PART III: COLDIGIOCO AND GEOLOGIZING AROUND FRONTALE (8/6)

I woke up at 4:30 for the 5:45 train out of Rome and my first task was to find a way to get into the Termini with all the front doors locked. Eventually by asking some folks at a cafe I found out where the actual main entrance was and bought a ticket at a surprisingly easy-to-use vending machine. After boarding the train a three and a half hour ride took me across hundreds of kilometers of gorgeous farm country to Castelplanio-Cupramontana. Once I got off I had to walk around trying to find a phone because the payphone at il stazione didn't work. Eventually some ladies at a bank let me use their phone despite their lack of English and my lack of Italian. Soon after talking to Jeff, my advisor/professor, on the phone I was picked up by Carly, one of our T.A.s in a tiny little Fiat Punto that matched all the other tiny Fiats that Italians drive. After a thirty minute drive through the gorgeous mountains of the Apennines I was finally at OGC!

No time for rest, however, because Sandro, the owner and director of OGC, gave us our first lesson followed by a lunch of pasta and vegetables and then five hours in the field learning about the stratigraphy of the Apennines. our first day in the field was spent at a number of sites around Frontale, about ten minutes from Coldigioco, at a number of sites examining some of the youngest stratigraphic layers deposited in the region. Driving around in two Fiat vans (named Bene and Male, or good and bad after their respective ages. The Male is twenty years old and still going strong!) on some pretty narrow and windy mountain roads with crazy italian drivers blazing around was pretty treacherous. Sandro and Jeff kept it pretty chill though so I'm not too worried about barreling down a mountainside.

After returning to OGC we had an hour of Italian with Consuelo, Sandro's cousin once removed, and then headed out to Frontale for dinner at Il Carbonaro, a restaurant owned by one of Sandro's friends. Dinner was, of course, pasta and vegetables with plenty of wine followed by tomatoes and mozzarella doused with olive oil, vinegar, and oregano. This was followed by french fries and very thinly sliced and fried chicken. A strange combination but a wonderful meal to finish out the evening.