Re-Do

Alright, well I've decided to move my blog. Actually that's a lie; I have to keep up my university blog because I agreed to do it, but I probably won't be posting there half as much as here, and it will be repeated content. I don't mind blogging for the university at all, but it's just a bit frustrating. All of my posts and pictures have to be sent to my study abroad advisor and then she's the person who actually posts them. Also I can't approve who comments on my blog, they do. So while it's not a huge deal, I figure it will just be easier to keep this one. I can also use this more as a diary and a better description of my time here if I know that our chancellor probably isn't reading it:)

So on Friday we went to the amazingly gorgeous town of Siena. I'm in love. It's just classic Europe. The tall buildings, the yellow and pink building colors, the colorful light posts, just everything. The entire atmosphere. We started the day with a beautiful bus ride through the Tuscan countryside, with lots of villas, vineyards, and olive groves. We got to Siena and walked along this huge wall that the Medici family had built. After passing several stall vendors, we interrupted service at the Church of San Domenico, but it was very gorgeous, and probably worth it.
We wound around some streets, ending up at the Crypto and Baptismo of the Duomo.
It was neat to see the 13^th century paintings and the crypts below. The fact that they painted these so long ago and they still exist – and that they painted over these pictures to create new ones. We then went around to the front, saw one of the oldest hospitals in all of Europe, and of course the Duomo itself.
Absolutely amazing. I never thought that it would have so much color.
We got really lucky because normally the floors are all covered with a cardboard type thing, but because the month of September is dedicated to the Virgin (the cities patron saint), they were mostly all uncovered and we got to walk on and view the amazing masonry work of these marble stones.

However even after all of this history art and architecture, my favorite part of the day was just wandering the streets of Siena purposely getting lost in order to find great niches. Up and down hills, around winding roads, it was just great.

I can't believe that people actually live here and have real lives. We sat in an Osteria on the outskirts of the bell-shaped Piazza del Campo to people watch. We also ad some great cafe freddo (iced espresso), insalata caprese (Caprese Salad, aka tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil), and pizza margherita (tomato pizza, kinda). Molto delicioso. After a bit more wandering and some great gelato (gelato store owners seem to love me, perhaps because I always try to speak Italian – this is the second time I've gotten a bigger dish for the price of a smaller one) we toured the Palazzo Publicco. I should perhaps mention that the woman touring us around is Professor Mariotti, our Art History professor. She's a host of information, and fascinating to listen to. I swear she knows everything about every painting in Europe. Dead serious. I want to take her on all of our trips with us - I can only imagine what she has to say about the Louvre. Our final stop on the way home was a rather large vineyard, La Fattoria delle Corti.
We toured the vineyard and learned how they made the olive oil and wine that they do. The entire cellars smelled amazing :) Of course that was followed by a tasting. I ended up really liking their mid-range wine, called Corte Vecchia. We went home, played some cards, and just crashed.


Yesterday Professor Mariotti took us on a tour of Florence in the morning. We didn't actually go in to the buildings, but she gave us some history, and most importantly our bearings. We happened to see about five brides/wedding parties throughout the day. I guess it must be that time of year in Florence.

Our best find of the day was this hole-in-the-wall restaurant that served the most amazing lunch. We got two courses (I had a tuna rigatonni and a chicken balsamic salad type thing) for 11€.

Not bad. Then we of course got espresso, and they seemed to like us so much that they gave us free dessert! They said that they were trying to decide whether or not to put this on the menu or not, and wanted our advice. It's going on. A custard type pie with fresh figs on top. Yum! We wandered around for a bit more, but by this time we were tired and our feet hurt, so we found the bus stop and came back to Sesto.

After a bit of a rest we headed out to try and find the local pub, but didn't have much luck. Sesto's not that big. We wandered around the square, and somehow Tessa and I ended up in this really great Pizzeria. We had another margherita with some wine, met up with everyone else, and just ended up with some more wine outside a cafe. Today's our first day off, and I think that after breakfast I want to take a book and sit outside a cafe in Florence, or perhaps at the park and just read and have a coffee. We'll see. I still can't seem to get it through my head that I'll be here for the next four months!