go down in these hills.