I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaack!

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Saturday was pretty uneventful. I mean I actually did nothing all day, which has kind of been the norm for pretty much all Saturdays in my life, and after a week of waking up early I was pretty ok with letting this trend continue. I did get up for lunch, and for those of you who have seen me in CP on a Saturday, this is a rare occurrence, as I rarely move from my bed on Saturdays in CP. Finally, around dinner time Miriam and I decided to become real people; we went to dinner with our four other roommates, which was nice. Two of the girls are sophomores from Pitt and the other two are juniors who go to University of New Hampshire. At dinner I got tortellini, and had my first oops! This is meat problem. I’ve seen a bunch of people order tortellini here and they have ALL been cheese, but obviously the one time I order it (and don’t ask), I end up with meat tortellini. No big deal, I ate bread and cheese and got gelato instead, which is just as good in my mind. After dinner, Miriam and I came back to the hotel to have some wine with friends and then a bunch of us went out, which failed somewhat miserably because there is nothing to do in Siena, but actually. We looked up nightlife in the guide book and we’d been to 3 of the 4 places, one of which is actually just a wine tasting place and doesn’t actually count as nightlife. We did meet some funny Italian guys though, who offered to go to this bar we had been looking for but we declined because that would be sketchy. The night clearly wasn’t going anywhere so Miriam and I went home with our friend Marissa and went to bed. We’re really cool, I know.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Sunday was a little bit more exciting than Saturday because we took a trip to a little Tuscan town called San Gimignano (whoever can pronounce it correctly first gets a prize…my everlasting love and affection). Miriam and I got lunch at this cute little bakery that we have to go back to because their cookies look absolutely delicious and perfect. Then we got on the bus to San Gimignano and stared in awe once again at the views from the bus window; Tuscany is everything beautiful, I am never going to be able to stop staring at it or get used to it, it’s too pretty and perfect. San Gimignano is adorable, and really really old. It was really nice to get out of Siena, although it was funny because we went from one walled city to another, but it was a much needed changed of scenery. San Gimignano is known for its 14, 800 year old towers that used to be used for military defense back in the day. Today, they are used so tourists, like myself, can get some exercise after eating 5000 pounds of pasta and gelato and see the MOST incredibly stunning views ever in existence of the world (well maybe not quite, but its way up there). We obviously climbed the tallest tower in San Gimignano, because they just knew how much I love to climb stairs. Before we went up to the top though, we stopped in the town hall which had a few frescos (one of Mary and one telling a story about some boy and how he gets married) which I believe are some of the first frescas painted in Italy. After, we trekked up the stairs, which were actually quite open and easy to walk up and not the tiny spiral staircase we were all expecting. The only freaky part was the tiny little ladder that lead through a little opening to get out to the top (not so bad going up, but going down was pretty freaky and I bumped my head, shocking I know). When you got out to the top, it was a) freezing and b) breath takingly beautiful and absolutely bellissima and any other word that means gorgeous. You could see the rolling green hills and vineyards of the Tuscan country side around for miles and miles. The sky was clear that blue day and it was perfect and totally worth all the stairs (le scale). After climbing the tower, the tour guide talked for a little longer and then we got to get coffee/hot chocolate on AIFS (yay for free food!)
I cannot even begin to describe how delicious this hot chocolate was. Let me put it this way, the hot chocolate was as delicious as the view was beautiful. What’s great about Italian hot chocolate is that it is literally hot chocolate. They melt the chocolate, throw in some cream or milk and serve it to you. This particular bar (that’s what they call coffee places here, its basically a café), makes their hot chocolate so thick and creamy that it’s like eating hot pudding. Some of my other friends couldn’t finish theirs (lame), but being the chocolate-lover I am, I drank every last drop, my mouth is watering just typing this. I don’t think I’m going to be able to eat that powdery crap ever again (not to sound pretentious or anything).
Now that I’ve written a paragraph about hot chocolate let me continue; after the hot chocolate extravangza we shopped around for a little bit, including going into my first leather store. I am SO excited to buy leather everything in Florence. I hadn’t really been shopping up until this point, so this just made me itch with excitement to shop my little heart out when I arrive in Florence (I love you Mom and Dad!). We took some funny pictures in the leather store and my friend bought the cutest change purse. The store had a sign at the cash register that essentially said “buy it now, because you’ll regret it when you get home otherwise”…I need to not think of this too often or I will go home with all of the shoes in Firenze. At this point we grabbed a slice of super delcious-kind of-NYC-style pizza and then headed back to Siena. We got back and hung out for a little then went to dinner, where I tasted my friend Ali’s dinner and I need to go back and get it myself because it was the best spaghetti ever: it was basil, olive oil, and tomatoes, and it tasted like a super light pesto, but with a hint of tomato, SO good. As we were walking out of the restaurant (which we had been to before) the cute waiter stopped my friend and was asking her to go out later, while my friends and I huddled waiting for a few feet away, giggling like 12 year old girls. He was super cute and seemed pretty disappointed when she wouldn’t come out (mostly because we had 6 hours of class the next day). Italian men are too funny.

Ciao!