Exploring Siena and Lucca

I'm sitting in my room, listening to the chatter of Italian in the piazza below my window. There is an unusual amount of people out in the streets of Siena this evening. I'm not sure why, but my guess would be that there is going to be a contrada (one of any of the neighborhoods in Siena) party tonight. That's part of the intrigue of Siena... there's always a lot going on here but only the local Sienese seem to be sure of what it all means. The tourists and students here are left to observe and figure it out for themselves.

A friend recently took me to the botanical gardens here in Siena, located in the Tortuga (tortoise) contrada - one of my favorite parts of Siena. The plants there give off a very relaxing scent and I could see some beautiful views of the Tuscan hills from there.




Not far from the gardens is a charming park that was once a farm. It overlooks part of Siena, a villa owned by a rich family, and more of the shadowy blue hills of Tuscany.

Yesterday my study abroad program took a bunch of us students to Lucca - a small, walled city in Tuscany. Lucca is about 2 hours from Siena and very similar, only with more greenery and less tourists. We took a tour on top of the city walls of Lucca, and then into the town center. It was absolutely beautiful there and the weather was undeniably perfect.










We then went to Villa Reale a little bit outside of Lucca (where my camera battery unfortunately died) which was the villa of Napoleon's sister. It was so incredibly gorgeous and peaceful there. I especially loved the grotto where the inhabitants of the villa used to spend hot summer days (before air conditioning came along). There they had water that sprayed in thin streams out of the ground and statues and ceiling.

I would gladly live in either Siena or Lucca for the rest of my life. The walled cities are so medieval and beautiful, with everything concentrated and within walking distance. I think I'll have to make a trip on my own to Lucca in the upcoming month so that I have more time to explore the city and get to know it better.

I'm going to get fat eating all this food - and I really don't mind

My apologies for going so long without posting here!

Life in Siena has been crazy (but good) and I don't even know where to start explaining it all!

I think perhaps the most important thing I need to write about is the food in Italy seeing as it is what my life revolves around here. I picked up a bit of Italian before classes started and it was all about how to order food. "Vorrei una fetta" is "I'd like a slice of pizza". Or "Vorrei uno piccolo cono di Limone" is "I'd like a small cone of lemon gelato". (Please forgive any spelling/grammatical errors in my Italian...I am still learning).

For the first week or so that I was here, I was on a strict pizza and gelato only diet. In Siena there is at least 3 pizzerias and 5 gelato bars on each street.

Now I don't really know how to describe the pizza here other than to say it is AMAZING. It is thin, but not too crunchy and it always tastes good. I don't think I'll ever get sick of the pizza here - and honestly I will probably never eat pizza in America again because now I've been exposed to the superiority of Italian pizza.

Gelato is going to be the death of me - I love it even more than the pizza here. Gelato is the Italian version of ice cream,and like the pizza here, it is infinitely better than its American equivalent. I'm lactose intolerant but I can't stop eating gelato! There are tons of different flavors at each gelateria and while each gelato flavor I've tried has been amazing, I think my favorite combination is Rose Petal (petali di rosa) with Chocolate (cioccolata) or Strawberry (fragola). I haven't had gelato in two days now (I'm trying to avoid getting too fat right away), but I feel that in another day's time I will be indulging in some Nutella flavored gelato.


(Gelato at a gelateria on one of the main streets of Siena)

After eating too much pizza and gelato (if there is even such a thing as "too much pizza and gelato"), I've branched out and sampled various Italian dishes. I love running into a bakery and buying a panino with Tuscan salami and cheese. I tried gnocchi with ragu in Florence and wanted to buy two more orders of it. I've had risotto (with some beef in it - just delicious) and an unbelievable tomato soup with bread in it (I'm told I will learn to cook this in my upcoming cooking class). I keep my kitchen stocked with bread and brie cheese at all times and often prepare a simple past dish wish pesto sauce for a light dinner when I'm not eating out.

The other item I've become enamored with is the wine here. The region of Tuscany is famous for their Chianti, so I have been drinking a glass (or two...) with dinner every evening.

There really is no way to describe how fantastic the food is here - everyone really must try it for themselves.

Ciao Bella!

So I arrived in Siena a little under a week ago and have been far too busy to get around to posting! I apologize for the putting this off since I know a lot of you have been curious as to how my new life in Italy is going! Here is the explanation of how I got to Siena. Soon I'll post more about eating and living in Italy! :)

So to start off, I have to tell you about my journey from San Diego to Siena.
Last Sunday, my family drove me to LAX. I got through security and found my gate without a problem. At the gate I met with 8 other students who were all traveling to Siena to study in the same program as myself. We all boarded the plane right on time. Almost 11 hours later we touched down in Zurich where we all easily found our way to the next gate for our flight to Florence. Everything was going unbelievably well until we got the the baggage claim at Florence. Everyone got all their bags except for one girl who was missing one of her bags. We waited for 30 minutes for the lost and found department to give her the appropriate paperwork.

This delay caused us to miss the 8:00pm shuttle bus from the Florence airport to the bus station. So we took the 8:30 shuttle, which put us at the bus station at 9:00pm. At this point, 3 of girls we were traveling with left us and went to their hostel they had reserved for that evening in Florence. The remaining 6 of us frantically tried to find the bus stop (which is adjacent to the huge train station we had been dropped off at) in order to catch the last bus to Siena at 9:15pm. Unfortunately we missed the bus due to the fact that we couldn't find anyone to give us clear instructions (in English) to the bus station.

At this point we decided to buy an open train ticket to go to Siena. A train was departing from platform 2 in 15 minutes. We hurry over to platform 2 but there is no on on the train. We then hear an announcement informing us that the train on platform 2 is a non-passenger train. At this point we believe we have no way to get to Siena and make our hostel reservation for the evening. But we soon find out that a train is leaving for Empoli (where we can get a connection to Siena) in 3 minutes from the opposite end of the train staion. We sprint for the train and barely haul all our luggage onto the train before it takes off.

At this point, a nice Italian man named Luchio (please excuse any incorrect Italian spelling) helps us put all our luggage overhead and explains to us (in very good English) that some trains and workers are on strike so some trains are unavailable even though you can buy tickets for them. This explains why we couldn't take the train from platform 2. As the train sped along, I realized that we had not validated (stamped) our ticket before jumping on the train - this can result in a heavy fine in Italy. So two girls go to get our ticket validated by a train staff member who tells them to get off the train at Empoli and get a bus there that will take us to Siena.

We start to realize that there are no signs or announcements informing passengers where to get off. I find a man who speaks only French and ask him where the stop for Empoli is. He informs me that we are about to arrive in Empoli in 2 minutes. There is a frantic rush as the 6 of us students all heave our bags to the doors and jump off the train. We are left alone at Empoli at 10:50 in the evening.

Empoli is a very sketchy place to be in the evening time. We pull our bags up and down stairs until we make our way out of the train station and onto the street. We can't find the bus stop so we ask some people at a cafe across the street. They point us to the bus stop but explain that the bus won't be there for an hour.

For some reason, Empoli is full of creepy old men who just stared at us as we waited nervously for the bus. At this point we had been traveling for somewhere around 20 hours. The bus to Siena arrives at 11:55pm. We board it and sigh with relief. We arrive at the train station in Siena at 1:30am. But we are not anywhere near the city center (inside the protective walls of Siena on the hill). So we all wait for a taxi. The only taxis running at this hour are tiny little cars that only have room for 2 people plus their luggage. So we split into pairs and arrive at the Pizza Gramsci.

We try to find a hotel (since we've missed our check in time for the hostel) but all are too expensive and we can't navigate the twisting cobblestone streets with our luggage. We find our way to the Piazza del Campo (Pictures at end of this post) at 2am, which is the heart of Siena's social scene. Unfortunately all the bars and cafes were closing. We all put our luggage down and decided to give it up and spend the night there.

In the Piazza del Campo we meet some interesting (and drunk) locals who offer us their apartments for the evening - but we, being paranoid and sleep deprived, decline.

We spent the evening talking there - no sleep. And when the sun finally rises, we go to check in with our program and undergo hours of waiting through orientation and paper work. Finally we are shown to our apartments and dorms at which point I shower and then reluctantly climb into bed (after discovering I was running a fever and was dizzy from the exhaustion) and then fall asleep for 8 hours.

When I woke up, I looked out my bedroom window and and could see a busy piazza full of people speaking Italian and riding vespas. "I'm in Italy," I thought, smiling. "Finally."

The frantic packing is well underway

I leave for Italy tomorrow. I can't seem to wrap my mind around that. In a few days I will be moved into my place and starting my adventure in Siena.

This is mind-boggling!

I don't have much time for a post here because my packing has now become frantic as I rip my room apart in search of various items that seem to have eluded me whilst packing earlier.

I have yet to learn much Italian and I find it to be a bit late in the game to try to learn much more...I suppose my lack of Italian fluency will allow for a more interesting adventure en route to Siena.

I'll be flying into Florence (with a layover in Zurich beforehand) and from there I will be haphazardly attempting to make it from the airport to the bus station in order to make the last bus to Siena for the evening. I have little faith that I'll make it to Siena (where I have a hostel room booked) the same night that I arrive in Florence, but luckily I'm traveling with a few other people from the UC schools who are in my program so I won't be alone in a country where I don't speak the language.

I must return to my packing now! My next blog post will be from Italy!

Ciao!