This past Thursday though, we got to do something else that I have been wanting to do in Siena. We climbed up the original facade of the Duomo to get a full view of the city. When the Siena Cathedral was built, they wanted to make it A LOT bigger than it is now. It has to do with some competition with Florence and everyone wanting to show off for each other. Anyway, they realized that the plan for the building was way too elaborate, and it actually would just fall down if they tried, so they had to downsize a bit. The church they ended up with is still huge and stunning, but it's true that Florence won when it comes to size.
Anyway, the view from the top was glorious, as always. You know that I'll do anything for a good view.
Check out that looming rain cloud. Surprise! It rained later. Actually...it hailed for a few minutes. I was pretty thrown off by that. I was in a little pastry shop with my friend, Angela, and suddenly the rain turned into hail. We decided it would be best to just stay inside until it went away. When it started raining again, we were relieved and I made a mad dash for my apartment.
Unfortunately, I had completely forgotten that I was supposed to have my first meeting with my Italian language exchange partner. Camilla called me at 4.10 wondering if I had remembered. I felt terrible and made another mad dash back up to the school.
Despite my rather poor first impression, we still had a nice time. Nancy used to be an RA for IES so she knows the program well, and her English is really quite good. I hope that I can help her somewhat too instead of just feeling like her student, but we got coffee and then I went with her to print out one of her course packets. I did my best to speak in Italian, but there were concepts that I didn't even begin to know how to express in another language so I used English for those.
---
Oh, also, want another picture?
Inside the Siena Cathedral is a private room called the Piccolomini Library. It was created to honor a guy named Aeneas Silvio. All the art inside the room was commissioned by his nephew and depicts the story of his life. It's pretty elaborate but a cool room.
That's just the ceiling. No messin' around guys.
---
Oh, oh, last thing. Last night, I asked two of my friends who live in an apartment if I could make them dinner. I'm happy with my choice to do a homestay, but I do miss cooking. Plus, it was Friday night so I wanted to do "Shabbat" dinner. I made challah and chicken and zucchini. Making the challah was so refreshing. I forgot how much I enjoy working with bread dough. And then it came out delicious...so there was that too...
So that's it. I just wanted to share that last little detail...because...it's about food...and we all know how I feel about food.
Nahoma,
ReplyDeleteI started my conversation exchage two weeks ago with the young woman from Siena. I think her English is better than my Italian, but it is really helping me to improve. And it seems to be helping her too Her name is Bianca Mascagni and her paretns own a shop in Siena -- the shop name is Mascagni -- and they sell women's clothes and bianchiera (linens) Bianca is a little older than you (she's 24) and will probably be moving to Rome in a couple of months, because her fidanzato works there. She showed me a picture of him in his costume for the palio. If she goes back home to Siena instead, she said she'd like to meet you. My husband and I are going to Italy in July and I may try to fit in the Palio. I also want to go to Lucca. I've never been there. Is that going to be one of your side trips? Glad you're a foodie -- me too.
Absolutely. If she is in Siena, it would be great to meet her!
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you are in Italy in July, you should ABSOLUTELY see the Palio. I'm sad I'm going to miss it.
I would like to try to go to Pisa and Lucca but I'm not sure if I'm going to make it. My weekends are already pretty busy and I'm not sure if I can fit it in. I'm going to try though.
And yes, I'm pretty obsessed with food. If I could talk about it all the time, I would.