Cor magis tibi Sena pandit (Siena opens its heart to you)

Ahhh! I’m already settled in Florence and have yet to write about my two weeks in Siena! I’ll try to remember as much as possible and hopefully get caught up enough to make my entries more recent.

As much as I loved London, I was anxious to get to Italy and finally see in person everything I learned about in my Italian classes - everything that motivated me to travel here in the first place. Unfortunately, we had a few delays on the day of our country transfer due to some students’ previous night drunken escapades. After two extra hours sitting on the bus, we were finally on the road headed to Heathrow to board the plane for Pisa, Italy. Again, a few delays. I was settled in my seat for just a few minutes when one of the flight staff randomly asked me to switch seats with some dude. I learned later it was because he was drunk and couldn’t be next to the emergency exit. Sadly, for some people it seems like this whole study abroad experience is one big drunken party… I apologize in advance, but this post will probably contain quite a bit of ranting related to this issue.

We didn’t stay long in Pisa - which means I definitely have to go back and take one of those pictures of myself pretending to hold up the leaning tower. Once the plane landed we divided up between buses and began the country-side drive to Siena. Even though I was so exhausted from all the flying and driving from the past few days, I stayed awake gazing out the window. Rolling hills scattered with ancient houses and rich color made for a breathtaking view. Seeing the sporadically open shutters with line-drying clothes hanging outside made me chuckle – that’s what I pictured when I thought of Italy.

The buses reached Hotel Athena in a very impressive climb up several steep hills and maneuvering of ridiculously narrow streets lined with medieval stone walls. This hotel would be our home for the next two weeks and I have to say it was much nicer than I expected. I stayed on the sixth floor with two other girls. Our window opened to a gorgeous view of the Siena countryside. I wish I could have somehow transported this picturesque view to my apartment window in Austin where I look out and see the back of Jack in the Box every morning. We had a welcome dinner at Enoteca Italiana, which also houses the finest wines of Italy and was the site of our wine tasting class the following week. The food was fantastic and consisted of four courses and unlimited red and white wine. I don’t know how Italians do it; the meal lasted several hours and by the end I had to get up and walk around to stay awake. The restaurant itself was equally fantastic. It was the site of a 16^th century military fortress - so basically we were dining in dungeons and corridors.

The next day after our orientation meeting we had time to walk the streets of Siena and begin our interesting interactions with Italians. I tried my best to speak the language as much as possible, and as long as you try, it is much appreciated. I expected to be scared about speaking the language since I’m not too confident in my knowledge of it, but to my surprise I seemed to dive head first into every opportunity. I’ve also gotten a few compliments on my efforts and accent!

Siena is an ancient medieval city with maze-like streets and I often felt like I was walking around on a movie set. Apparently there is a law protecting the historic buildings – nothing modern can be built above the ground, it is literally all underground. I wish more cities would adopt this law. It preserves the beauty of a city and gives it sort of a unique identity.

One of my favorite spots to go in Siena is the Piazza del Campo – the huge open center of town, surrounded by cafes and pizzerias where you can find Italians enjoying the sun and children playing soccer or chasing pigeons. Because of their huge, puffy coats and funny caps, all of the kids looked like marshmallows running around – so adorable! The Piazza is also the site of il Palio, the horse race between the 17 districts of Siena that occurs twice a year.

The night life in Siena was fun, even though everywhere you go you run into Americans – we seemed to take over the small city while we were there. Most of the cafes and restaurants turned into clubs by night and people from the country would come into the city for a night out. Though I have yet to make it to a discoteca (dance club), it was fun going around the city meeting Italians and trying new drinks such as grappa, liquor made from the skins of grapes. It definitely smells and tastes like grape skins… grape skins mixed with death.

We started Italian class that Monday and I really enjoyed it. Our classes were held from 9am to 1pm at the beautiful Scuola di Lingua Dante Alighieri, not too far from the hotel. It’s so different learning a foreign language in a place where you can leave class and practice it with everyone around you. It’s much more exciting. Our professor, Enzo, is from southern Italy and has been teaching in Siena for a while. For the most part I liked our class, with the exception of a few disrespectful, rude girls who had no intention of altering their American lifestyle to adjust to the Italian way of life.

Unfortunately the first few days of my first week in Siena I was pretty sick with a fever, but luckily one of my friends brought an entire U.S. pharmacy with her. I think the traveling finally took a toll on me.

One of the things I love about my study abroad program is the activities they have planned for us. While in Siena I took an art history and museum tour where I saw the beautiful Duomo and Palazzo Pubblico, both adorned with artwork and 14^th century paintings. One interesting place we visited was St. Dominic’s Basilica, a huge brick church that has on display the head and thumb of St. Catherine of Siena. I also took a wine tasting class and learned about how wine is a part of Italian tradition. Italians rarely drink to get drunk and never abuse wine in that way. We were told that “Wine isn’t just a drink, it’s an emotion”.

My favorite activity was taking a cooking class at La Scuola di Cucina di Lella Cesari Ciampoli. I learned how to make three dishes, all of which I can’t wait to try to make back in the states! The first was a famous Tuscan soup called Pappa col Pomodoro. It was created years ago by the poor people of Tuscany, made only from stale bread, tomatoes, basil, olive oil and vegetable broth. It has since become a trendy and pricey dish in restaurants. Next we made pici (a sort of thick spaghetti) with tomato sauce – all from scratch. For dessert we had tiramisu. I’m surprised that I’ve only had gelato twice and tiramisu once since I’ve been in Italy. I really thought it’d be a part of my daily diet.

We also took a weekend trip to the city of the towers – San Gimignano. It reminded me a lot of Siena – small, hilly, and surrounded by ancient art, architecture and history. We climbed over 200 steps of one of the towers to a fantastic view of the city. If I had a few hours to spend just sitting up there, I would have been quite content.

By the second week of Siena I was starting to feel anxious to get to Florence. Siena was beautiful, but spending two weeks constantly around the same people, eating at the same restaurants, got old fast. Cliques began to form and it started to feel a lot like high school. There are some incredibly rude and shallow people in my program, and usually I’m able to ignore it and not let it bother me. But it was so far from what I expected that it’s been difficult to deal with. I guess I just know so many people back home that would love to have this experience and it makes me upset that they can’t and these people can. On the other hand, I have met a lot of amazing people and am excited to explore Florence with them. I also hope to venture out more on my own, since a lot of my intentions for this trip are to learn more about myself. We are warned a lot about going out alone and all the bad that can happen, but I think if I just use common sense I’ll be okay. So far so good!


Here are more pictures from my time in Siena and San Gimignano!