Il Mio Cuore Resta a Siena

Yesterday I went on my first trip. I am officially a traveler. A few other students at Stranieri and I went to Siena for the day. It was an amazing little city and lived up to everything I hoped it would be. It is the city in which I was searching for a program, but couldn't find one well suited for American university credit. In any case, I did not want to leave at the end of the day.

In case you don't know much about Siena, I will gladly talk your ear about the reading I have done.

Now the city is known for its horse race, which occurs twice a summer, called Il Palio. The race is between seven of the fourteen contradas of Siena. The city is split into fourteen sections, much like counties in the US. When a person is born in Siena, he or she is born into a contrada. It is a rare and honorable event for someone who is not a Siena native to be "inducted" into a contrada. Each contrada has its own colors and animal mascot. The picture above is the of Piazza del Campo where the race takes place. I took the picture from the fastione (I believe I have misspelled the word.) above the Museo d'Opera Metropolitana or d'Opera del Duomo. This museum holds many works from the cathedral in Siena, including reliquaries holding bones of Saints/ martyrs, and other important people from the church centuries ago. Interestingly, the duomo is one of the biggest in Italy. The original was started in 1192! There are parts which still contain the original art work on the wall, complete with graffiti. We spent the whole day milling about the duomo, crypt, baptistery, and museum which are all part of the main cathedral.

If any of you make it to Italy, I highly recommend visiting this city. It is only about 30 minutes by car from Florence.

Life outside of Siena has been ordinary, as far as life in Italy goes. I found a discount grocery store! Todis: Il Superdiscount. I love the englishisms here. Most times I can't understand what people are saying to me because of the accent. Illory e Obama are topics of much discussion. Too bad I don't have the vocabulary necessary to tell them how I really feel ;)