So tomorrow is my last day in Siena. It is very bittersweet. I love Siena so much and it really has felt like my second home. I have fallen in love with every part of this place. But when we leave Siena we are headed to Venice and then I am going to Paris and London with a small group after the program ends. I am very excited for this. Crazy to think that I will have gone to Rome, Paris and London all in one trip. Never thought the day would come where I was leaving Siena though. Seriously felt like we were just going to live here forever. Oh how time flies...
So this post is dedicated to Siena and the typical days I had here. Every once in a while I would catch myself feeling so comfortable and so at home here. When I first got here everything felt like a dream but now it just feels like everyday life.
Alright so first the walk I talk to get to school every morning. Lucky for me and my roommates, we live about ten minutes away from school. Some of the other girls are an hour to half hour away. The walk I take is very beautiful and is all uphill. Gotta work off all that pasta somehow.
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| One of the Contrada fountains. This is my Contrada, the Torre Contrada :) |
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| Back view of the Campo |
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| This hill kills me. Hopefully you can see just how steep this hill is. |
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| From the top of the stupid hill. |
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| Love the doors here! |
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| The Tartuca Contrada fountain. I fill up my water bottle here sometimes. |
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| Finally at the school! |
At school we sit in the student room a lot. Everyone uses the internet and its one of the only times, besides weekend trips, that we all see each other. We usually get lunch and a treat of some sort then share endless amounts of youtube videos with each other. There is a sandwich place very close to the school that I have gone to multiple times with some of the girls. And let me tell you, those sandwiches are something that I miss a lot. The bread is just so good and the salami picante is the best. The owner of the shop loves us and gets a kick out of us coming in all the time. Today we told her it was our last time coming in so she told us to come back in an hour or two and she gave us free cookies! She just loaded up a bag for us. I will miss her and her to die for sandwiches. I wish I had a picture of this place to show you but all I can give you is a semi blurry picture of one of the sandwiches I have gotten.
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| My usual view of the sala di studenti. |
Believe it or not I do actually go to school here. I have homework and have written too many papers. My Italian teacher Enzo is one of the funniest teachers I have ever had. He is also a great teacher. I will miss him a lot. One day in class he decided that we needed to make tiramisu, without alcohol or coffee of course. We just used orzo which is Postem or Pero. So we went to the grocery store with him, made it and then ate while having our lesson.
Outside of school we usually eat and go shopping. the main road of Siena is always packed with people and it is very fun to people watch and window shop. There are so many stores just for classy men who wear suit jackets with a nice pair of jeans or a classy sweater. They also start their kids young when it comes to a good fashion sense. They are so many shops dedicated to trendy babies. Also if you have seen Letters to Juliet you may have seen a street performer painted completely in gold playing an old school video camera. He is only shown for a few seconds. Unfortunately he died a couple weeks ago. The kind people of Siena put flowers and notes where he would perform. For some reason everyone in our group was really sad about this. Even though we didn't know him it was devastating to hear about.
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| These carts are everywhere. Chestnuts are very popular here. But definitely not my favorite. |
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| I love me some good ol vintage stores. |
I feel very lucky to be traveling with the group that I am in. We are all very different in our own ways but we work as a group. I think it's pretty awesome that we love to hang out as an entire group as often as we can. Once we went to see Lion King in Italian in 3D. Half way through the movie and midway through one of the lines the screen went blank and then"Intervallo" came on the screen. They have intermissions for movies here! We were all so confused and then when we realized what it was we all cracked up. Also Lion King is hilarious in Italian. We also love going to this place called the Tea Room. It is a genius idea of a place in my opinion. The restaurant is decorated in all vintage art pieces, music instruments, books, tea pots, couches and tables. When you order tea you get your own tea pot and tea cup with a little strainer. Every tea pot is different and they are all beautiful! Every couple Wednesdays they have Jazz night and someone performs Jazz music. The first night we went there were two guys performing, one on the saxophone, the other on the marimba. Just tonight we went and a girl sang to a man playing wonderful jazz music on the piano. This place is great to hang out in and get away from the cold. Love it!
Our group also loves to go dancing. Sometimes different Contrade will have a big dance party in the streets of Siena. The most recent one was for the owl contrada. The dance party was right in front of a church. It was so much fun just dancing the night away with people from all over the world. Also there is this place called Cambio that is a pretty popular place on Thursday nights. Our group has had some interesting/fun nights there.
On Sunday a group of us went to a Siena soccer game. It was the most purely Italian thing I have done here. Definitely a thing the locals do. They had so many cheers and songs to yell during the entire game! Alli and I came later than the rest of the group and sat behind this school group of little boys who were so adorable. They were getting so into the game, yelling and throwing their hands in the air. They also has signs that they flashed every once in a while. Then for the second half we found the rest of the group sitting in the rowdy crowd. There were two men leading everyone in all the songs and cheers. When Siena scored tying the game, the crowd went nuts and we joined in the jumping and yelling and pushing. Definitely an experience I will never forget. Those Italians sure do love their calcio.
I have also had some neat opportunities to bake/cook either for the group or with an Italian and learn some traditional dishes. Obviously I cooked in the cooking course but nothing compares to cooking with someone in their home, learning one of their favorite recipes. Forest's host mom, Donatella, let me come over a couple nights to bake with her. She heard that I wanted to be a chef and graciously let me into her home and showed me some very delicious and easy recipes that are Italian favorites. The one I have pictures for is a fruit tart/cake. It is cake on bottom then topped with a delicious cream and then loaded with fruit. It all came together so quickly. I was shocked at how simple and quick it was. Also for FHE we got into a habit of planning activities revolving around food. One night we made Rainbow Chip cake (do not get it confused with funfetti cake. They are very different.) And we've also made tomato basil soup with grilled cheese sandwiches, banana bread, apple cider, toasted pumpkin seeds, Nutella cookies, and french toast with a cinnamon syrup. As if we don't eat enough here...
Some of the best experiences and memories I have are the things I have done in Siena. Meeting the locals and cooking with them or cheering on a soccer team with them or making friends with the owners of a sandwich or pastry shop were exactly the experiences I was looking for. I am so grateful for the many weekend trips we have taken and for the things I have seen in other Italian towns, but Siena holds a special place in my heart.
