Roma!

Sorry it's taken me a little while to write about Rome... I guess I've just been lazy and not wanted to do anything today after my quiz in Italian. Anyways, Rome was awesome! I loved it, but I am really glad to be back in Siena. I don't think I could have studied abroad in Rome. It's huge and I don't know how much I would like having to take the metro or the bus to class. It's also dirty and I rarely heard Italian spoken there. It was pretty frustrating when I asked for something in Italian, people would either just answer me in English or pretend like they didn't know what I was saying. I started to appreciate Siena so much more after going to Rome. People actually try to help you out when you mess up speaking Italian and they are patient enough to let you practice. I definitely feel like I'm getting to know the language and culture much more than if I was anywhere else in Italy. For me, there's also too many tourists in Rome. We have our fair share of tourists in Siena, but not to the extent that Rome does and they aren't as crazy it seems. After a weekend in Rome, I was ready to get out of there and come back here.
I basically did everything touristy there is to do. We got into Rome at about 9am Friday morning. When we got off the bus, we had to figure out how to get to the train stop that we needed to be at. At first we thought we were at that train stop and were a little worried because the area we were in was a little sketchy. But we managed to figure out that we needed to take the metro to a different station and then make our way to our hostel. It was pretty easy and straight forward to get to the hostel from the metro stop. We stayed at a hostel called The Yellow and it was pretty decent. Since we couldn't check in until 1pm, we had to leave our bags there in the reception area. Then we decided to make our way to the Vatican. It was extremely nice out (probably around 60 and sunny) and we were all carrying our jackets wishing we hadn't brought them with us. Luckily, we bought our tickets for the Vatican online ahead of time, so we got to skip the line for tickets. There are about 50 museums inside the Vatican so we had no idea where to go. We went to a few random ones that were a little odd. Then we just followed the signs that pointed towards the Sistine Chapel. I think they purposefully put the Sistine Chapel at the very end so that you go through 10 random museums before you get there. And by the time you get there, you just want to leave and are exhausted and don't want to take any pictures (you aren't allowed to anyways). Had I not been so ready to leave and eat lunch, I would have enjoyed what I was seeing a bit more. We finally made it to the Sistine Chapel and it was pretty cool. I managed to snap a few photos without the "guards" noticing. The amazing part is that Michelangelo painted the entire thing by himself and hung from the ceiling in order to do it. Apparently he hated the Pope, but he couldn't say no to the Pope. So, he just added certain things in that basically said "f*** you". For example, I heard that he painted an animal's butt above the chair the Pope sat in, so it was right above his head. He also had some people making gestures that were offensive. Little subtleties that Michelangelo added in that make the Chapel so interesting.
Then we made our way to St. Peter's basilica. That was really cool! I went with Amy and Jenny to climb up to the top of the dome. There were a ton of steps and by the time we got to the top we were all out of breath. When we got closer to the top, the walls started tilting so it felt like we were walking up the stairs drunk. We finally made it to the top and were able to see the entire city of Rome as we walked around the dome. From that angle, Rome is massive. You can see it go on for miles. The views were awesome and I'm glad I made the hike up to the top. We went back down and into the basilica. St. Peter's is the biggest church in all of Italy. Inside it is gorgeous. I could have taken millions of pictures but it doesn't do it justice. Seeing it in person is jaw dropping. Just the colors alone are beautiful, then add in the architecture. If you ever go to Rome, that is one place you have to go. It's free and definitely worth it.
We decided to walk around a bit after that and since we were all starving we looked for a place to have an early dinner. We felt like we were ripped off for that dinner because for the amount we paid we should have gotten twice as much. Afterwards, we wandered around a bit more and found out that we were really close to the Pantheon. So, we tried to go in, but it was closed for a few hours because of a special mass. So, we ended up making our way back to our hostel to check in. By the time we got back to the hostel it was about 7pm. We got our stuff and went to our room. Since there were 5 of us the first night (and 6 the second), there was a random girl as the 6th person in our room. We opened the door and realized that she was still in her bed. She heard us come in and told us we could turn the lights on. Apparently she woke up at 3pm but just stayed in bed until 7. She had an interesting story that we are all still a bit confused about.
She graduated from Smith College. She went to a lot of job interviews and didn't get any of them. So, she decided to buy a one way ticket to Europe and she's been in Europe for the past 9 months. 9 months!! We all thought that was crazy. I can understand a couple of months, but at this point, I think it's time to figure out what you are going to do. For the first 2 months she was here she "woofed" (worked on organic farms in exchange for room and board). Now, I think she just parties all the time and doesn't do anything else during the day. She came in at 3am when we were all sleeping. All of us woke up when she came in and none of us slept that well after that. Especially since about an hour later she got up and threw up in the trash can outside our room. Of course we could hear everything. It was disgusting. I was afraid she would puke on one of us, in the room, or on our stuff. When we woke up in the morning, there was blood on the floor outside our room, which we know was from her. I just don't get how that is fun every night and how you are happy with your life when it gets to that point.
Anyways, on Friday night before we went to sleep we decided to go find the Trevi Fountain. It was really pretty at night and there weren't as many people there compared to during the day. Before we got to the fountain though, we had a little mishap with the metro. At the last second, I realized that we needed to get off. Katya and I made it off safely and Mary managed to get off, but she did get stuck in the doors. She squeezed out of the doors, while Jenny and Amy were still on the metro. They just got off on the next stop and met up with us at the Trevi Fountain. We tried to find a bar to go to, but of course Friday nights are dead all throughout Italy, so we just decided to head back to the hostel, especially since we had all been up since 5am. We got on the bus that would take us back to the metro station near our hostel. The problem was that we were taking the one that went in the opposite direction. We didn't realize that the last stop came and we were the only ones left on the bus. The bus driver realized this and ended up pulling over on the side of the road and told us to get off, while laughing at us. We managed to find the bus going in the right direction and rode it to the last stop (which was our stop anyways). We're really good at the whole transportation thing... Once we got back to the room, we all passed out in a matter of seconds.
On Saturday, we got up and got breakfast at a nearby place. I got waffles with nutella and whipped cream. I know,  more of a dessert... It was good, but it was a little too sweet for me (I never thought I would say those words). Then we went to the Colosseum, which was really cool. We just stood looking around at everything. So awesome! Then we went to the Roman Forums, which was probably my favorite part. They were huge! The Roman Forums are the ruins that have been found due to excavation and they are still finding new ruins today. It was really nice walking around and I didn't really feel like I was in Rome at that point besides all the ruins around me. It seemed peaceful too even though there were tons of people there. There were trees and grass and it felt more like a park in the middle of a huge city. We were all pretty tired after that since we had walked for a while and just sat down for a bit. Nearby was the memorial for the first king of Italy so we climbed up a bit of that to check it out.
Then, we went to get some lunch in front of the Pantheon. Best. Meal. Ever. And the cheapest too! We got bruschetta, a drink, and either pizza or pasta for 10 euro! And it was amazing! The bruschetta was delicious and the cheese on the pizza just melted in your mouth. So good! Then, since we were right next to the Pantheon, we went inside to check it out. The columns in front of it are the largest single piece ones in all of Italy. So, all the other columns were made in more than one piece. As we were leaving the Pantheon, Amy found 50 cents on the ground and went to pick it up. She found out that it was stuck to the ground and the guy who did it was cracking up at us as we walked away laughing ourselves. We did part of a walking tour that was in Rick Steve's guide book. It brought us to the most famous gelateria in Rome. It was really crowded and insane in it and you couldn't even see all the flavors that they offered. I ended up getting caffe, stracciatella, and some oreo flavor. It was pretty good, but I would never go there again solely because of how crazy it was.
We found a small mall type thing nearby and there was a Zara inside so we went in. I instantly fell in love with the store and found lots of things that I wanted to buy. I resisted that urge and decided to wait until I am in Florence this weekend to shop a bit. Then we went back to the Trevi Fountain to see it during the day and throw a coin into it. Since the Spanish steps are really close, we went there too, but it was extremely crowded so we only stayed for a couple of minutes. We went back to the hostel and got ready for the night. We did a pub crawl which ended up being lots of fun.
On Sunday, we basically just chilled until we had to catch our bus back to Siena. We walked around for a bit and went to see the Castel Sant' Angelo, which was pretty cool. We sat on a bench at the top looking out at the beautiful views. For lunch, we tried to go to the Hard Rock Cafe since we were all craving hamburgers. Unfortunately it was about an hour wait and we didn't have that much time. So we just got a sandwich somewhere and made it to the metro station and eventually to the bus. It was a good weekend, but it's definitely nice to be back in Siena. :)
P.S. Tomorrow I will put up some pictures from Rome :)

Yesterday we went to Il Duomo for class. It was really cool, especially since we went with our teacher so it was kind of like we had our own personal guide. It's amazing that they built it so many years ago and how impressive it is. I have pictures that I will put up by the end of the weekend. Today we went to the crypt, baptistry, and museo dell'opera. I think the best part of it all was the arch that we went to the top of. It was going to be an expansion of il duomo in the mid 1300s, but the Black Death arrived and took out most of the town. So, the construction of that expansion was halted and it never started up again. Now, it's a place anyone can go climb up and see the amazing views from the top. I could have just sat at the top for hours on end. It was gorgeous out, which made it that much better up there. Mom and Dad, there's just another place you guys will have to go. I think it's better than climbing the tower. It's cheaper and you get great views every way you turn. Not to mention there is something to sit on. So, maybe one of these days, I will just pay to go up there and read for a while. It was very peaceful and a great place to chill out for a bit if you need to. I can talk about it forever, but that won't do anything. It's one of those things you just have to see for yourself. Sorry! Once you see the pictures I took, you will understand how I could sit up there all day long. Anyways, this weekend I am going to Rome! I can't wait! I am leaving bright and early tomorrow morning (bus leaves at 6am!). I plan on sleeping for the entire bus ride. I am going with 4 other girls in my program - Katya, Amy, Mary, and Jenny. We are going to see the Vatican tomorrow, which I am pretty excited for. I know we are also planning on seeing the Colosseum, Pantheon, and basically everything you would see in Rome. I'm excited to see all these things in person, since I've only seen them in books and heard about them. The one thing I'm not looking forward to in Rome is the amount of people and all the tourists. I understand that I'm a tourist also, but the millions of people that are in Rome every day is a bit much for me. That's the one thing I really like about Siena - there aren't a ton of people and it's never extremely crowded. I guess I'm more of a small town girl and probably always will be :) Check back in on Sunday when I've uploaded pictures from il Duomo and Rome. Ciao!

Venezia!!

Venice was AWESOME! I had lots of fun even though it was extremely crowded. I've never seen so many people on the streets. Friday morning we left early for Venice and got there around 2ish. We got to our hotel, which was much nicer than any of us were expecting. We had about 45 minutes to settle in a bit and then we headed of to Piazza San Marco, which is the main square in Venice. From our hotel it was at least a 25-30 minute walk. I will not complain about having to walk 20 minutes to the IES center again! Once we got to Piazza San Marco, we got to go into the Doge Palace. Since we were sort of left on our own with this, I am not entirely sure what I saw or what the palace exactly is. I think it was the palace that the ruling family lived in. The artwork inside was amazing. All the rooms were beautiful and I noticed that some of the rooms had plain wood ceilings, which I thought was a bit odd. After all, everything else was very detailed and intricate. It reminded me of Buckingham Palace in a way. It was huge and sort of set up the same way. But this palace definitely had more artwork in it (obviously since it's in Italy). Once we were finished at the Doge Palace we had to find our own way back to the hotel. It took us about 2-3 hours to get back since we had no idea where to go. Not to mention our maps weren't that great. I think in total, I walked to and from Piazza San Marco 4 or 5 times. Insanity! I definitely got my walking in.
On Saturday, we had the continental breakfast and then got to go on a walking tour around Venice. We got to see a couple of places, including the Jewish Ghetto. This was our first stop and I found it to be the most interesting. It was the place that all the Jewish people lived in. They couldn't leave the Ghetto and nobody could come in. They weren't allowed to build any churches because the only churches that could be built out of marble and what not had to be Christian churches. So, instead they secretly built synagogues. You can tell where they are because there are 5 tall windows near the top of a building. It looks completely different than the rest of the building, but unless you know that you wouldn't know that there are any synagogues or places of worship in the Ghetto. There's also a memorial wall to remember the holocaust. They have it there because they want to remember what happened so it doesn't ever happen again. They also don't call it the holocaust because that implies that they went willingly to sacrifice. Which obviously didn't happen. I forget the word they use instead... Anyways, we stopped at a couple of churches afterwards that to be honest I didn't really pay attention to or I just don't remember what we learned. After the walking tour, we had a big group lunch. The food was really good and we had an entire meal: first course, second course, and dessert. The first course was pasta with vegetables; the second course was pork and roasted potatoes; and for dessert we had tiramisu. Delicious! After that we had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted. I went to get my face painted and then just walked around a bit and shopped. I got a couple pairs of earrings that I really like and are Murano glass. In fact, I am wearing one of the pairs of earrings right now.
On Sunday, we had the morning to ourselves again, so we went to see the archeological museum. The first couple of rooms in the museum were pretty blah. We were confused and were thinking of leaving. Then it got better and there was some pretty interesting stuff. At noon there was a ceremony where someone dressed up as a dove went from the top of the bell tower into San Marco. I thought this person was going to go pretty fast into the Piazza since I heard she was going to "zip-line" into the piazza. Instead, she went really slow and it took probably 10-15 minutes for her to get to the ground. But, it was still really cool to be able to see that. After that, we walked back towards our hotel and got some lunch. We had some really good pizza that we are pretty sure was authentic Italian. Yes! We then went back to the hotel to wait to go to the bus. Honestly, I was really glad to be on the bus because it was an exhausting weekend. All I wanted to do was sit down and sleep, which is exactly what I did on the bus. We got back into Siena around 9:30 and I booked it home. It was so nice to be back here since the streets weren't crowded at all and I knew where I was going. It's always nice coming back to a familiar place :)
I'm so glad I was able to go to Venice for Carnevale! Ciao!

So I was told that I needed to upload more pictures onto my blog, so here you go. These are some of my personal favs from Venice. I even added some in of myself :)

A couple of the many people decked out for Carnevale.

Field Trip!

So this is going to be a short entry, but I just wanted to do a quick blog before I go away for the weekend. We are going to Venice for Carnivale! I am so excited!! It's going to be so much fun and I am finally getting out of Siena. I love Siena, but I also really want to travel and see other parts of Italy.
Tonight, a group of us went out to dinner. Best meal I've had here so far. I had a chicken stew and tiramisu for dessert. Both were amazing! Everyone else had either pizza or pasta. The pasta looked amazing, especially since it was homemade. I think I've found the best spot in Siena to eat out. Mom and Dad, I will definitely be taking you there when you come to Siena. :)
There's also a new gelato shop that just opened yesterday. Apparently all of yesterday they were giving away free gelato, but I didn't make it there before they closed. :( I did go today though, and it was very good. I got strachiatella (chocolate chip) and chocolate mousse. The chocolate chip is my favorite so far. My favorite combination of flavors though is chocolate and banana. So good! Mom and Dad, I will be taking you to this gelato shop also :)
I realized tonight that I have an enlarged tonsil, which sucks. It feels like something is stuck in my throat and all I want to do is cough, but it never does anything. Drinking water doesn't help either. I just have to deal with the uncomfortableness until the swelling goes down. I gargled salt water and I'm hoping they might have some salt at the hotel this weekend. Being sick stinks :(
Oh well. I'm going to Venice and I'm not going to let being sick bring me down. Venice, here I come!

Things I've Noticed

So I thought I would share with you all some of the things I have noticed since I've been here.
1) As far as fashion goes, bubble coats and moon boots are really in. I've seen tons of people wearing bubble coats of all kinds. The most popular color is navy blue, with black coming in a close second. Some are shiny, long, short, belted, you name it. Now moon boots. If you don't know what they are, look them up. I don't really understand why Italians where them so much, especially since they are big into fashion. They look pretty warm, but I would never wear them. I've seen them in pretty much every color from bright pink, to ones that looked splatter painted, and even metallic gold ones. I just laugh every time I see them because to me they are hideous. The other foot wear that seems to be in are similar to Timberlands. Except that both men and women wear them here. And they somehow manage to make it look cute and easy. Fur coats are also big, but mainly for older women (60s and older). These women also wear high heeled boots (like spiked heels). I rarely see someone younger than 50 wearing a fur coat. It's usually the older women who dress more odd and crazier than I've ever seen. It's like they are trying to dress to look younger. The men like to wear skinny jeans and sweatpants that are skinny. I saw someone today on the piazza wearing sweatpants that were basically like skinny jeans. To me, sweatpants should be a bit baggy because they are supposed to be comfortable. But that's just me.
2) I've also noticed that kids in middle school or early high school tend to wear the brighter clothes and more mismatched stuff. They are also more annoying than middle/high school students in the U.S. I didn't think that was possible. But after sitting on the piazza people watching for a bit with Katya (a girl in my program) and having a group of maybe 8th or 9th graders sitting next to us, I've found it to be true. We were afraid of getting hit with anything that was being thrown around. And they are extremely loud, although that can be said about Italians in general.
3) Which brings me to the next thing. Italians are loud. They get really passionate about certain things and when that happens, the volume goes up. They tend to get upset over very little things and proceed to yell at each other from a distance so everyone can hear. Yesterday on the piazza, two ladies were on their phones and all of a sudden, they just started yelling at each other. One of them pushed the other and then they walked away to talk on their phones. Once they were finished talking on the phone, they started right back up where they left off. Then miraculously everything was fine. Katya and I were extremely confused. We were trying to figure out what had just happened. I won't ever know.
4) PDA. Everywhere I walk there is at least one couple kissing. If you go out to the piazza and sit there or just walk by you are bound to see either a couple kissing or being really close. They don't try to hide it. It's not just holding hands here. But it's not excessive either. Some couples can be a bit excessive, but for the most part, it's not gross or thrown in your face like it sometimes is in the U.S. You can just tell that they are in love and are happy and are sort of in their own little world.
5) There are tons of Asian tourists every day. Every time I walk to and from class, there's a different group of Asian tourists walking around. And they are big groups of them too. They love to take pictures of everything too. Today one of them took a picture of an Italian baby in the piazza. They take pictures of random things and a lot of pictures in the middle of the road where tons of people are walking. So people are always walking through their picture. But, they don't seem to mind. Some of them wear the masks that were worn during the SARS epidemic. I just want to ask one of them why they are wearing it.

That's some of the stuff I've seen around Siena. When it gets near the end of my trip I will do another one of these and see what else I notice. Hope you enjoy and find some of these things as interesting as I do :) Ciao!

History

Wow I didn't realize that I hadn't blogged in a few days. I'll try to remember everything I've done in the past couple of days. On Wednesday, after my Italian class, I walked around the market a bit. I got some food that was pretty good and pretty cheap too. I didn't end up buying anything else, but next week I definitely will. I saw a few things that I wanted to get, but I refrained from getting them. I feel like there's a lot of stuff that I want to get and not enough space to bring it back, especially if I am getting stuff for other people too. Wednesday afternoon, we went on a "field study" for our class. It wasn't much of a field study seeing as how we literally sat inside St. Catherine's basilica and our teacher talked to us the whole time. We might as well have been in the classroom because she didn't even have us look around or talk much about St. Catherine's basilica. Not to mention it was freezing in the church. My hands and feet went numb and I wasn't able to take notes after a bit because of that. I found out yesterday that our teacher had gone to the hospital afterwards because she had been sick before the field study and being in the cold that long made it worse. Needless to say, I don't think we will be doing anything like that anytime soon.
Thursday I only had one class, so I got to sleep in! It's a good way to sort of start off the weekend. The class I have on Thursday, we will usually end up doing a field study then. So, we went to the museum in the town hall. This was for my renaissance art and patronage class and our teacher talks extremely fast. She's really cute and very enthusiastic about the class, which is really nice. But I got overwhelmed with how fast she talks and having to really pay attention so I don't miss something. Some of the stuff she showed us was kind of cool and actually learning how to analyze paintings a bit was cool. Thursday night we went to a club called Barrone Rosso (the Red Baron) since it's apparently University night on Thursdays. It got really crowded and we basically had no room to dance and people were bumping into us all night. Every time we go out, there seems to be a couple of guys that never leave us alone. No matter how many times we push them away and tell them to leave us alone, they always come back. We aren't going to change our minds.
Today, since we don't have class on Fridays (woohoo!) I got to sleep in again! I keep thinking it is Saturday and it's not. At least it's not Sunday and I'm thinking it's Saturday. It was pretty cold and windy today, which kind of sucks. It's hard to do anything on days like today. I just don't want to go outside and yet I want to go do stuff around town. We went to visit a contrada museum today, which was kind of cool. We went to the porcupine (istrice) contrada. I really wish that some of the tour guides we had spoke English because it can get kind of boring when someone has to translate. A lot can get lost in translation also which means that we aren't getting the whole idea of what we are looking at. I also felt like a lot of the stuff that we looked at was pretty similar. Most of it was banners from different years that this contrada won the palio and what people wore in the past. I think I was just expecting more and I didn't get it. Something I did find interesting though was that there are 17 contradas and only 10 of them race during each palio. There's one palio in July and one in August. They are completely separate from each other. So each year only 10 contradas race in the palio. The next year, the seven that didn't race in the previous year race along with three others that are chosen by the 10 that raced in the previous year. Also, the horses are chosen for the contrada. Horses names are drawn from a bag or something and are given to a contrada. You can't change the horse you get. If it gets hurt or sick, then you can't race. You can change your jockey as many times as you want, but you can't change your horse. Because of that, the horses are treated very well the last couple of weeks before the palio. Someone sleeps with them each night and makes sure they are 100%. They go through all this work for a piece of cloth. They get a banner that they hang up in their contrada museum. All that work for what seems like nothing. I guess the pride and bragging rights is what really matters. I think the tradition of it all makes it that much greater. People will find their spot in il campo 5 hours before the race and just stand there until the race starts. Then the race only last for 60-70 seconds. I think it's fascinating to learn about the history and hear about what the traditions are here in Siena. The pride people take in their contrada is crazy and I love it.

Finally some updated pictures!

St. Catherine's Basilica

Il Duomo - finally a nice day to take a picture of it!

The Bottini or the aqueduct system underneath the city

What you've all been waiting for - a picture of the snow that we got. Not much right?

Sorry it took me so long to upload pictures, but here are some! Now you can see that we really didn't get that much snow and yet had 3 snow days.

Today I had my Italian class, which I'm really beginning to like. I really want to learn Italian and be able to communicate with store owners a bit. It would also be cool to ask someone for directions and be able to understand them. My Italian teacher is awesome and I love that she is really patient with us and it seems like she really likes what she does. I had my first Presence of the Past class today, which was mainly an introduction to the course. Tomorrow we are going on a field trip (I don't remember where...) which I am excited for. There are two sections for this course - one that is taught in English and one that is taught in Italian. Since I am in the intermediate Italian class, I was given the option to take Presence of the Past in Italian, but I decided not to. I didn't want to not understand something or have to take any tests in Italian. I don't want to fail a test because I don't understand the language, especially if I know the material. I also want to get something out of this class and I don't think I would get that if I took it in Italian. My third class of the day was The Black Death one. We watched a movie the entire time, and I was a little confused as to how it related to our class. There was one small portion of it that talked about the Black Death, but that was it. It was in Portuguese, so we had English subtitles. It was really odd and the subtitles were a little off. I'm really hoping that this class gets better and that I will find the material interesting, even though the teacher talks really slow. Tomorrow is market day, which I'm really excited for since it was cancelled last week. I love Wednesdays, mainly because of the market!

Prima giorno di scuola!

Today was my first day of actual classes. It was nice to have classes since the past five days we've been doing pretty much nothing. Those days off really messed up my Italian - I got to class today and had forgotten some simple verbs. I think I need to step it up with studying my Italian if I want to really learn it. The other class I had was called The Black Death and its Aftermath. We didn't do much in class - just went over a general overview of the course and did a bit of background on the time period. Our teacher doesn't know a ton of English, so he talks really slow and I have to work really hard to pay attention and not zone out. Hopefully it will be an interesting class!
My mom has been getting on me about putting up a picture of the snow, so by tomorrow I will have one up. I just have to remember to upload the pictures from my camera. I also will post some pictures from the bottini (the aqueduct underneath the city). Sorry it's taking me a while to post pics!
Yesterday night, I went to a place called the tea room. They have I think 95 different kinds of tea to choose from. They give you a pot of tea which is basically 4-6 cups of tea. They also have cakes or tortas, cocktails, and caffe. It's a bit difficult to find, but it's a cute little place to hang out and have some tea. Unfortunately it doesn't open until 7. If it opened earlier I would be hanging out there a lot, especially since it is about 5 minutes from my apartment. Mom, I will take you there if you and Dad are in Siena for a night. :)
It was pretty cold here today and yet I still had some gelato. I got banana and chocolate. Best combo ever! Well worth having my hands frozen for a bit. I was debating on whether to get some gelato or some fritelli. There is a little shack set up in il campo that sells these fritelli's that are made with rice, orange, and sugar. It's basically like fried dough. They are so good and pretty cheap! Since I had them yesterday, I decided to go with gelato. With the shack staying up through February, I'm guessing I will gain some weight this month. Fritelli + not running as much = weight gain. February will also be pretty cold, so I won't want to go on walks every day like I've been doing. Oh well. I'm here in Italy, so might as well enjoy all the food I can. Just don't be surprised if I come back 20 pounds heavier...

Long Weekend

Well this sure has been a long weekend. 5 days! At this point, it looks like we will have class tomorrow! I was going to go to Panicale this weekend to visit Guenter and Elida, my grandmother's cousin. Unfortunately, the trains to Chiusi were all cancelled. :( We had walked the whole way down to the train station only to find that the trains were cancelled. Then we had to walk all the way back home. I'll just have to go another weekend. It turned out to be a good weekend. I didn't do much, but that was kind of nice. However, I am really excited for classes to start tomorrow and to actually have stuff to do. Yesterday, I found the best shop since I've been here. I think the old man who owned the store really made it great. I got three scarves from him and I love all of them! He was the sweetest old man ever! Anytime either me or my friends picked something up to look at, he would show us how to wear it. I had a scarf on and he showed me how I could wear it in the summer as a bathing suit coverup.  I am thinking about going back there today to get another scarf I saw on my way out... I will most likely come home with tons of scarves (like I don't already have a lot...). Mom, just warning you about that, but I will show you and Dad this store when you guys come and I'm guessing Mom will buy a scarf from there. I could go on and on about this store, but I won't. I'll just have to buy a lot of people scarves while I'm over here! Today is pretty much a chill out day. I will be doing laundry and cleaning up around our apartment. Sounds pretty boring right? Yup. But, the rest of this week will be exciting and we'll see where I end up next weekend. I am hoping that I won't be here and will be traveling somewhere. If you have any ideas of where I should go either next weekend or while I'm over here, let me know :) Ciao!

Tre giorni di neve!

This is insane! We don't have class tomorrow either! Three snow days in a row! I've never been anywhere that has three snow days in a row, much less this many snow days for a couple inches of snow. In Vermont or Ithaca, school wouldn't even be cancelled for a couple feet of snow.
Today, I started to figure out plans for spring break. Man, is it stressful to plan that. Flights, hostels, getting to airports. I can't wait until we have booked our flights and hostels. I think what we have decided to do is go to Barcelona first, then to Amsterdam, Prague and finish up in Milan for a day. Hopefully everything will all work out and we are hoping to have it booked by tomorrow. The one tricky part is figuring out how to get to Rome for our flight to Barcelona. There are so many places I want to go for weekend trips and not enough weekends to do them in. Oh the hardships of studying abroad in Europe. :)  I think for weekends, though, I'm going to try to go around a lot of places in Italy and explore those and leave the trips outside Italy for spring break and another break we have that is five or six days I think.
I went to this great little caffe called "meetlife" today with some friends. They have some pretty good cappuccinos there and I think it will be a place I venture off to often to either do some homework or just hang out. The drink I had today was a cappuccino alla nocciola which is one with hazelnut. So basically, the guy puts some nutella in the cup, then adds espresso and some steamed milk. SO GOOD! I could drink it every day! I might have to learn how to make one so that I can make them when I'm back in the states... Anyways, it's been a pretty lax day, which has been nice. On Monday, classes start and I hope I like all of the ones I've registered for :) I will be taking Intermediate Italian, Presence of the Past (a required course), The Black Death and the aftermath, and Renaissance Art: Comparing Florence and Siena. And from here on out, I will have three day weekends! Yay! What a life I get to live! I don't think it gets any better than this :) 

Snow day!!

We had a snow day today and we have one tomorrow also! Last night as it was snowing, my Italian roommate Francesca said "Wow, that's a lot of snow!" I went to look out and to me it wasn't that much. But here, it's a lot. Siena never gets snow, so what they got last night and today is pretty impressive. The city isn't prepared for snow, which is why they make a big deal over getting an inch or two of it. I went out to the piazza del campo to check things out. Lots of people were outside playing in the snow and  having lots of fun. The entire city and other surrounding areas had closed all the schools. Someone built a big snowman (instead of 3 balls of snow, it had 4). It was fun to watch all the people having a blast in the snow. People were sliding down some walkways into the piazza on plastic bags. We were all a bit confused by that seeing as how everything is cobblestone here and there really wasn't that much snow on the roads and walkways. It didn't look comfortable, but they were having the time of their lives. One guy was also trying to ride his vespa down the street. It wasn't working out well for him at all. He was just sliding down the hill and wasn't really getting any traction. It was funny to see how Italians react to snow. Tomorrow we will find out if class is cancelled for Friday also. Frankly, I'm hoping it doesn't just because it is our intensive Italian class and we will have already missed two days (6 hours) of class. On the other hand, I'm going to Florence this weekend, so having an extra day there might be nice :) The weird thing is that back home and at school it's pretty warm, while here it's freezing. It should be the opposite, although I've heard that February is the coldest month here. Yay... I'm going to get some rain boots tomorrow so that I can walk through the snow and not get my feet completely soaked. If anyone knows any good places to check out in Florence, let me know! Arrivederci!