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!

Opera a Firenze!

Last Thursday I went to see an opera in Florence. The opera was Verdi's "Rigoletto" - this opera was adapted from Victor Hugo's "Le roi s'amuse" original play. While I had never heard of this opera, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I had already heard a few of the songs from it. "Rigoletto" contains the song "La Donna E Mobile", which I have heard as performed by Pavarotti.

Now, while I thoroughly enjoyed dressing up and sipping on wine before the opera began, I have to say that I was thoroughly disappointed in the performance that I saw. Perhaps the most off-putting aspect of this production of "Rigoletto" was the set that was used. It did not look like a Duke's court with jesters and nobles as the time period of the story would have you imagine. Instead, the set consisted of a fake Rolls Royce that the Duke rode around in, a dog house that the main character (Rigoletto) and his daughter (Gilda) lived in, a boat, and a giant rotating black wall that didn't seem to serve much of any purpose. It is possible that the director was going for a modern spin on the antiquated story of Rigoletto, but it appeared as though the set was thrown together using leftover props from previous productions.

Aside from the aesthetics, I was not moved by the singing. While the singing was not bad, it was not what I would expect from a professional opera in Italy. But in all fairness, I had listened to Pavarotti's rendition of "Questa o Quella" earlier and the day, and Pavarotti sets a pretty high bar.

Luckily, the music itself was amazing - I really do have a lot of respect for the orchestra that performed that evening.

Aside from the opera, not much else is new. Except that it is now COLD here. Fa freddo! It literally happened overnight. Luckily it has been sunny and clear - though the locals tell me it will only get colder over the next few months, and you can bet it will start raining more frequently. I've had to go out and buy new sweaters and boots so that I don't freeze to death on the ten minute walk to class in the morning.
Today I could see my breath, despite the shining sun and bright blue sky. This did not sit well with me. I am a southern Californian girl - I am not familiar with cold weather.
This will be an adventure...albeit, a very cold one.

Wine Tasting in Tuscany

My apologies for lagging on the blog updates!

I never seem to have enough time to just sit down and do an entry - but thats a good thing! I am absolutely loving Siena.

Over a week ago I went wine tasting at Dievole winery in the Chianti region of Tuscany. This is where they make Chianti wine (among tons of other types of wine), which is my favorite red wine. There the director of my program (who happens to be a sommelier) in Siena gave a group tour of the winery and taught us how to hold wine glasses and analyze every aspect of a wine. We sampled four different wines. The white wine was accompanied by some bread and olive oil, the Chianti was complemented by prosciutto, we ate heavenly goat cheese with some red wine, and nibbled on biscotti while drinking a desert wine in an old chapel. I left the winery with 2 bottles of wine - I'm saving the nice Chianti for a special occasion - maybe my birthday?

The winery itself was absolutely stunning. It is a beautiful, mid-sized winery that sits atop a hill from which you can see the rolling hills of Tuscany. Here are some photos from Dievole.








My Italian classes are coming along pretty well. I feel that Italian is an easy language for me to learn after studying French for so long, but I freeze up whenever anyone outside of class starts to speak rapidly in Italian. Non capisco! I wish I could speak to the locals more easily, but learning a language (unfortunately) takes time. I'm impatient and want to speak it NOW! Ho voglie di parlare italiano adesso!

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.