Everything is Smaller in Italy, Except the Sugar Packets!

The title of this post was inspired by something our Resident Director, Frederica, said when we were getting a cappucino one morning! Its true too, unless you count the mammoth churches. But other than the churches the coffee is smaller, the portions of food are smaller, the glasses you get for water are smaller....everything is smaller, except for the sugar packets, which are about one and a half of the sugar packets that we know in love in the states!

I never got to tell you about our Excursion to Siena, so I am going to do that now before I go on! On Friday, May 23rd, API took us on a bus ride at 9 in the morning to Siena, a little tuscan town out in the middle of the country side. It was a beautiful ride there, gorgeous rolling hills, those little spear like trees ( I have been meaning to learn their name) and the occasional vinyard. Everythign you would expect and more! When we got to Siena, we instantly started a walking tour (ANOTHER walking tour) of the little town. Siena is beautiful, it is the little italian town you always imagine, the narrow winding roads, quaint ally ways with hanging baskets and amazing wooden doors. I have to admit that I found it really hard to concentrate and listen during the tour (after 5 tours in one week I think that is understandable) so I don't really know any cool facts about any of the churches or buildings. However I did pay attention the moment we rounded the corner and I got a veiw of Siena's main attraction: Piazza Del Campo! This piazza is HHUUGGEEE. Its a large brick floored semi-circle that is surrounded by caffe's and continuous wall of apartment buildings. It doesnt sound pretty, but it is! I will put pictures up of it in just a minute. Anyway, on the flat side of the semi circle (or shell, as they put it) is the Palazzo Pubblico (Public Palace) and the Torre del Mangia (Tower of Eating??). The cool part about this piazza is that every year, on July 2nd and again in August, there is a Horse Race: Il Palio. This isnt just any horse race though- the Sienese live for this thing! There are 15 or so neighborhoods in Siena (which is amazing because this town is TINY) and each neighborhood invests all of its extra cash into helping their horse win! They even bring the horse into their church to have it properly blessed the day of the Race. Its a huge ceremony and people actually cry its so emotional. The race itself is very dangerous considering the shell shaped sloped piazza. The horses gain an incredible amount of speed and turn at scary angles. All in all the race lasts about 75 seconds- guarenteed to be the most thrilling 75 seconds of your life. If your not crushed to death by the crowds assembled in the piazza, that is. At any rate, if there's a chance I can make this you can bet I'll be there- I will even find a neighborhood and see if they will adopt me for the day, I'm Italian, they should like me...right? :)

After Siena we took a one hour drive up a VERY windy and narrow road up into the tuscan hill country. We ended at Castello di Volpaia, an Olive Oil producing village.

A Quick Note about Italian Driving Skills: We are talking death defining skills here! Donato (or DoDo for short) was my driver for this trip. On our way to Siena he straddeled the dotted white line for atleast half of the trip, and moved over only seconds before the car on his right (or left) got to close. On our way to Castello Di Volpaia, he reached unheard of speeds and never missed a car by more than 5 inches. Talk about heart attacks, Frederica on the other hand (who was chatting with DoDo the entire time) thought nothing of his driving! Moral of the story: Never play chicken with an Italian...it turns out thats how they learned to drive!

I don't have much to say about Castello di Volpaia except WOW. A lot of the kids going the excursion said they would live in Siena in a heart beat...and ok, I can see that maybe before we went to Castello but after...no way, I am in love. If I dont come back home this August, you can find me in Castello Di Volpaia. Its a gorgeous town- no words can describe it so soon I will post pictures so your jaw can drop too. Cobble stone streets, beautiful rose vines creeping up old walls and over heavy wooden doors. Sweet old ladies sitting on the bench smiling and nodding as we passed by. Oh...so amazing. We had an olive oil tasting in an old church, which was great, I loved their oil (and bought some). Then it began to rain and we went home!

Saturday we spent in Florence walking around town and shopping! I began to feel more and more comfortable in the city, less homesick and more excited to explore. I really enjoyed saturday. On Sunday it was Emma's 19th Birthday (she's a youngin')! She wanted to go to Pisa so at 9 am we hopped on a train to Pisa and arrived there by 10:30! I love the train system here, I have no idea why America doesnt have trains. I could be in Fort Worth College Station in 1.5 hours tops if we had a train station! Pisa itself was unremarkable. The city was dirty and sleepy (keep in mind it was sunday so most of the shops were closed) and we got hit on more in the two hours we were there than in the entire week we had just spent in the country. Pisa men are gross. As gross as the city was, as soon as we turned the last corner we all three stopped, our jaws dropped, and we were sold! The leaning tower was so cool! It was definetly huge, but it was so thin! It was beautiful. We had lunch a cute little caffe and headed home! We just hung out in florence, went to dinner and chilled for the night because the next day was classes!

I will save that for next time because once again this has been an abnormally long post! But I love you all! And I hope you are all having fantastic weeks!!! Email me if you get the chane, I would to hear how y'all are doing!
Love,
Mary K