Sunny Pictures and Rainy Days

I have good news! My midterm went well! Except maybe for the listening section. One of the voices on the recording was a voice over the phone. I described it to my family later as "sort of like the teacher's voice in Charlie Brown." They knew what Charlie Brown was! It made it to Italy.

As promised, I am putting up pictures from San Gimignano today!

We climbed the tower, but it was very windy. A lot of us had on skirts (including me) and were almost blown away by the wind, but I managed to take a few pictures while not having to hold down my skirt.

The view from the tower. See the soccer field on the right hand side? Except here it's called calcio, and as Gianfranco said, it's not a sport, it's a religion.

The view from the tower

The church of San Gimignano. It may not look like much from the outside, but the inside is entirely covered with frescoes. It was built in the late 12th century.

La piazza della cisterna. Named for the well in the middle.

Three casatorre in San Gimignano. These would have belonged to the most important families. They are across from the church.

we went exploring around the back streets of San Gimignano

A view from the back streets of San Gimignano. The city is well known for its wines, and here you can see some of the vineyards if you look off in the distance.

View from the tower

At the tower. There is another photo of just me and Nick's head as he tried to leap into the back of the photo, so I decided to let him in the picture too!

We tried to go today to one of the Prova, the trial runs of the today. Sadly, it rained! Only for about 10 minutes, but it was enough to get us very wet and enough to make the sand too slick to run on. We did get a preview though of the atmosphere of the Palio. It actually went on all day! Yet again, all day people wore their banners. All afternoon, as I walked around town I passed groups of people (men, usually) at lunch, singing their songs around the table. We watched two groups pass by on the way to the Piazza del Campo with their horses. The horse walked in front, and behind walked the men of the contrada, followed by the women, all singing. It was hard to pick out the words, but occasionally you would hear the name of another contrada. Most likely the names of friends and rivals, I would guess. On the campo, there were hundreds of people and the piazza was not nearly full. Many wore their contrada's colors, many were singing and chanting. We could not think of anything to compare it to in the States. I thought of a very large scale version of summer camp, where we divided up into tribes, had color days and competitions, tribe cheers, tribe songs, and more. That was the best I could come up with, and this is a city wide version, with thousands of people and seventeen "teams" (although only ten run at a single Palio) and some serious rivalries!

The horse of the Civetta (owl) contrada. Sorry it's blurry!

The crowd waiting for the (eventually cancelled) Prova

San Gimignano and the Beginning of the Palio

I have my second midterm tomorrow, so I am going to post pictures from my trip today and tell a little about what is going on with the Palio and then I have to be a responsible student!

Right now I am listening to the people of the Giraffe Contrada singing some of their songs. I don't think they have a whole ton, or else just a few favorites, because they keep repeating. They are pretty good singers though, so it has been a nice background to my studying!

Today was the official start of the Palio festivities. Today the horses were selected and then divided among the ten racing contrade by lot. The starting position was also determined. All day, there have been drums filling every part of the city, singing, people walking in groups from their contrade wearing their banners. Every person receives a banner when they are a child. You are baptized into the church, and also into the contrada you are born in (each contrada has a fountain and has their own sort of baptism. At least some do). Everyone is given their own banner when they are "baptized" into the contrada, and this is the banner they wear to the Palio. For this reason it is not good for people outside the contrada to wear the banners even if they support the contrada. Everyone was wearing their banners today, adults and children, and you can tell some of the banners have seen many more Palios than others!

We weren't able to watch the selection of the horses because we had class today and a field trip that had us leaving Siena at exactly the time the horses were chosen. I was a bit disappointed about this. We were able to watch the recap this evening with Flora and Gianfranco, though, and I did get to see the Piazza del Campo for long enough to get a feel for the event and to take some pictures. I plan to go to the trial run tomorrow evening and/or Friday morning and evening as well, so I will still get to see some of the Prove (trials).

The crowd and the places where the chosen horses will stand for the selection in front of the Palazzo Pubblico, Piazza del Campo

The trip to San Gimignano, even if poorly timed, was very fun and very worthwhile. We went for our art history class, and so were able to see the church in San Gimignano (it's been hard for me to pronounce because there are so many syllables, it's Gee-me-ya-no, roughly) and their palazzo pubblico with the guidance of our art history professor. The entire interior of the church is covered in Frescoes depicting the old and new testament. We were not allowed to take pictures, sorry! You can probably google it if you are interested. Surprisingly, the older frescoes were of the new testament and looked newer as far as style goes even though they were older (sorry for all the old and new). This was because they were painted before the black plague struck Siena in 1348.

We climbed the tower of San Gimignano's public building and were able to see for miles.

I will post more pictures and share more stories tomorrow. Right now I have to be responsible for my midterm tomorrow.

4 weeks!

Hey everyone! So today makes exactly four weeks since the day I left! In some ways the time is flying and in others it is crawling at snail pace. Every day something new happens, it seems, and I still have a lot to learn.

I just took my first midterm and my second midterm will be on Thursday.

Thank you all for following me and my trip so far! It has been very exciting to see how many people have seen this (don't worry, I know nothing except numbers!)

If you have any questions, or comments please post them!

In the next few days, events surrounding the Palio are picking up. Tomorrow they will choose the horses who run and begin the series of trial races. The actual Palio is Saturday. It's going to be a busy week for all of Siena.

drums are going right now.

brum brum-brum, brum brum-brum br br brum brum-brum

always drums.

Dessert?

Gianfranco seems to have learned one of my favorite answers to this question.

Formaggio! Cheese!

It's typical here to have cheeses and fruit after dinner. We normally have fruit, but yesterday we had cheese as well. Two types. And Gianfranco said, "Oh, there are two types, try both," and then gave me two very large pieces of cheese.

Cheese is a very ugly word, I think. Formaggio is much nicer. I think I will just use that from here on out, at least when I am writing.

Siena from an Italian Perspective

I have made Italian friends! And I now have the opportunity to see Italy in a whole new way. This evening, I ate dinner with my family and then went out into the city to meet up with my new language exchange partner. We got gelatto, ran into some of her friends on the Piazza del Campo, ran into more of her friends all over everywhere else, went to the Contrada party of the Chiocciola contrada (Snail, pronounced Key-OH-cho-la).

At the contrada party, we saw a group of Italian guys (college aged looking) lining up near rope. There was a man on a megaphone too. My friend explained to us that this was a race, and that it was a mini palio. With people only. And sure enough, all of the guys were in pairs. one was in front of the other, and the one behind held the other's shirt and wore a helmet painted with various contradas' colors. They were all running in a circle pushing each other and jostling for the best position, just as happens in the real Palio! It was very funny to see. The contrada party was basically a big block party. Apparently the get very large and very awesome, and I will definitely try to go to some.

Giraffa is having one outside my window right now.

If you remember from three weeks ago, there was music outside my window at night two of the first three nights I was here. That week my contrada's flags were up, which means it was a holiday for them. I now know that the music was from the Contrada party, as it is now!

More fun coincidences- So today two friends and I were leaving the Orto di Tolomei, and the Onda contrada (Wave) was having a parade today. They were all starting to line up and get ready on the road that we had to walk on to get home. And as we were walking, one of the men took his banner and made as if he were going to hit me on the head!

I tell this story because when I was out with my new Italian language partner/friend, we ran into a few of her friends on the Piazza del Campo, one of whom is from the Onda contrada. She asked something like this: "Hai visto la sfilata della contrada dell'onda oggi?" (did you see the parade today of the Onda contrada?)

I said "Sì! un uomo dalla contrada ha provato di colpirmi sulla testa con la sua bandiere! " (Yes, and one of the men tried to hit me on the head with his flag!)

She laughed and answered, "Ha provata di colpirti? Lui portava bianca e azzuro? Quel era mia fratello!" (He tried to hit you? He was wearing blue and white? That was my brother!)

me: "Davvero????!!!!!!"

So I met the sister of the man who acted as if he were going to hit me with his banner. I laughed very, very hard.

Siena is a very small world when you know it from the inside.

It was a very fun evening, and I can't wait to hang out with her again and see more of Siena from her perspective. We helped each other with phrases and wording, and got to speak Italian to many people. Because we were in places where it was noisy, at times it was hard for me to follow conversations, but I know that I will be able to learn a lot from her and now have a window in to really encountering the culture.

I already feel like I can see the city in a whole new way, and now I feel like I have encountered Italy as it has potential to be.

Un giorno del riposo

Today, half the group is in Venice and the other half is at the beach. I am going to Venice in several weeks, and rather than go to the beach I decided I would stay in town. This has been a much needed day off from everything.

I thought I might try and buy a sketch pad and do some drawing today, but I realized I have not even scouted out everything there is in the city in order to do any drawing yet! I have seen a lot, but not everything. I decided to find the fountains that Becca and I did not report on, and so I set off at ten thirty to walk around the city in search of the medieval fountains. There were five I have not seen. Four hours later, I had found three of them, and two within the first hour! So I averaged less than one fountain every hour...good navigation on my part. But they weren't put in easy places to find! In my defense as well, I paused for giant tourist pizza slices on the Piazza del Campo and read there in the shade of the bell tower, which many people gather in in the middle of the day, and then I paused again in the Orto di Tolomei and spent nearly and hour reading again. This was after an unsuccessful attempt at finding what was at that point the third fountain. I never found that one, but I did stumble on another I must say rather disappointing on on the way back from my many unsuccessful attempts!

It was still a very good day though. I saw a lot of Siena I would otherwise never have seen and which many tourists probably almost never see.

Five miles and four hours later I came back to my house, which is empty until sometime tomorrow except for me because my family is off on a trip and Becca is in the Venice group. Then I left to go the bookstore and I returned with two books!

One is by an Italian author. the other is....WINNIE PUH!

also known as Winnie the Pooh.

in Italian.

Piglet is called Porcelletto.

It's awesome.

Fontebranda photos

There are the photos of the medieval fountain that we saw! There are more, and I am going to go look for them. I may do it tomorrow. See the post I made just before this one for the story of how we found it and what it is.

An Epic in Several Parts with No Plot

PART ONE: Annie and Becca get lost looking for a fountain.

We followed the map to the place where the map said the fountain was that we were supposed to find for class. Instead we found a cliff.

There was no fountain in sight. A waterfall might have been suiting, since it was a cliff, but there was no waterfall either.

PART TWO: Annie and Becca climb down a large hill which they may have to climb back up.

Becca made me walk down the road on the hill, and half way down I realized that if the fountain was not there we would have to climb all the way back up again. To imagine this hill, look at the photo I have posted on the right hand side of this blog of the Basilica di San Domenico. See how the basilica is on the top of a cliff and there is a road that curves downward on the left side that may or may not look like a hill of death depending on the angle of the photo (it is, if you can't see it. Every time I have walked over the bridge over it in the past I have felt sorry for the people who live on it). There is a road behind the buildings under the basilica that curves up the hill the basilica sits on top of. It is probably steeper than the road in the photo. The fountain is between the hill this photo was taken on and the hill the basilica sits on.

PART THREE: Annie and Becca find fountain

We found the fountain, which I described yesterday, I believe. It was very pretty, really, in all of it's simplicity. We also found a tiny fountain that resembled a water fountain near by and decided to take a picture of it to show our class to tell them as a joke that it was the fountain we were presenting on.

PART FOUR: We climb up the hill you can see in the picture

that's about it for that part.

PART FIVE: We regain the energy we lost by eating dinner with our homestay family and their son, Fabio, who does speak English and seems eager to use it. Fabio's son is the one grandson I have not met yet.

PART SIX: Annie writes a presentation and Studies for an exam.

Boring.

PART SEVEN: Annie takes exam

and hopefully makes an A

PART EIGHT: Annie eats a Watermelon

Yes, that's right. I did it. It was dessert and so I ate it. And I really liked this one too. It was very flavorful, unlike most other watermelons I have eaten.

Right now half the group is in Venice and some of the other half are going to the beach tomorrow. I plan to stay here, buy a sketchbook and draw.

I have to study :(

I have to study tonight, sadly, so I may not be able to update.

But then, I guess I should be studying now and am doing that. I am on the internet.

And facebook is on my other tab.

Well, I might write some random stuff tonight. Or I might be good and focus.

This is what else I am working on:

Yesterday, I was volunteered to help with a presentation in the class I am NOT in. I then asked the students who informed me of this what exactly I was to be presenting on. Their answer was fountains around Siena. So, today I trekked with Becca to the Fontebrande, an old OLD fountain in Siena, which is really just a fountain in the since that it circulates water. Medieval fountains, unlike modern fountains, were often more useful than pretty I think. It's basically a pond. There's even fish in it now. I have to finish this presentation and study for my quiz. No, thank you.

It is coming along though. And I have turned the composition part of the presentation into an creative writing excercise, so that's fun.

It's going to be a late night.

SUCCESS!

Strawberry jam bars were a little sweeter than usual but otherwise a success! One of my friends told me I should not be surprised if I get proposals over my baking, so I think I can take that as a very high compliment! When my host family found out I was baking, they told me to let them know next time, and bake for them and that they would buy the ingredients for me. I plan to take advantage of this!

The group was planning a trip to Sardegna while I was over at my friends, and a few of us have opted to go to Rome instead. That won't be for a few weeks, though.

I was thinking about what I have done so far after exactly three weeks, and it looks like this in summary:

1. moved from having slow and halting conversations with my family to having full on and lengthy conversations.

2. Figured out how the Italian grocery store functions and lost my fear of the Italian grocery store

3. Changed from being the lost tourist to being the American student helping lost tourists.

4. Begun to correctly conjugate verbs in conversation.

5. Travelled to: Arezzo, Florence, towns in Tuscany. Made plans to travel to: Venice, working on Cinque Terre and Rome with Pisa and Luca on the list.

6. Discovered the love of my life, Pecorino Cheese. Delicious accompanied by marmalade or red wine. Or probably both, I've not had the opportunity to try that though.

Still to go? I don't know. I am figuring out as I go.

Right now though, I really want to crash the party I can hear outside my window. It sounds like the Caterpillar Contrada is having a party that involves karaoke. Some interesting sounding music is floating in my window...

Baking Attempt Number One

Tonight, I attempt to make strawberry jam bars. Italian style.

This means that I am using Special K Rice flakes instead of Corn Flakes, Preparato per torta Margherita instead of White Cake Mix, Zucchero di Canna instead of Brown Sugar, and Confettura Extra di Fragole, which are actually strawberry preserves. I will let you know how it turns out either way.

And I made the small accomplishment today of actually asking where the sugar was in Italian, even if I was afraid to because last time the people were mean to me. This person was nice though!

It was Enchanting to Meet You...Except that it wasn't.

There are two stories in this post, the first of which relates to the title and the second of which is about food. So if you prefer to read about food, skip to part two.

Today, I set out from my house about 11:45 with the intention of hanging out on the Campo reading and people watching until about 12:45. I had 30 wonderful minutes of reading my Italian translation of the Hobbit happily before I was again disturbed by a "ciao" said somewhere near me. Yet again, I though that this person perhaps knew me. We met a lot of Italian people living with some of the students in the first few days here, and one time I accidentaly walked past one of them without saying hello despite that fact that he recognized me, so I now I am paranoid of unintentionally ignoring one of them.

This was not one of them though. It was another person. A guy, who decided my looking up and smiling a little instinctively (American habit) was an invitation to come and sit next to me. And ask me to come get a drink with him. Over and over and over again. It was a funny conversation and went something like this:

Him: what are you doing here?

Me: Reading a book. So you are a student?

Him: Yes, of medicine. Do you have something to drink?

Me: Yes, I have water because it is hot.

Him: Do you want to come get something to drink?

Me: No. I am reading my book. And I have water.

Him: Oh. Leave that and come get something to drink with me.

Me: No. After I read my book I have to go to school and meet my friends for lunch.

Him: Skip School and come have something to drink with me!

Me: No.

Him: Please? You can go to school tomorrow.

Me: No. I can't.

Him: Please?

Me: No.

And on.

Positive of the experience: I learned that I can fight off persistent Italian men such as him in their own language. I spoke only Italian. I also learned that the stereotype does in fact come from somewhere, although most of the men I have come across here have not been that way- the Italian roommates in the program are all very nice and I have had very little interaction with other people but for the most part we have all been left alone. I left as soon as I realized he wasn't going to leave. A bit of advice for the young Italian man: ask questions other than "do you want to get a drink with me" for a while. And don't beg like a five year-old. That's just pathetic.

This afternoon we want to the Tuscan Wine School for a wine tasting. That was really fun! We got to try five different types of Tuscan wines, learn how they are made, how you properly taste them, what they are typically paired with, how to describe the taste, and what makes them taste particular ways. It was very interesting! I liked all of the kinds I got to try except one, a dessert wine. It was so sweet! And, it was called Vinsanto. This is Italian for Wine Saint, or Saint of Wine. Other than this, we tried two red wines, and two white wines. And we got to eat Pecorino cheese. Pecorino cheese! If you want to be my best friend forever and ever, find me Pecorino cheese in the United States. This is the kind of cheese I fell in love with last week or the week before. And the olive oil and bread even was delicious, the oil was so good. And of course, after we finished this we had dinner with my family which was delicious as well. Tomatoes stuffed with seasoned rice and roasted, followed by salad and tuna with a homemade sauce...kind of? I don't quite know what to call it. It was a topping, I guess. And then, we ate the simple dessert which seems so obvious and yet which I have never thought of before.

We ate Ricotta cheese with marmalade or Nutella on it. They don't put ricotta in lasagne here, they eat it as dessert or on a few other things, but not with lasagna.

It was very delicious, and something I can easily bring back to the States!

Florence in Photos

I know I lured you in saying today is the day I have posted Photos of Florence, and they will be here, I assure you, but first stories from today. They're aren't many!

First, I walked around the Eastern/South Eastern side of Siena today, all the way to the Porta Romana (a very, very large gate). I passed the Basilica dei Servi on they way, which is a church and is or was a convent. I walked through the Contrada del leocorno (unicorn), La Contrada del Valdimontone (Ram), and La Contrada del Nicchio (Seashell). This may sound like a lot, but I made the whole walk there and back to the Campo in less than forty minutes. I only had a little while until the other student's had their lunch break at this point, so I then went and sat on the Piazza del campo where I sat and people watched for a while. I was looking at my syllabus when I heard a voice over me say "Buon Giorno." I thought maybe it was someone I knew-but it wasn't. It was just some man who felt like saying good morning to me...I went back to what I was doing and then he fortunately moved on!

My Italian class today went very well, I basically talked with my teacher for an hour and a half straight and then spent an hour working and grammar and talking.

Alright, now I will hand over the pictures!

A carousel on a Piazza

DINNER! Trofie (little corkscrew shaped pasta) with pesto and tomatoes

A parade passes in front of the Uffizi, the building in the beck left corner of this photo. If you can see the white squares directly above the people's heads, those are flags.

Piazza del somthing. Not sure which one it was. It's near the Uffizi though.

Florence from the Ponte Vecchio

We ran into this parade outside the Uffizi. It was for a tournament, Calcio Storico. We thought it was just soccer, but the men on the teams all looked to big to be soccer players. Today though we saw on TV in Siena what it was. It is an old version of soccer. They played on a dirt field and carried the ball. It seemed like a mix between modern soccer and American Football, which could explain the origin of football. I don't know that for sure though, so don't quote me on it.

Ponte Vecchio (The Old Bridge). All of the shops on the bridge sell jewelry

Ponte Vecchio from land.

These three girls plus me saw ALL of the Uffizi!

The chapel (maybe?) across the street from the Duomo.

The Duomo. I am putting in lots of pictures of this so that I can try and give you a full picture of it. It's very, very large and every inch is decorated!

Americans Everywhere! And Sidewalks...

I have been to and returned safely from Florence! We had a wonderful time. My legs hurt and I am terribly tired, but my head is filled with beautiful artwork and architecture so I am quite happy.

Florence is a beautiful city in many ways. It seems to be primarily Renaissance, unlike Siena. This makes sense since I believe Florence became more powerful as Siena became less powerful, which was during the Renaissance with the rise of the Medici family in Florence (Firenze here, pronounced fear-in-zay, roughly. If you have never heard it called that before, I refer to it as both and you may see or hear me do so). The roads are wider and the buildings are newer. Slightly newer, anyway. And the city is just so big! Think of Siena as Charlottesville and Florence as Washington, D.C, Renaissance style.

Another reason for the Washington, D.C. comparison? There are Americans EVERYWHERE! I knew there would be a lot, but they were literally everywhere we went. People speaking in English this way and that way in line at museums, looking at maps, trying to find books at museums in English. I have not heard so much English since I left the states! Signs on stores were in English too, and there were actually shops labeled "Souvenirs" all over the place. I saw two McDonalds. And I have to admit, at some point I thought to myself in a somewhat haughty way, "Why are all of these Americans here?" Of course I am one. But I love Siena so much because it is small and personal and so not Americanized or tourist influenced. Florence caters to tourists and has adapted itself for them. Siena lets tourists come and helps them but does not try to be anything other than itself.

I did love Florence, though, even if I am very happy that I decided to study in Siena. We stayed in a small hotel that took up one floor of an apartment building a few blocks from the Duomo. The owners did everything themselves, and spoke English but not as much as the other people around Florence, or at least they learned that we spoke Italian and then let us speak it with them. Four of my friends and I set out Saturday morning to go to the Uffizi, perhaps Florence's most famous art museum. At the height of tourist season, people will wait for hours to get in! We waited only one, and then we spent perhaps five hours in the museum moving slowly from one work the next until we had seen everything and couldn't stand to look closely anymore! I saw two of Botticelli's most famous paintings, the Birth of Venus and Spring. They were absolutely beautiful, and much larger than I realized! I could have sat and looked at them for hours. We saw many things too from the 13th and 14th century which we were able to put in context from our art and art history class. There were two paintings by Da Vinci which I found absolutely beautiful as well- his Adoration of the Magi, and several other paintings and artists. I may be able to post them.

We went out to dinner as a group for one of the other student's birthdays and had a very good time! The family sitting behind us was, of course, American, and I learned that they are from Atlantic Beach, very near Jacksonville, and have connections to my high school. That was quite a place to meet a family from my area! a small Trattoria on a back road in the middle of Firenze.

Today we walked and we walked and we walked, just like yesterday. We walked on sidewalks, because they actually do exist in Florence, unlike in Siena. And we went to the Academia museum and saw many beautiful sculptures from the early 19th century as well as the David. again, I could have sat and looked at it for hours, it was so beautiful.

And now, I am so tired that I have to stop writing. But I will post pictures from the trip very soon!

Off to Florence

I have been here seventeen days already. How? I don't know. It's flying by.

Headed to Florence today, and I am not taking my computer with me because I am only taking what I can fit in a backpack. But I will be back online on Sunday with pictures and stories from Florence!

Have a good weekend everyone! I guess when I get back though you will still have most of Sunday left to go since it will probably be about noon your time, and it's only 5:38 AM your time now. So have a good Friday and Saturday.

My favorite Italian commercial.

FOUND IT!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4LDI87LZIM

Il Duomo

I took these photos today at our art history classes trip to the Duomo. The Duomo is Siena's cathedral. It was built between the 13th and the 16th centuries, and thus has architecture from many different eras. Because Siena grew so quickly at the beginning of this time period, it was the third new cathedral built on the same site. Before the cathedral, there was at one point a Roman temple to Athena. The white and black stripes are a sign of the influence from the middle east brought to Siena by the Crusades and by the Francigena Road for religious pilgrims.

The following two paintings were in a side room built by one of Siena's families which contained several popes.

The nave of the Duomo

The pulpit at the Duomo

The floor of the Duomo. This image is both Mary and Athena, representing Wisdom, and people choosing to Wisdom in place of Fortune.

Another work on the floor of the Duomo

The pulpit of the Duomo

We ran into the Contrada della Tartuca (tortoise) having a parade on Sunday afternoon! We ran into them on the Piazza del Campo

Birthdays, lots of Birthdays

Hey friends! It's been a few days, and I have been busy!

I started yesterday sitting in on the 3000 level class for an hour, and today I sat in for two hours. This allows me to practice speaking, get some extra practice with grammar, and not be by myself trying to find things to do all day. It was nice, and today I got to give a presentation with a partner in that class. I will probably continue to sit in on days that I do not have class, which is usually at least once or twice a week.

It was one of the Italian roommate's birthday yesterday, and we all celebrated with him on Monday. Everyone who lives in apartments rather than homestays got together for what I have been told was an amazing dinner. My roommate and I arrived just in time though for dessert. The most important part. We had tiramisu and chocolate cake, both homemade (you can't really find anything else here). It was amazing. I am going to learn how to make tiramisu, so come to my house if you go to UVA for the first dessert party of the year because that is what I want to make.

Yesterday we all went to L'orto di Tolimei to try to watch the Lunar eclipse. A complete lunar eclipse was visible here yesterday- I would immagine that you couldn't see it in the states. We only got to see it for a few minutes because there were clouds on the horizon, but it was very cool! And of course we were looking across the Tuscan countryside below Siena to see it, and shortly after sunset, it was just beautiful (The sun has not been setting until about 9 here).

Tomorrow we are leaving for Florence to celebrate another birthday! And of course to see Florence, and several of us are already plotting our course through all of the museums and other sites. We are going to spend the whole weekend there.

My Italian teacher as discovered that I am a total nerd when it comes to books. It took her all of three classes to figure that out. So, since it is a one on class, she seems to have decided that for at least a few days, everything we do is going to be focused around books. Today we are going to the library for an activity outside of class, and yesterday we spend probably an hour talking about books.

I think she's figured out I am less nervous of speaking if I am able to talk about something I really enjoy. And this makes it a lot more fun for me. Since I am reading the Hobbit as well, every day when I first come in, if I have any questions about the Hobbit she gives me time to talk about it with her, and I am picking up a lot of grammar and vocabulary from my reading and from that time.

My one setback yesterday was when we got lunch and I said just two words and some Italian guys behind me started saying something that I think was about my poor choice of wording! They used one of the words I had just said and were talking about it. I chose to just ignore them and not listen, so it may have had very little to do with me, but I really should have listened since they were standing right behind me anyway, and then surprised them by letting them know that I do in fact speak Italian! That would have been quite a shocker for them if they were making fun of my two word phrase :D

Yesterday I was watching television with my Italian family, and I have settled on a favorite Italian commercial. I would post the link but it doesn't seem to have made it to YouTube yet. When it does it will appear on my blog. You don't have to understand the Italian; there are hardly any words and the words that are on the commercial I haven't actually listened to.

Flora and Gianfranco continued to make me laugh yesterday as well. One of them had a plan for a diet to prevent high cholesterol, and they asked us if we had that in the States! I laughed and said yes. Then Gianfranco was reading over it holding it far out in front of him, and I looked over at Flora and she was watching him out of the corner of her eye with a smirk and holding her empty hand far out in front of her and pulling her head back, imitating him reading. I laughed pretty hard at that!

If you could have one superpower...

When I was younger I always wished I could fly. Being here has brought that desire back to me. It's like I am nine again, every time I look out my window. Siena and Tuscany spread out under me and I can see nearby towns and fields, and mountains in the far off distance. I can look at them, but I know I won't visit most of the places I see and I will most likely never even know their names.

We were at the Orto di Tolomei reading and doing homework today, and from there you can get one of the best views in all of Siena. I was reading the Hobbit, too.

It was a very nice afternoon.

Hike in Crete Senesi and an Italian Church

Yesterday afternoon we took a bus about 40 minutes outside of Siena to a small town called Rabolano, where we met up with a two guides who were to lead us on a hike (in Italian, trekking), through the hills to another nearby town in Tuscany.

The started with all of us meeting to make brunch together. I did not actually make anything because my homestay family gives us breakfast every day, but the spread of food the others made was quite impressive! Then we all met again at the bus stop to venture out into the Tuscan countryside, in Italian, la campagna toscana.

I wanted to take as many pictures as I could to show you all how beautiful it was, but I quickly realized that pictures could not do it justice. I will try to describe what we saw and I have posted pictures below in this post, and then you can use both and imagine it for yourself

The town we started at was a very small and very old town built into the side of a hill. Siena might look much like it today had the Francigena road not been built straight through its center. At the time we arrived, there were no people and no cars out. We walked down the middle of the street under an old arched doorway and stopped near a large wall which I believe was part of the town's fortifications, and like the fortezza has now been turned into a park. Then we went on to a medieval Grancia, like a granary, and which is still maintained today.

All of this was told to us in Italian. I was the translator for some of our group several times throughout the day, because one of the guides seemed to not speak English, and the other not well.

We turned from here and continued down the old roads until we suddenly were no longer in the town. The small Italian towns are not like American cities. There are no suburbs. The city simply ends. We crossed a street and were in the middle of a field. The fields extended out from the city as far as you could see, and here and there, usually on top of a hill, there was a old villa surrounded by trees. We walked through the fields, through tall grass dotted with purple and yellow flowers. Everything smelled sweet. When the wind blew, all of the grass would wave and seem to change color, darker and lighter. We came to one point where you could see for miles over the hills rolling, up and down, hills which our guide told us were formed under the ocean thousands of years ago.

We had passed one villa and were continuing down the road when a car drove by with a golden retriever running in front. The dog ran up to all of us and just stood there, and then the man pulled over and got out of the car and introduced us to the dog, who had already decided he was best friends with all of us. We passed the farms where many of the horses which run in the Palio come from, and many of the horses had foals. And we walked through some of the most beautiful land I have ever seen.

Today I went to an Italian church, one which is affiliated with the Methodist church. It was tiny! There were maybe thirty people there, and of course they recognized my roommate and I as new immediately, but they were all very kind and helpful. I know enough Italian that I was able to understand most of what was going on, and when I didn't catch a number, the man behind us would find the page in his Bible, hand it to us, and then take ours. I had my English Bible with me but I didn't have to use it! I plan to go back there when I am in town on Sunday, and maybe get to know the people there better. I am going to email the pastor later and see if they have any other programs. I think that this may be a good link for me to Italian culture outside of my host family if I can find a way to get involved somehow.

This afternoon I am going with a friend to l'orto di Tolomei, a garden behind one of the university buildings here. My homework is to watch a movie, Roman Holiday (In Italian, Vacanze Romane) and describe the characters. We are going to do that today as well.