So here's what I've been up to in Siena for the past few months...

Aside from my travels to other part of Italy, I’ve been having some small adventures here in Siena. A few weeks ago, I went to my first European football (soccer) game. The game was Siena vs. Lazio and it was played here in Siena. In Siena, women pay 6 or so euro less (almost 10 dollars) then men for football tickets. That, plus the fact that the football stadium is only a two minute walk from my apartment, meant that I had no reason not to go to the game.

It was a good game that ended up in a 1-1 tie. I particularly enjoyed the diehard Sienese fans that yelled at the refs when they made questionable calls. Here are some photos from my first football game in Italy.





My class recently took a small field trip to one of the many contrada’s (neighborhoods) of Siena. There, in the Tortuga (tortoise) contrada, we visited the contrada’s church and museum. Each contrada has its own church, museum, and fountain. Tortuga, being one of the winners of this summer’s Palio, has their current Palio painting (which the winners of the Palio receive each year) on display in the church. The museum holds many artifacts and past Palios from the contrada. Here are some photos of it all:






In my free time a few weeks ago, I ventured outside the walls of Siena to a nearby middle school where I tutored some 7th graders in English. I prepared a game about American pop culture in which they guessed the names of American celebrities. I was surprised how much of American culture is present in Italy, seeing as they not only knew who Beyonce and Lady Gaga were, but they were also very familiar with figures such as Obama and George Clooney. There is so little Italian pop culture that I see in America. This makes me feel a little guilty – why is America so isolated and seemingly unwilling to learn from other countries?

About 2 weeks ago I headed down to the center of Siena at the Piazza del Campo to find that there was a huge outdoor market taking place there. I’ve never seen this in the two months I’ve been here, but it was so exciting to see so many people out in this colder weather. The stalls at the market had a huge variety of merchandise including contrada memorabilia, knick-knacks, clothing, accessories, food and wine. I purchased a slightly pricey bottle of Chianti wine (my personal favorite). In the evening, I returned to the Campo and was surprised that the market was still in full swing, now accompanied by beautiful sparkling lights lining all the rooftops of the Campo. It was a very gorgeous sight. Unfortunately I left my nice camera at home so I couldn’t capture the extent of the beauty with my little point-and-shoot, but here are some photos anyways.




My Italian class took a day off from language learning to learn how to cook traditional Italian food! We learned to make rice stuffed tomatoes, a tomato and bread soup, pici (thick traditional Sienese pasta that we rolled by hand!), a tomato sauce, and tiramisu! Then we ate everything we made. So good!