This
past week has been somewhat eventful. During the weekend, I decided to
venture out into Sienafor the first time at night, a decision which in the end, turned out to be
somewhat of an adventure. The evening started off with meeting a group of
students in the Compo, and heading out from there to do some wandering of the
streets and chatting. In Siena, there are bars and a few discotecs, but a lot of people walk the streets and talk for social activity. As a result, the town thrives late into the night, and there are always a lot of people walking around.
The Compo in the Rain
Since we
haven't been used to going to bed late, Stevie and I got tired, so we decided
to catch the bus back home. We were told that a particular bus ran all of
the routes and that it was the only one coming at the time we wanted to
leave. Taking this advice, we got on the one bus that came to the piazza,
only to find that it made one stop 20 minutes outside of the city. We
rode and rode, hoping that something would begin to look familiar, but all of a
sudden the bus stopped and everyone got off. We asked the bus driver in
broken Italian about our street, and he told us that this was the final stop
and that we had to get off. Ha, you can imagine our surprise and somewhat
anxiety at being forced to get off the bus in an area where we had no idea
where we were.
After
getting off, we called another student and got the number for a taxi, only to
find that the system was automated and wouldn't take the address. Long
story short, the streets were deserted, and we were forced to call the
director. In the end, we found there was a discotec somewhat nearby, and
after talking to the police, discovered that there was a shuttle running back
to town from there. We caught that back to the piazza and took a
taxi back to our apartment, getting in roughly 3.5-4 hours after we were
planning on. Siena
is an extremely safe city, so we were never worried, only tired and cold.
The experience definitely gave us (and others) some laughs though, and it
definitely makes a good story.
Official
intensive Italian classes also started this week, and we are in class for 3
hours a day. While the pronunciation of Italian is difficult, it has been
really interesting to learn, and there are many similarities to Spanish, which
is helpful for me, since I've taken a few years of it. Our teacher
doesn't speak much English, so sometimes we have to help her, but she gets a
lot of laughs from all of our pronunciations and guesses at words.

Wofford in Tuscany: Anna Jones, Stevie Fields, Guide, McCown Bridges, Cameron Moss, Fran Battles
On Monday
we went to a winery and learned all about how they make wine and the
differences in types of wine. It was really interesting, and the
vineyards were beautiful. It was kind of rainy and stormy, so no pictures
do it justice, but it was gorgeous. We also got to see where they pressed
the grapes and stored the wine so it could ferment and gain flavor. A lot
of the spices in wine are derived from the wood (primarily oak in this case)
that the barrels are made from. The guy that gave us our tour said that
the big barrels could cost as much as $25,000, which is crazy! They can
be used for some time, but many wines have to sit for at least a year before
being put into a bottle, where usually they have to wait longer. After
the tour of the storage facilities, we had a wine tasting in which we got to
sample a Chardonnay, Cantico Classico, and what is called a Super Tuscan Wine
(a term generated by American journalists). The Cantico Classico is the
wine the winery that we were in was famous for making. We also had cheese
and bread with real olive oil, and everything we were served was very
good. We were instructed to smell the wine and swish it around before
drinking because apparently each person's nose can detect a different
scent (such as a fruit or spice) in the wine that would give it more
character. I just smelled alcohol, so I guess I'm not very good at wine
tasting. :)
On Tuesday,
we visited what is called a Contrada, which is basically like a separate state
in the city of Siena.
There are 17 I believe in all, and each one has its own constitution, church,
fountain, etc. Depending on what area of the city one is born into, the
child is baptized into the corresponding Contrada. A huge part of the
Contradas also centers around the Palio, which is a huge horse race held in the
Compo of Siena. The Compo is transformed twice a year (once in
June/August) into a horsetrack, and each Contrada is represented by a
horse. The horses are drawn for, and once they are determined,
are blessed in the church of the Contrada. We were able to visit the Onda
Contrada and go inside their church and museum, where we saw all sorts of
things including the Contrada's flag, jockey uniforms, and banners/tapestries
that they received for winning the Palio.
It was beautiful and fascinating to learn about. I know we will be learning more in our
culture class, which I am excited about.
On
Wednesday, we went to the bottini, which is like an underground city in some
ways. It was and still is used as a type
of aqueduct system from which the city of Siena
gets its water. It is a system of
tunnels and waterways under the city, and it was really cool. We had to take flashlights and walk single
file the entire way. Thousands of years
ago, the people started out of two sides of the city, excavating these tunnels
and eventually meeting in the middle. It
was really neat but also kind of creepy.
We have no class tomorrow, so we might
take a trip to Florence
.
Until next time, Ciao!