Easter

Easter was nice…I went to Cavriglia and spent the holiday with Anna Lisa, Lucio, Francesco, and Matteo. I went there on the bus on Friday and we went to the hair salon and Francesco got a haircut and so did I! My hair is now short for me! It feels good though, a lot easier to manage and all my dead and splint ends are history. On Saturday we hung around and went to the movies and saw “Monsters vs. Aliens” a cartoon movie, and I thought it was so cute and was laughing. It was nice that I could understand it. Saturday night we went to church at 10pm and it was a nice service and everyone we talked to afterwards was really nice, it is a sweet place where they live. Easter Sunday we had a nice lunch at Anna Lisa’s of lamb with the oven roasted potatoes and other yummy food as usual. Later we took the kids and went to Anna Lisa’s friends house, Tanya. She is from Switzerland but her parents live in San Francisco. She has the most gorgeous house with the best view, I took some wonderful pictures. They also make their own olive oil and have 400 olive trees on their land- amazing. A bunch of people were there and all of the kids colored eggs and went on an egg hunt, it was so cute. Reminded me of being home for Easter…except we are all in our twenties basically and still do this…haha. The next day we went for a nice ride through Chianti and made a few stops along the way. We met up with some of Anna Lisa and Lucio’s friends in Greve in Chianti. It was the Pasquetta so they had some streets blocked off and vendors and a nice antiques market set up that we walked around and got some delicious gelato. Later we went to a restaurant and I had the best prosciutto cotto pizza of my life!

I got my Contemporary History midterm back and I got a 91 so I was pleased! I took an art history midterm on Wednesday so I will find out how I did on that next week. Our trip to Florence and the Uffizi for class went really well. I learned a lot and was yet again impressed with how my teachers knowledge of all the art. We only have 3 lessons left for each of our history classes which is really bizarre and puts into perspective how soon we finish! So sad. We’re all obviously going to miss it, although it will be bittersweet to go home, nice to see everyone and get everything back in order and jobs started and all that real world stuff! I signed up for my classes for the next semester and am excited to take them.

This is our last weekend in Siena…next weekend my friends and I are taking a trip to Capri, Sorrento, and Pompeii! Colleen’s cousin took the same organized trip when she was abroad two years ago and said it was the most enjoyable and beautiful trip she took, and we have heard good things from friends that took the same one this year- I’m hoping for good weather!! Then after that we only have the week and we have final exams and our farewell dinner which apparently is at one of the fanciest restaurants in Siena! We’ll all get dressed up and have one last hoorah. Things are great though, last night I was using my Italian so much when we were out which was a great feeling. Until next time!! Ciao xoxo

We took a group trip to Venice this weekend! It was awesome and I'd say it is one of my favorite cities...it's so unique. We had a little rain on Friday night but the rest of the time was really gorgeous. We went to San Marco's Square, the main piazza there, and we went in there on Sunday for Palm Sunday which was cool. We also went to the islands Burano and Murano which was famous for their glass....I cannot even begin to tell you how much glass I saw during the weekend! We went to a glass blowing factory and had a demonstration and it was SO amazing. I was so impressed, right in front of us in literally 5 minutes the man made this beautiful glass horse, a really nice vase, it was so great to watch. We also took a gondola ride!!! It as awesome of course. The guy started his price at 80 euro and we talked him down to 60 euro (everything in Italy can be negotiated I swear, I have never haggled so much in my life) and there were 6 of us so it was a great deal.

Yesterday was a nice day as well, I slept pretty late and went on a cleaning spree in my house and had art history class at 3:00. We had it on site so we went for a tour of the Museo Dell'Opera which is attached to the Duomo and holds all of the art/statues that were once displayed on the front/outside of the Cathedral and are now replaced with replicas. After class we went up on a Tower that is attached to the museum and got a great view of the city. I took some pictures that are absolutely gorgeous.

Today we had a tour of "Stanze della Memoria" museum in Siena, which is a fascist museum. It is where they used to take the anti-fascists and play music loudly while they tortured them. Our guide was really nice and informative and I understood all of his Italian which was nice. We saw a video of the bombings of the Station in Siena in WWII which was cool. They had different rooms in chronological order and I got to take a lot of good pictures. I was really interested in it actually, and my history class has been talking about fascism for the past couple classes so it was nice to tie all the knots. I had my history mid term at 1:30 this afternoon and I think I did well!! After class we all went and sat in the Piazza del Campo and soaked up the sun which was awesome. My flip flop tan is starting :) haha.

Tomorrow we leave Siena at 11am and go to Florence for the day. We have a little free time and at 3:00 we meet up with our art history teacher Lorenzo and have a tour of the Uffizi Gallery for class! That should be good. Then I should be going to Anna Lisa's on Friday or Saturday and then off to Pasqua with them which will be wonderful. Time is flying and I really do not have many more classes left.

We were fine in Siena in regards to the earthquake yesterday. My friend on the trip's best friend is studying in Rome and she was woken up around 3am by it and I guess furniture was moving and power lines were down but that was about it around Rome. I feel so bad for everyone effected from it. As of now I know of around 16o deaths and many more missing in action which is awful.

Anyways time to go to the gorcery store and make some dinner but I'll write after Pasqua!
xoxoxo

Barcelona was wonderful =) It is such a cool city…you have art, history, architecture, the beach, and so many people. On Friday morning we took our oral exam for our last Italian language class in the morning and received our final grades. I got a 30/30 for my final grade! After that we took the train to Pisa and then a shuttle train to the Pisa Airport. Our RyanAir flight was on time and went smoothly. It was funny because with RyanAir there is free seating so everyone basically runs to the plane to get a “good seat” I guess you could say, so we were at our gate waiting and we lined up a good 25 minutes before boarding started just because and all of a sudden we started a huge line behind us, it was so funny. We were just trying to defend ourselves from “the European swoop” which we have been victim to many a time, haha. Anyways the flight was smooth, I slept on the plane a bit. We got to Girona and took a shuttle bus to Barcelona and then we took the metro to our hostel. I was impressed because all of the traveling and directions went really smoothly. We got to our hostel called HELLO BCN and checked into our room. The hostel was pretty nice, there was a common room downstairs with a ping pong table, couches, a couple computers to go on. We had an 8 person room which was a little cramped but we made it work. We all used our extra sheet as a towel for the weekend because towels were not included, talk about student traveling haha.

The first night there it was pretty late by the time we got settled so we went to the grocery store around the corner and got some food and then we explored for a while. Saturday morning we woke up and all of us went on a complete walking tour of the city. We walked sooo much and saw all of Gaudi’s work and the Sagrada Familia and walked through a few markets. We also walked down Las Ramblas and took in all the action there. I’m proud to say that no one was mugged or robbed of anything on our trip! We went shopping and got a kebab to eat and headed back to our hostel. That night the hostel organized a pub crawl for everyone so we did that and danced at the end of the night. It was fun and we met a lot of nice people, I really think I met the entire population of London because everyone I was talking to was from there, I swear.

Sunday we woke up and had breakfast at our hostel courtesy of our Australian workers there. We all got ready and then headed out to see some more stuff. We went to the Gothic district and saw the gothics cathedral and went to the Picasso museum but it was closed! Go figure. We walked the rest of the city that we had not covered yet and headed to the beach!! It was raining on Friday and Saturday but Sunday was not bad so we made it down to the ocean. It was awesome!! I wish we could have been there in July or something. We saw so many live performances of music on the way, people selling their homemade stuff, we walked past the pier with all the boats, and finally made it to the ocean. It was gorgeous and we all put our feet in the water and watched the surfers. I got a lot of good pictures at the beach. By this time it was pretty late so we went home and regathered ourselves and got ready to go out to eat. We had found a place earlier that we wanted to eat at and it was a great deal but obviously when we got there and sat down things had changed and they had lied earlier in the day. I am proud to say that we all decided it was not what we were looking for and what we were under the impression of so before we ordered or did anything we decided to leave. Auntie you would be proud! Haha…so then we walked a little m ore and found a really great place that we sat outside under a heat lamp at and ate a nice dinner. We all shared some good tapas (bread with tomatoes, Spanish omelet mmmm, and chicken croquettes) and then we got a massive pan of chicken paella. IT WAS SO GOOD! We couldn’t even finish it but I am so glad we ate some authentic food. We were pleased with our decision to go to that place, haha. The next day we had to check out at 11am so we got all of our stuff together and spent the morning walking around some more before we had to go catch our bus back to the airport at 3:00.

Our flight back to Italia landed in Perugia at 8:00pm but the buses to Siena stopped running earlier so we had booked a hostel there for the night. We walked out of the airport and there was a shuttle to our hostel which was so awesome, it was an older man and he was really nice. We start driving off and we hear Eminem blaring on the radio and it was the funniest thing ever. We get to our hostel and it reminds me of a castle more or less as we are driving up the driveway through the gates. It ended up being nicer than our Barcelona hostel and right next door we went and got a margherita pizza and went to bed happy campers! In the morning we checked out and took the Mini-Metro in Perugia!!! It was like a roller coaster, it was so funny. I think Abbey took some pictures, haha. We then waited for the bus for an hour and we were not 100% sure we were in the right place so people were kind of uneasy, although we asked about 10 different people. Of course when we get there I ask someone and say “Gracias” instead of Grazie, haha. Anyways, finally our bus pulls up and it was a Double-Decker bus!! We were so excited haha, it was basically our life goal to go on one of those here. Our ride home was smooth, we got some and showered and settled, and then we were off to our Contemporary history class that afternoon!! All in all a very fun and smooth trip! My friend Megan is studying in Barcelona next year so I have a lot of stuff to tell her!

Tomorrow (Friday) I am off with my whole program on a trip to Venezia for the weekend!! I’m really excited and hoping for good weather. We are going on a bus to Florence and then a EuroStar fast train to Venice so it will only take 3 hours! That will be exciting. We have sightseeing planned and Elena is taking us to Islands close by and to a Glass Blowing shop…I cannot wait for that. Everyone is so sad that we are done so soon. I cannot believe all the time that has gone by. It really blows my mind. I’m just so thankful to have been able to do this program and be here and make these new friends along the way and really get a chance to live in Italy, not just visit. It will be bittersweet to go home but I cannot believe how soon that is! That’s all for now, stay tuned for Venice reporting. xoxox

Had my final exam for my last language class today! Think I did well and will find out tomorrow morning when I go in at 9:10am for my oral exam! Then we are all off to BARCELONA at 10:40am...taking the train from where our school is to Pisa...I will go see the tower and then we are off around 3pm to Spain! I cannot wait...we will all be safe and stick together....we are just praying for warm weather. I will write when I get back!!

xoxo

Ciao tutti!

Last week we had another one of our Contemporary History classes and it was on-site. Our great teacher Pazit took us to take a tour of a contrada museum for the contrada of Pantera, aka the Panther. The city of Siena is divided into 17 contrade, small sections of the city. For the great Palio race only 10 contrade race. I live in the contrada of the Civetta, the owl, it is very small and has not won for nearly 30 years haha, go figure… The museum was opened specially for us and an older man named Umberto was there with us and took us around along with our teacher. He was really cute and you could tell he was very proud and loved the contrada and the museum. He used to be a drummer in the marches during the Palio. In the museum there were the banners that the Pantera has won over the years. They are all hand painted silk and gorgeous, all of them had to include three different shields for the city and for the liberties and all of them had a picture of the Madonna di Provinzano at half bust for a win in the July 2^nd race of a picture of the Madonna dell’Assunta full figured for a win on an August 16^th race. Unfortunately I did not have my camera when we went to the museum but others did so I will have to save their pictures. The building the museum was in was gorgeous itself not to mention what was inside of it. They also had on display the uniforms and clothing they wear at the Palio, both what they wear today and hundreds of years ago…so awesome. They are all made out of silk and gold and precious materials. I was a little freaked out though because there was fur on the outfits because the contrada is the panther and Umberto told us it was all real fur. Italy is not too into the animal rights. There is an enormous amount of money put into the Palio. It was a good trip and I learned a lot about the Palio in the process.

On Friday I took the bus from Siena to go to Anna Lisa’s to get ready for Roma in the morning. I figured the bus out by myself again and almost missed it leaving because it is just so confusing but I made it on safe and sound. I was the last one on the bus by the time that I got to the stop where I had to catch another bus to Anna Lisa’s. The bus from Siena ends in a small stop in Gaiole in Chianti and then there is a smaller shuttle bus that leaves from there to Cavriglia where she lives….of course the last shuttle bus is at 3pm and we get to the stop at like 3:01 and I see the shuttle bus as it is driving AWAY. It is incredible that they do not wait…they know that there is this bus coming from Siena and it is the last one. I could not believe it, I talked to the two bus drivers at the stop in Italian and I was not pleased, thankfully Anna Lisa’s is not that far away and she was great and came and picked me up. I felt really bad though but oh well.

Friday night Maristella arrived! She is so cute. We all went to bed reasonably early and at 6am we were at the hospital where Anna Lisa works catching the bus to Rome. It was an organized tour group deal and I sat next to a really nice woman, she gave me chocolate on the ride home haha. We arrived at the Vatican City around 9:30 and our tour of the Vatican Museums was at 11 so we hung out in the piazza for a while and Patrizia met up with us! She, too, is very cute. At 11 we took our tour of the Vatican Museums. We had a nice older lady for a guide and we all had the radios with head phones and walked around in a group. I did not understand everything she was saying but I did catch a good amount and there was SO much to see in the museums!! It was a gorgeous day as well so it was awesome. The last thing we saw on the tour was the Sistine Chapel which is of course amazing. My second time (thanks to Carol), it was crowded but I spent some time looking at everything.

After the tour with the group we had until 6pm to meet up at the bus to go home so we went to St. Peter’s Basilica and climbed the Cupola!! Probably about 500 stairs and SO worth it. The view of Rome from up there was BREATHtaking. My camera had ran out of battery by then which I was so sad about but it’s just a mental image I will have forever. You could see so far out and the sky was so clear and after getting through all the spiral stairs and tight spaces up the cupola the breeze was heavenly. I am glad we climbed it because when I took my group tri to Rome that is one thing that we did not do. It was bizarre though because on Thursday night I met two girls in Siena that were here for just the night on a mini tour of Italy thing for their spring break so we talked for a bit. Then when we were in Rome and climbed the Cupola and were at the top, I SAW them, it was the most random thing of my life. Such a small world I am tellin ya. After that Maristella and I went and visited Castel San Angelo where the pope once lived and was then turned into a prison for a while and then freed. We used the audio guides and did the hour tour in about 45 minutes so we wouldn’t miss the bus but it was really interesting and I’m so glad we did it. The huge stone structure is impressive and was really neat to walk around in. We were in a room that used to be an apartment and it had gorgeous frescos all over the walls and ceiling that told a Greek myth and I was excited because I already knew the whole thing because I took a Greek Mythology class at Umass.

Today we had our language class for 4 hours in the morning and then this afternoon we had a contemporary history class for 2 hours. We did trivia on the Palio, it was a good class. Now we are talking about the unification of Italy. I always look forward to that class.

Caitie’s boyfriend Brad is here right now, he came to visit on Spring Break from Umass! He’s a nice guy. Everyone’s parents are getting here soon and relatives, it’s exciting! I love having people in our apartment! I am going to head off now to get some homework done but will try to post again soon and not such a drastic novel so your eyes do not fall out. xoxoxoxoxo

Ciao!

Here we are already in our second week of March...unreal. A week ago we started our new month of language classes. Our teacher is really nice and pretty funny. I am pretty sure she is either a former actress or a failed actress that took up teaching, haha. But we like her and she likes us as well. We still have class with some of the same people from past months but we also have some new people from Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Greece, Brazil. Interesting as always although I wish the material would move faster. Roxy farted in class today and was sitting next to the Arab girls in our class and they were cracking UP, they were probably just so astonished by her. It was just one of those things where you cannot stop laughing and it's awful because you need to stiffle your laughter because you are in class. God so funny.

We had our first class last Wednesday of our new Contemporary History class! Our teacher is a really nice woman named Pazit. She studying and graduated from University of Bologna and she has taught in the USA at really prestigious schools including Princeton and a few other places I cannot remember off the top of my head without looking at her bio. We bought a reader that they made at the school so it was not as expensive as usual textbooks, unlike at UMass where $500 is for one class more or less....... anyways we will be covering the history of Italy and I could not be more excited. During our first class we talked about the history of the Palio which is awesome because we cannot live in Siena and study here and not know all there is to know! We watched a really great video of the Palio as well from 2006. I thought the film was really well done and it had no commentary which I liked because our teacher was able to talk throughout it and explain things to us. I learned a lot just from those 2 hours of class. I know afterwards we were all talking to each other and everyone is pleased with the situation.

This weekend we had such gorgeous weather. We sat in the Piazza del Campo both days and soaked up the sun and people watched. It is so awesome out there, there are so many people out and about and laying down and sitting and talking, god I loved it. Caitie's best friend Jessica who is studying in Rome came to visit for the weekend. She is so sweet and we all had a really good time. On Sunday there was a bicycle race through Siena and we sat in the Campo and listened to the announcers and saw all of the barricades going up around the streets of the city. We had to take a detour to go home to get around everything! It was a nice and pleasant weekend.

Right now we have a gelato date with the whole group and Elena at 5pm!! Off we go but I will make another post and hopefully include some pics. xoxox

On Saturday I went to Firenze for the day with Abbey, Caitie, and Christin. It was a great day trip!! The weather was 60 degrees and sunny, could not have asked for anything better. We took the bus and arrived and bought a map in the train station. We spent the day walking around looking at churches, The Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, Santa Croce, etc. We walked through the markets and we all bought a few things. There are a ton of Americans in Firenze it is so bizarre. We had a good time though and my mom called me while I was there which was adorable because she lived there for a year! We will have to go back together sometime :)

Everyone is home now from their trips and they all had a really nice time. Tomorrow at 1:30pm we start our classes for March! We have another italian language class and then some afternoons we switch between a contemporary history class and an art history class! Should be interesting!

xoxo