After our usual 8:00 am breakfast, we boarded the train to Arrezzo. Refreshed by our ten minute power naps, we got out at the very next stop and met Giovanni, our tour guide. The first thing Giovanni did was call the impressively ornate buildings around us crap. He then explained the difference between Renaissance and Neo-Renaissance buildings: the former being considered “true art” and the latter being considered a mockery. He continued to point out the “real” architecture amongst the “fake” counterparts, passionately delving into the history of artwork in Arrezzo.
Considering all the random facts he knew, Giovanni should have been on jeopardy. For example, we found out 7% of Italy’s GDP was controlled by the mafia. Moreover, Italy had a complicated policing system with real police and “fake” police, also known as the carabinieri. Giovanni also loved to talk about Italian customs and government. He warmly described the Italian government as a bureaucratic mess that gets little to nothing done. Giovanni also went in depth into how Italians are incredible liars and are incredibly confused due to the multitude of thoughts in their head. Much like a soccer fan, Giovanni is incredibly loyal to his hometown. According to him, Italians identify based on their hometown rather than the province they hail from. Giovanni proved his hometown loyalty by driving an extra hour to a hospital in Siena rather than Arezzo to conceive his daughter. The reason: Cortana was attacked by Arezzo in the 12th Century. Giovanni is a true hometown fan.
In the middle of our tour of the city and five (5) separate churches, some of us got lunch at a local kebab shop near the city square. For only €5 a plate, it was absolutely incredible. We then followed our meals up with some gelato (naturally) and went to rejoin the group to conclude our tour, where Giovanni continued his entertaining commentary. We briefly visited a hall exhibiting the history of the local jousting tournaments of the town, which have been going on for hundreds of years and have kept the same uniforms and traditions the entire time. At the end of the day, several of us got bottled fruit juices with little slices of jelly in them, which quickly became a popular group favorite, and we concluded the day by going for one last swim in the hotel pool.
