Almost two weeks ago (yes, I am way behind on posting!) I went with our Italian conversation class on their field trip to Assisi. I have always wanted to go there and since all the other classes were out on field trips that day I was able to tag along. Assisi is famous for being the home of St. Francis, and it is easy to see why he was such a lover of nature and God's creations - it is a stunningly beautiful town. Set high in the hills it is full of winding streets, beautiful stone buildings, and many churches. The most famous of course, is San Francesco, a huge basilica church where St. Francis is buried. His tomb is in a small chapel underneath the main church and it was the perfect place to sit and do some quiet reflection. I loved Assisi and will definitely go back again someday!

On our way back to Siena we made two stops: one at the Perugina chocolate factory and one at Lake Trasimeno. At the factory we watched a video about the chocolate making process and had a tour of their museum- they also gave us lots of free chocolate which was amazing and awful at the same time since it tastes so good but also ruins my diet! The lake was lovely and serene, and Trasimeno is famous for its hand-painted porcelain, so I did some fun window-shopping. All in all, it was a great day!

Here are a few more pictures from the Palio; these photos were all taken near the Duomo both before and after the race. Some come from the procession before and others from the celebration at the Duomo after. I wasn't able to get many good shots because of the crowds (and being smashed up against a wall during the procession) but hopefully you at least get an idea of the atmosphere.

This past Monday was the Palio of Siena, a horse race held twice a year in celebration of the Virgin Mary, the patron saint of Siena. The August Palio is held in connection with the August 15th Feast of the Assumption and is generally viewed as the more important of the two Palios. I have been here for the Palio several times, but this time was different because my friend Aleesa from Toronto was here visiting, so I was able to experience it with her. Siena was the last stop on her European backpacking adventure before heading to Genoa to settle down, and I am so glad that she was able to fit it into her schedule. I really enjoyed showing her around the city and attending various Palio events with her. The Palio is a unique experience and is always intense, but this year I think it is safe to say that we witnessed an especially intense Palio.
Let me explain . . .

Out of the 17 contradas in Siena only 10 run in each Palio. (There is a rotation process set up that I haven't even attempted to try and understand!) Out of the 17 contradas there are also only 4 that have green in their colors. It is very rare for all 4 of the "green" contradas to run in a Palio together, so whenever this happens the race is referred to as a Palio of the Quattro Verde. There is a superstition attached to the Quattro Verde Palio; I was told by several locals that whenever the four green run together strange things, sometimes bad things, happen. Unfortunately, they were right. First, the horse of the Giraffa contrada was injured the day before the race, so they had to pull out. Then, at the celebratory dinner of the Civetta contrada the night before the race, a man was tragically killed when a large piece of stone fell from the balcony he was sitting under and hit him on the head. Finally, right before the race, when the flag bearers were performing their usual flag throwing routine, a strong gust of wind picked up the Civetta flag and blew it into the crowd in the piazza where the heavy handle came down on a girl's head. They had to postpone the race while the paramedics took her (unconscious) out of the crowd and an ambulance came to pick her up. Oddly enough, both the man who died and the injured girl were visitors, and both were from France. In the conversations I had about these events with locals they all blamed on the fact that is was a Quattro Verde Palio.

In addition to all of this, the race itself was more intense than usual because one of the strongest rivalries was running. Every contrada has an enemy but it seems like some rivalries are worse than others, including Valdimonte and Nicchio. When the horses were assigned, Valdimontne received the best horse - the horse that won the Palio in July. Once their enemy received the best horse Nicchio's only goal became preventing Valdimontone from winning. They went so far as to give their jockey, widely considered to be the best since he has won the Palio several times, to the contrada with the second-best horse, Tartuca. Then, Nicchio hired another jockey who did his best to unsettle the Valdimontone horse while they were all lining up before the race, and he did such a good job that a fight almost broke out between them before the race, and one did break out afterward. One lap into the race, Tartuca and Civetta (oddly enough the winners of the July and August Palios last year) were the only two with a chance to win, and even though Civetta almost caught Tartuca at the end, Tartuca won. So, in the end, Nicchio's gesture of giving Tartuca the best jockey paid off - they kept Valdimontone from winning.

Where was I in the middle of all of this? Well, Aleesa and I attended the trial race Sunday night, and then on Monday morning we went to San Domenico and watched the Drago contrada bring their horse to the church to be blessed. In the afternoon we went to the Duomo and watched the parade, which, I have to say, would have been far more enjoyable if we hadn't been squished up against the wall by the crowd! Then, instead of braving the massive horde of people in the Campo, we watched the race on television from the saftey of a cafe near the Duomo. When the race was over we went back to the Duomo to watch the winning contrada come and give thanks. It was a long, exhausting day, but it was also a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures from before the trial run Sunday evening; I'll try and upload some of the parade in the next few days! You can go here to see some pictures of the actual race: http://www.sienanews.it/galleria.aspx

I took my camera out with me yesterday as I ran some errands, thinking that it would be fun to show you some of the things I see here every day. Here are the results of my outing!

I can't believe that it has been so long since I posted; the time has gone very quickly, probably because I have been busy . . . very busy. I moved from Siena to Florence last Wednesday, the study abroad students arrived on Friday, and it has been craziness ever since. I feel like I have a good group of students in my residence and other than some noise issues (which are totally normal) things are going pretty well. I would be more descriptive but I probably only have about ten minutes before someone else knocks on my door and I am also very tired. Accordingly, I just wanted to share this with you. This is my new best friend:

You might think I'm just being funny, but I'm not. I seriously love this bed. The bed and I haven't been able to spend much time together during the past five days but the time we do have is always the best part of my day! I hope that in the coming weeks we can spend even more time together- four hours a night is just not enough! We got up to six and a half last night, so things are looking up!

In all seriousness though, I feel like (despite my lack of sleep) the program is off to a good start. It will just take another week or so for the students to truly adjust and get into a regular schedule, and then (fingers crossed) it will be smooth sailing! And when that happens hopefully my new best friend and I will be able to spend more time together so that I will have the energy to do a proper blog post.

I know, it sounds really lame that I am in Italy and there is not much to tell but I promise that it's the honest truth. I have spent most of my this past week in the archives and the Biblioteca Nazionale doing research, and the weather has been so hot that all I have wanted to do at the end of every day is take a cold shower and go to bed. (I managed to give myself a cold by doing this and spent yesterday in bed trying to recover; I feel better today!) Besides my research I have managed to do a few fun things: on Saturday I went to a graduation party for Elisabetta's friend Maria Giulia, who just received her PhD. The best part was that it was a surprise party, and Elisabetta, her friend Giacomo, and I took Maria Giulia out to give her husband time to prep the party and have the other guests arrive. We went out for a drink (diet soda for me!) and then we went back to the house to, as Maria Giulia thought, pick up her husband. Elisabetta pretended to call him and ask if he wanted to come down or if we should come up, and then reported that we needed to go up. So up we went and it was great because Maria Giulia had no idea what was happening and she was genuinely surprised. She is a very sweet, graceful, and demure person and her face was just beaming when we reached the of of the stairs and everyone shouted "Surprise!" The party itself was really nice; there was great food and I met some wonderful people, so it was a Saturday evening well spent. Other than the party, the only non-research oriented thing I did this past week was go to the Accademia gallery and see Michaelangelo's David. They won't let you take pictures so here is a shot of me with a postcard I bought:


As you can see I tried, and failed, to match his serious, determined expression. The David is a magnificent sculpture so it is definitely worth the trip to the gallery to see it; it is also worth it to stand to the side and watch the faces of people as they come down the hallway and see it. There are looks of amazement, wonder, huge smiles, excitement, and the list could go on. It's a great place to people-watch!

So that's the update for now . . . I only have a few days left in Florence since I go to Siena on Wednesday, and there is a lot I need to try and finish before then. Wish me luck!

This past week I developed a habit that I thought I left behind when I started kindergarten: afternoon naps. The combination of staring at sixteenth century documents for hours at time with intense humidity and heat is surprisingly exhausting. I find myself coming home for lunch with the desire to collapse on my bed outweighing the desire to eat. Accordingly, I have been sleeping for an hour or so every afternoon before eating and heading back to the archives, and it feels great. No wonder the siesta was invented! In any case, following my new tradition I took a nap after returning home from church today and was surprised to be awoken from sleep by the sound of church bells. Still groggy, my first thought was that Elisabetta must be watching the television, but the bells didn't sound close enough for that, so then I thought it must be one of the neighbors. Then, as the bells sounded one last time and stopped I remembered something: I am in Florence, Italy, and they have real church bells here, LOTS of them! Duh! It is funny that Italy, and Tuscany in particular, is so familiar to me now that every once in awhile I forget where I am and I have to be reminded. And in those moments my life feels very surreal; who would have thought that the little girl with the blond pigtails who spent her summers climbing cherry trees in Orem, Utah, and her summers as a teenager life-guarding and teaching children to swim at the Fircrest Pool in Tacoma, Washington would one day be spending her summers in Italy? I feel extremely blessed and grateful for all the opportunities I've had over the past four or five years, and all the adventures I've had, good and bad together. Thank you church bells, for the reminder!

Last night I had dinner at the lovely Castel di Poggio near Fiesole, one of the few medieval castles left standing in Florence. How did I manage this? Well, my current housemate is a great girl named Elisabetta. She is a contract lawyer here in Florence and for the past year she has served as the president of her Rotary club. Last night was the end of the year dinner where Elisabetta officially passed her office to the incoming president, and she very kindly invited me to come. I was a little hesitant since I wouldn't know many people and really didn't have anything to wear, but in the end I decided to go. I did bring one dress with me after all, and even though I didn't think it was nice enough, Elisabetta assured me that it was just fine. She also lent me a pair of shoes and an evening bag (since I didn't bring either of those things with me- I wasn't planning on going to any fancy parties!) which made me feel a little more comfortable. I am so glad she talked me into it, because I had a wonderful time! I was able to meet many of her friends and practice my rusty Italian, the food was great (5 courses, including desert- I was stuffed!), and the setting was beautiful. It was a perfect way to spend an evening out! Unfortunately, as I often do, I forgot to bring my camera. (Sorry Mom!) However, don't despair! I did find a few pictures of the castle online (what did we do before Google?) so here they are:

Also, lucky for me a member of the club, Alessandro, took lots of pictures and posted them on Facebook, so here are a few of those too:

Today in Florence it was hot. And by hot I don't mean really warm and toasty, or even baking, I mean brutal, melting heat. Sure the high was only 97 degrees, but combine that with some humidity and being outside is almost unbearable. I can stand temperatures that high in a dry climate but the humidity kills me- I detest it! Maybe I am just a total wimp when it comes to heat (and I'll be the first to admit that I would rather be cold than hot) but when there is no air conditioning inside (or air conditioning that actually works well) and you go from a warm building out into the muggy heat it is hard to be anything less than miserable. So what do you when you are walking home in such heat? Get gelato! I stopped on my way home from the archives at a gelateria that a friend recommended to me and got a small cup of ciccolato fondente (dark chocolate) and crema (cream). Maybe it was just because it was so hot outside, or maybe it was because I was hungry, but I think this was the best gelato I have ever tasted. I have tried many different gelaterias in Italy and in other places, and I have had some great gelato. But this was just heavenly! The flavor of the dark chocolate was so rich and amazing . . . I don't even know how to describe it! It was the perfect treat to keep me cool on the way home. Here is the aftermath:


These high temperatures are set to continue all week, and I guarantee that it will take all my will power not to stop at this place every day. Wish me luck!

Today in Italy there was a Sciopero Generale, or a strike of all government and civil service employees. This meant that I could not go to the archives; they were closed because there were not enough people there to staff the reading room. It was a little frustrating since I just got here and got started, but it was also nice to have a guilt-free day off! I decided I would try and visit the Accademia where Michaelangelo's David is housed because I've only been there once and I promised my Mom last night that I would go visit him for her. Well, that plan was foiled by the sciopero- the gallery was closed. So I decided to content myself with visiting one of my favorite places in the city: the Baptistery of the Duomo. I know it sounds odd, but really there are a lot of things to love about this place. First there is the amazing ceiling, covered in mosaics of stories from the Bible. I took the time today to study each one (and had a massive crick in my neck afterward!) and was pleased with myself for being able to identify the story/scene portrayed in all of them. Another thing I love about the baptistery is the fact that many famous Florentines, including Dante, were baptized there. Then there are the famous doors by Ghiberti which depicts scenes from the Old Testament. Here are a few pictures:

Ben&Jerry's in Florence? Don't misunderstand me, I love Ben&Jerry's. But why here when there is so much delicious gelato around? There was also a new Disney store up the street . . . I love the Disney store too but it sort of distracts from the Renaissance atmosphere of the city to see things so jarringly North American. (Young American girls doing one of the cheers from "Bring It On" as they walk down the street in front of you also distracts from the atmosphere . . .) So, to regain the Renaissance, here's one last photo, this time of Ghiberti's doors (also referred to as the Gates of Paradise):


So that was my day! Tomorrow it is back to the archives, but they are only open until 1pm, so I will still have the afternoon to wander. Maybe I will try to visit David then!