Unexpected Good is the Best

People in my group all seem to be in a bit of a flurry trying to see everything in Italy there is to see during every spare moment. Every weekend people run off to different places and return excited to share their adventures from some little city in Italy. Personally, I have been content just soaking up all of Siena. A group of us spent the weekend seeing what there is to see in Siena and I loved every second of it. There is something to be said for seeing cathedrals and works of art that you have studied and seen countless times, but seeing something for the first time that you've never seen before is wonderful in its own way. I really don't know much about the churches and sites in Siena so when I walked into the Duomo Cathedral or the Museo Dell' Opera I was just stunned. People shouldn't go through their life without seeing and doing what I did this week. Here are a few pieces of life in Siena for you.

Wednesday Market - Every Wednesday morning there is a HUGE market in the city. We usually have class on Wednesday morning, but this week it got moved to Friday so we decided to take advantage. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but what I saw wasn't it. Honestly, I felt like I was in Mexico. This market went on and on in so many directions and you could buy anything from flowers to clothing to kitchen items. At one point I was actually lost in the market and had no idea how to get out. The atmosphere was super fun though.


Oratorio Di S. Bernardino - This is a church that we didn't know actually existed. You walk down this little tiny road and then all of a sudden there is this huge church. There is a museum that has a whole bunch of old art work in it that I've never seen before. Sometimes it's frustrating that all the information for these places is in Italian so we can't actually figure what we're looking at, but it was neat anyways. Here's a picture outside the front of the church.



~ Duomo and company - This was one of the most amazing things that I've seen before. I walk past the duomo everyday on my way to school, but this weekend was the first time that I actually went inside. There are many different parts to the duomo: the Battistero, the Cripta, the Museo Dell 'Opera, and the Cattedrale. We weren't exactly sure what was going on in the crypt. We expected to see evidence of people being buried there, but mostly it was just cement rooms with paintings on the walls. It was pretty interesting anyway. The baptistery was amazing though. I just wandered around in awe of the art around me. I also loved the Museo Dell' Opera. This is where they keep some of the paintings and sculptures that used to be in the Cathedral. The art is amazing, but we had to draw one of the sculptures for art so I felt a bit of anxiety every time I walked into the room. Hate it when that happens. The Cathedral was by far my favorite though. It is one of the most ornate places I have ever been before. The walls are all made of black and white marble in stripes and there are amazing paintings everywhere. My favorite part though is that the floor is completely covered in mosaics of scripture stories. We are lucky to be here when we are because the floor isn't always uncovered. Nine months out of the year it is covered to protect it, but lucky for us we aren't here during tourist season. I could have sat in the cathedral for hours, but I eventually left knowing that I can come back again.


~ Random views of the city - For lunch we went and got some really good sandwiches from the market and then wandered around to find someplace to eat them. We happened upon a park that had an amazing view. Minus the pigeons that were attacking, it was perfect.


~ The view on my way home - As I was walking home the other day, I realized yet again how amazing it is to live in Italy. Here is what I see as I walk to my house.

Best Not To Know

I don't know what the protocol for cooking Italian food for study abroad students is, but I think I've started to figure it out.

~ First week: Serve them food that they expect. Lots of pasta, tomato sauces, bread, cheese. They will fall in love with the food and will expect good things from then on.

~ Second week: Serve one course of food that they expect (still the pasta, cheese, bread) but throw in a few unexpected, but good surprises. Make them wonder if they really know what "Italian food" is. Confuse them even more by throwing in a Chinese appetizer one night. It's sure to cause a sensation.

~ Third week: Start serving them things they really wonder about. Serve lots and lots of fish of all kinds, especially kinds where they wonder if it's cooked or raw. To top things off serve them a whole dinner of fried "things". Fry enough things that look strange that they don't even want to know what it is they are eating. You know you've done your job when one girl turns to the other, asks what they are eating, but then thinks better of it and decides she doesn't really want to know until after it's gone. If at all possible, spy on the girls when they go back to the room to see if either of them happen to look up pictures on the internet of all the fried creatures they just consumed and then wish they hadn't looked at all.

They aren't guests, they're family.

I've had an interesting couple of nights here in Siena. Last night one of Antonella's friends ate dinner with us. She has been staying here for about a week, but we haven't had any real contact with her until last night. I have definitely heard her though. She can talk like nobody I've ever heard, although it may just sound like more because I have no idea what she's saying so it sounds fast as well. I have woken up all week to her talking and fallen asleep to her talking. Dinner was no different. From the second she came in the room she tried to engage Anna and I in an Italian conversation. We did pretty well considering how little vocabulary we know and how fast she was talking, but the longer she talked the less we understood. We even heard Antonella telling her at one point that we don't know Italian very well, but that didn't seem to faze her. Anna and I did our best to keep up with the conversation, but who knows how much we actually understood and how much we just made up. By the time we got back to our room we both just collapsed. It's exhausting pretending to know a language. The whole experience was worth it though because of one of the things we did understand. Antonella's friend was saying something about as being guests at a Bed and Breakfast. Antonella promptly stopped her and informed her that we aren't guests, we're family. It made my day. As for dinner tonight, I've never been so grateful for the TV in my life. Anna wasn't at dinner tonight so it was just me and Antonella. I've become pretty good at giving simple answers to questions, but as far as starting or intelligently continuing any conversations, that just isn't an option yet. As a result, Antonella and I had multiple two to three sentence conversations that were all started by her. The TV is always on at dinner and it saved me tonight from many long pauses in the conversation. Italian news has never been quite so interesting to me.

We went to Florence yesterday and it was amazing. Now that we've seen Rome, Florence, and Siena I think we are all grateful that we live in Siena. It is a much quieter city and seems to be easier to be at home in. None of us are going to complain about the fact that Florence is just over an hour away. It seems to be the perfect setup. We didn't have tons of time because we spent most of the morning following Peter around trying to orient ourselves (no small feat for me) and then spent the afternoon in the Uffizi listening to Peter talk about a few of the works. All of it was amazing though and I'm so excited to go back. After we had had our fill of the Uffizi we went to get some lunch and I had an awesome panini with wild boar salami on it . Who would have thought? After lunch we wandered over the Acadamy to see the David. That was another of those wow moments. It was truly incredible and I could have sat there forever. I decided that would like to go back in time and watch Michelangelo carve the David. Wouldn't that be amazing? We didn't have time to see much else so we got some gelato and then wandered around a leather market. Florence is my kind of place.


We didn't get a chance to go into the Duomo this time but even just seeing the outside was amazing. Let's be honest, can it get much better?


This is a view of Ponte Vecchio, the only bridge that wasn't bombed during the War. It was so fun to walk along it and just look. It's not really a good idea if you don't like crowds though. There are lots of little shops all along it and it can get a bit crazy.



Here is a view from the bridge itself. Welcome to Italy!



After walking around all day, it's always nice to sit down and do a bit of people watching. Here we were waiting to meet our group to go back home but we got to watch people do chalk pictures on the sidewalk while we were waiting. There's never a dull moment in this neck of the woods.

Just Add Oil

I'm pretty sure that's the recipe for everything here in Siena. When in doubt add oil. Even when you think you don't need oil, you should probably add oil anyway. My cooking class began last Friday and it has to be one of the better things in this world. The teacher is a famous cook in both Rome and Tuscany. He doesn't speak English so we have another teacher there to translate. We were each given a book with all the recipes we will be making while we were here and then we got started. I think that taking a cooking class in Italy should be on everybody's list of things to do. I am also required to spend a certain amount of time cooking with my host mom each week for my cooking course. This is quickly becoming a very entertaining and enlightening activity. Seeing as Antonella doesn't speak any English we speak very slow Italian and point a lot. Thank goodness that I at least have some idea what I'm doing in the kitchen or else I'd be in a lot of trouble. It has been so much fun to cook with her though and I've learned a lot. I have yet to make anything with her that doesn't involve olive oil, and when I say olive oil I'm not talking about small amounts. I am amazed by the amount that is in every recipe. I can't even imagine how fast Italians go through it, but so far the food has generally been amazing so they must be doing something right. The other trick is that she doesn't ever use a recipe. She has never ending knowledge about cooking or something. Maybe she just studies the recipe a lot right before I come in so she looks impressive. Regardless, we make good food. Here are a couple of the things we made in my cooking class.

This is Scaloppine and Zucca Gialla Alla Griglia. We also made ravioli ricotta e spinaci al pomodoro which was great. It was definitely a positive eating experience.


If you haven't ever had panna cotta, I will have to make this for you when I get home. It was divine.


This is how I've spent most of my weekend. It has been pouring rain for four days. Initially it was nice because it cooled things off, but now it's just outright cold and we are all a bit sick of the rain. At first we stayed inside thinking that the rain would stop soon, but apparently not. We finally just got over it and wandered around Siena anyways. My rain coat has been a life saver.


I realized recently that I didn't have a single picture with my roommate in it so we took one the other night in the piazza. This isn't the best picture, but it'll have to do for now. Her name is Anna Hawkins and she's a costume design major and BYU.

Classic Dinner Conversation

Before we eat anything for dinner Bernardino and Antonella explain to us what we are eating. They tell us both in Italian and English so we learn but also understand. Usually it works quite well, but we had a complication this evening. There is a type of cheese that Italians eat with honey or a type of jam. Bernardino explained what everything on the table was in English, but when he got to the jam he could only say it in Italian. He said it was a kind of fruit, but he didn't know what it was called. I didn't think that naming a fruit could be so hard, but between the two of us, it took about 10 minutes of discussion to come up with it. These were the hints I got.

- It is green on the outside and red on the inside. (I guessed watermelon.)
- It has lots of little kernels on the inside. (I guessed pomegranate, but that isn't green on the outside.)
- It grows on a cactus. (Am I really supposed to have a guess from that?)
- It's little. He showed me the size. (Oh, well that narrows it down a lot.)

Any guesses? I smelled it, I looked at the bottle, I guessed random fruits hoping I would get it, and eventually we gave up and decided to look it up after dinner. About five minutes later Bernardino's girlfriend, Maria, came up with a brilliant way for me to know what it was. She asked if I knew who Adam was, as in Adam and Eve. When I said yes they talked about when they were in the Garden and they were naked and then they were embarrassed. At this point I was so confused and just hoping this would help and not make it worse. She then asked me if I knew what kind of leaves they used to cover themselves up. Thank goodness for the Bible. They used fig leaves. Turns out I was eating fig jam. Who knew that one day I would use the Bible to translate from Italian to English? Classic.

Confidence

Confidence is something that I have had to muster up multiple times in the last week. Turns out that Italy can be a rather intense place sometimes. My most recent adventure was getting the flu. I really don’t advise doing that when you are living with a woman who doesn’t speak any English and you are a 20 minute walk to her house. Every intention I had of calling home and posting just didn’t work out for me.

Traveling around Rome and the Amalfi Coast was amazing. I saw so many things that literally took my breath away, but we were all kind of excited to get to Siena so we had a home base. It is nice not to be living out of a suitcase and not to be living the frantic tourist life. I have definitely had my share of exciting experiences since I’ve gotten here though.

Here is a brief overview of the past week...


As I'm sure you can all imagine, packing became a bit crazy right there at the end. I ended up having to take out a few things to get the right weight, but it all worked in the end. Here I am at the airport ready to go, kind of. When Mom hugged me I had a strong wave of the what am I doing feeling.


One of my favorite things about Italy is the water fountains. They have these really cool fountains all over the place that just spout water. It makes me happy every time I see them. None of the boring metal fountains from the US.


Don't worry Mom, I did throw a coin into the Trevi fountain. Hopefully that means that I will return to Rome some day. Apparently I was really excited to be throwing the coin.


Here is a picture of a lot of the people I am with. Not all of them ended up in the picture, but it's the best I can do for now. The girls are really cute. Of course there are a few girls with stronger personalities that I don't always understand, but we've had a good time.


I could post so many pictures of the amazing things that I have seen, especially in Rome, but that would be way too much. I started to get on overload a bit with all of the things I was seeing. Truly amazing.


This is a picture of the Amalfi Coast where we stayed for three days. It truly was amazing and a kind of beautiful you don't see other places.


Believe it or not, I am actually drawing here in Italy, and I'm doing it a lot. It isn't quite as bad as a thought it was going to be, but we'll see how it goes in the future.


I don't have any great pictures of Siena yet, but I will post some later. The woman I am living with is so nice, but it is definitely hard. I have found myself wondering what in the world I am doing more than once. It's a bit exciting because we are actually living in a Bed and Breakfast, but you do what you can. Ciao from Siena!