Happy Cambia l'ora in Italia or daylight savings! I have no clue why Italy's daylight savings is a week before the United States daylight savings, but hey I am not going to complain I got an hour more of sleep. I also have more time in the day to write a blog post since I woke up even earlier than usual (7 a.m.) If you remember I went to Siena with my program three weeks ago. I had a fabulous time besides the rainy weather. Siena is such a cute, quaint city with a lot of history and it is a medieval town located in Tuscany. Early Friday morning, the group met in the center of Bologna and piled into a really fancy coach bus. All the students came on the trip as well as the program director and her husband, the intern, and the two other women who work in the office. It was a packed coach bus and within two hours we arrived in Siena. The ride down to Siena was absolutely beautiful because we drove through the Tuscan countryside. I will talk more about the Tuscan countryside toward the end of this blog post.
Once we arrived we checked into our hotel called Cannon d'Oro. Everyone stayed in rooms of three and the door of my room was so small that I had to duck or I would hit my head. I guess Italians are not as tall as me. Then we had free time for lunch and to wande around the city. I went with seven other girls to a restaurant called Il pulcino. We had some vino della casa and pasta and soup dishes. I had faro soup with beans and it was absolutely delicious. After lunch we wandered through town and stopped to take pictures at Piazza del Campo. Ever since taking Italian classes at Vassar I have always seen pictures of this famous Piazza and it was so surreal that I was finally standing in the center of it. Then we wandered to a garden/walking area twenty minutes away from the center of town. This place was peaceful and it helped that it was such a beautiful day, without any rain….yet. I could see the whole town from this area (I forget the name), and I tried to take pictures from every angle. My friends were really into modeling and taking photos like in a GEO magazine so I took pictures of them as well. When our time was up, we met the whole group for a tour of the Palazzo Pubblico. The tour was led by a professor from the University of Siena and he was very easy to understand. Unfortunately I was not allowed to take any pictures inside but the art was incredible. I was so interested in all the religious and political stories of the art and I especially loved Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Allegory of Good and Bad Government. When the tour was over I went back to the room to rest before dinner. I was falling in love with Siena and I did not ever want to leave. I am so jealous that my mom had the opportunity to spend a month here. She stayed at the Continental Hotel, which is now a five star hotel and now costs over 400 U.S. dollars a night.
Around 8 p.m. the group met up again for dinner. We walked to the restaurant called Antica Trattoria Papei, right outside the center of town. I sat with four other people in our program and I am sure we had the best table. The dinner was so much fun and we told stories, drank wine, laughed, and drank more wine. The waiter thought we were hilarious and kept bringing us bottles of delicious Tuscan wine. Unfortunately, the director of my program told the waiter to stop serving us wine, and that we had enough, but I really enjoyed the wine in general. For dinner we had classic Sienese dishes. The primo piatto was a dish called ribollita which is a hearty Tuscan soup made with bread and vegetables. The second piatto was tagliatelle with mushroom, and the third piatto was insalada (arugula) with french fries. The dessert was almond biscotti's, ricciarelli and dessert wine. Ricciarelli are cookies that are made with lemons and almonds and covered with powdered sugar. The meal was absolutely delicious and after dinner some of my friends and I wandered to the Onda street fair. Onda is one of the 17 contrades that makes up Siena's contrada system. The contrada system have been around since the Middle Ages originally as military companies and each contrada has its own heraldic symbol and history. Every year the contrade compete in a bareback house race around the Piazza del Campo and this race is called the palio. The winner of the race this year was L'onda meaning wave and this weekend was their celebration. It was a long day, and after celebrating with L'onda, (dressed as if they were in the 60's listening to the Beatles) It was a grand celebration but once it was midnight I decided it was time to head back and go to bed.
The next day I woke up to the sounds of raindrops on the window. It was raining very hard, and at 9 a.m. the group met for a tour of the cathedral of Siena, also called the Duomo di Siena. It was another beautiful church with amazing artwork. I especially loved looking at the church from the outside. Unfortunately, because it was raining, I did not bring my camera to take pictures, so I apologize for my iPhone pictures in advance. After the tour, all the Vassar students met up with our TA from Vassar last year named Chiara. Chiara just graduated with her masters at University of Siena, and is from and lives in Siena. She took us to another amazing restaurant called Trattoria Fonte Giusta. I had pici (the pasta Siena is known for) with porcini mushrooms and a side of fresh steamed spinach with vegetables. I was so full from lunch I only had enough room to taste the tiramisu that Chiara ordered for the table. Once everyone finished lunch we walked around the town with Chiara in the rain, enjoying the little time we had to spend with her. She took us back to the garden/park and other sites she felt were important to see in Siena. We also visited the McCurry exhibit. This was a photography exhibit that captured images of people and life affected by conflict around the world as well as documenting ancient traditions and captivating cultures. One of his most famous photographs is the green-eyed girl from Afganistan. The exhibition is housed in the Santa Maria della Scala which is one of the first hospitals in Europe. It was such a moving experience and I am so happy I was able to see these photographs. Afterwards, we walked backed to our hotel and we said goodbye to Chiara, as she went back to her house right outside of the city. I hope she comes up to visit all of us in Bologna before we leave.
The next morning we woke up even earlier and said goodbye to Siena. We were off to the countryside for a day on a ranch. I was so excited to spend a day in the country. As you might know, I am a country girl at heart and I never realized how much I enjoy the outdoors, fresh air, and open land. The ranch we spent the day at was called Ranch Ricavo. This ranch is right between Siena and Bologna and it has a restaurant, hotel, horse riding ranch, and a mini-farm. There were many animals like goats, donkeys, horses, cats, dogs, and chickens on the farm and the views were breathtaking. Everyone was able to get a turn riding a horse through the countryside. I opted to go after lunch but while I was waiting I took a lot of photos. I also discovered this adorable poodle dog named Daisy. She was the perfect lap dog, and I cuddled with her for a very long time. It was nice having a dog for those couple of hours to pet, but it made me really miss my dog Chaos back at home. Two more months Chaos, and I will be home to play with you and take you on "only walks" in the snowy state of Colorado.
For lunch I had an amazing meal. Tuscan food is very famous for rich and meaty food. As many of you know I don't eat red meat. But the ranch was super nice and brought me my own vegetarian option. While everyone else enjoyed a lunch of cheese, cold-cuts, pate, meat and truffle cream penne with peas and pumpkin ravioli with meat sauce, another vegetarian girl and I enjoyed our lunch. My first piatto was a "bread platter" with different things on each piece of bread like beans, mushrooms and tomatoes along with an omelet, my second piatto was tagliatelle with homemade pesto sauce, pine nuts and tomatoes, and my third piatto was vegetable lasagna with grilled vegetables, and for dessert we all had chocolate cheesecake and panna cotta with raspberry sauce. It was another amazing but enormous meal.
I waited another twenty minutes or so for the third group to come back from the horse back riding. During this group, it started to pour and I was getting hesitant about going in the rain. But once they came back I decided to go, even if it was drizzling still. I got on my horse named….Queenie, just kidding her name was Sasha. She was good for the most part, but enjoyed eating grass every once in awhile. I wish I could of brought my camera on this ride. The view was out of this world. I have never seen such a peaceful countryside (campagnia tranquilla) I am so glad I decided to go. We crossed a couple of streams, galloped across the cabbage fields, and saw vineyards from a distance. At the end of the ride I even saw a rainbow in the distance and then the cowboy started to run and the horses started to gallop back to the ranch. I did not want this day to end. But a day eventually ends and this one ended when we returned back to Bologna.
Bologna wasn't just a city, or a place in Italy, it was now my home, the place I have lived in the longest since I have been in Italy. I now have half a wall of postcards from all the places I have visited, and a full wall of tickets from everywhere I have been next to bed. My pantry is filled with food, and common supplies like napkins, salt, pepper, olive oil, honey, pasta, serving utensils, plastic bags, and my closet is now filled with more winter than summer clothes thanks to Mom and Aunt Dianne. For now and every always when someone mentions the city Bologna, I will think of it as my home, the place I lived in Italy for 4 months.
I hope everyone is healthy, and is preparing for Halloween. I am not sure what is on the agenda here. I know I am planning to go visit Milan sometime next week but that is everything I have planned. These next two weeks I have a lot of exams and tests unfortunately. I have four midterms and one final in the next three weeks 10/24, 10/30, 11/3, 11/6, 11/12. After November 12, I will only have three finals left and one of the finals is a theater performance. I also have the last three classes of my University of Bologna class this week and the final on November 12, so I will have more free time with three less classes a week to study. Right now, I am a little bit under the weather with a cold, so I am trying to get a lot of sleep and keep hydrated. I started this book called Che cosa la storia della scienza? for my University of Bologna class. It is an easy read and I am already a fourth of the way done with it. I miss everyone so much and I will write another post after my midterm exam this week. Stay tuned.
Con tanto amore,
Samantha
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| The restaurant for lunch |
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| Coat of arms |
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| Unique Archways |
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| Piazza del Campo |
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| Much less tourists than other cites I visited |
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| This piazza is famous in Italy |
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| The torre |
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| Contrada |
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| One of the many streets leading to the piazza |
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| Another coat of arms |
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| A lot of vespas |
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| The view from the garden |
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| What a beautiful day |
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| Can you find something in this picture? |
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| Fall has arrived in Italy |
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| The city of Siena |
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| Happy in Siena |
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| Casually relaxing |
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| Some sort of nut tree |
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| Model pic 1 |
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| Model pic 2 |
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| Model pic 3 |
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| Denim and black was a theme |
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| McCurry exhibit with my friend next to it |
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| What an amazing city |
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| A typical street in Siena |
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| Palazzo Pubblico |
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| A baby stroller race in the center of Piazza del Campo |
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| Yes I was speechless too |
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| It was starting to rain |
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| Welcome to the countryside |
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| Entertainment |
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| Another cute but dirty dog |
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| Hi goat |
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| They used rocks to play with |
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| Three more dogs |
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| They are all playing...nicely |
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| The view of the Tuscan countryside |
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| In my element |
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| One of many horses |
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| I spy a cat |
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| The horse area |
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| Roosters |
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| Dirt bike |
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| It was a cloudy but picturesque day |
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| La campagnia |
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| Imagine if I could of brought my camera on the horse |
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| The barn/stable |
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| A lonely dog |
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| A beautiful horse |
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| He wants to play |
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| Another dog...so many dogs |
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| My friend Alex riding the horse |
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| My friend Byron riding the hourse |
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| The cowboys |
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| Me and daisy |
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| I think she loves me |
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| I can't get enough of her |
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| I think Daisy might be a bit cuter...sorry Ari |
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| She is resting |
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| She is still tired, big yawn |
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| By countryside |
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| By Daisy |
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| By ranch |
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| Rocking my pants |
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| Model status |
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| Selfie |
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| Close up picture |
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| Waiting to enter the Duomo |
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| A rainy day |
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| The floor of the church |
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| The cathedral |
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| The ceiling was beautiful |
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| Another room in the church |
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| Different ceiling |
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| Stars and moons |
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| The Duomo of Siena |
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| The Grand Continental Hotel where my Mom stayed |
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| It is a five star hotel |
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| Pici con porcini mushroom (thick spaghetti) |
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| The restaurant we ate in Siena with Chiara |
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| A tiny piazza in Siena |
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| Sanctuary House of Santa Caterina |
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| Another typical street of Siena |
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| Italian always have umbrellas |
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| Selfie with my cheetah umbrella |
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| Last picture of the Duomo |
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| Chiara and I |
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| Primo piatto at the ranch (veggie) |
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| Tagliatelle with Pesto and Tomato |
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| Veggie Lasagna and grilled vegetables |
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| Sabrina and I in the rain |
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| I am on a horse! |
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| The crew posing |
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| The city of Siena and I in the rain |
