Report on Tolfa, Round 2

(Last year's post is here.)

It was cold the whole time, except for maybe 2 days when it was pleasant during the day. The heat wasn't on in my room for all but 3 days, but with 3 blankets it was OK. It rained almost every day and was always windy. The cook said the weather was abnormal for May. I got more eggs for dinner than cheese this year, which was an improvement, however we had cheese (and bread and tomatoes) almost every day for lunch. We were more prepared for the lack of things to do this year, since we all brought our computers to do school work. So we had lots of movies to choose from in the evenings, as opposed to last year when only one person had a computer and we had only 2 movies. Even with internet keys that work through cell phone lines, however, there was little or no internet connection. I also brought motion-sickness medicine this year for the 30-40 minutes of twisty road between Civitavecchia and Tolfa, which the bus drivers like to traverse as fast as possible. The showers consistently alternated between scalding and cool water. Also this year we were there for 3 weeks, instead of 2 like last year.

On the plus side, the work wasn't bad. I did 3 objects: a Roman-era cooking pot, a bucchero Etruscan pitcher, and a marble piece from a Roman sarcophagus, and I got to use a micro-abrasive sandblaster. Also, we saw the donkeys again, and there were 5 or 6 this year, up from 3 last year. There weren't any geckos, lizards, or lightning bugs this year, though, but there was a lot of wisteria on a wooden structure outside the hostel (old monastery) for a week or two, which was pretty. And I got to eat at the Subway in Civitavecchia again.

Two other groups stayed at the hostel while we were there: a group of archaeology students from Sicily who were only there for a weekend and a group of Norwegian high school students who were very loud and were there for several days.