Ciao!
First, I
want to start acknowledging the food at Boccon del Prete for the end-of-exams
celebrations with Megan because it was so, so good. Definitely recommend the
place because the food was amazing and not particularly pricey, but make sure
to book! I had an amazing glass of soave
classico white wine and Megan and I shared a platter of polenta with
parmesan sauce and sausages that was to die for and then we each had a plate of
pasta, mine being sage pesto pici with almonds and pecorino. Honestly, one of
the best meals out – we stuffed our faces and it was so worth it!
Ok, now
that that is out of the way, let’s get to what I’ve been up to now that I’m a
free woman. First up, battling the heat. It has been so insanely hot I
literally can’t deal. During the day you have to stay in because it is way too
hot to walk around; during the night it’s so hot you have to sleep without even
the bedsheet covering you and with the window open risking the mosquito bites
(I’m full of bites but what can I do?), even in doing so it’s so hot it is hard
to sleep through the whole night. You sweat even when you aren’t moving. It’s
pretty disgusting. That is one of the reasons I can’t wait to go back home – I
really miss the sea and mild summer in comparison to this. My fan has become an
extension of my arm (and it comes in particularly handy when going out!) and I
am constantly drinking water, but still I get a lot of headaches from the heat.
Anyway, on
Tuesday morning I woke up early and went on a photo walk around Siena to take
some pictures for Okizia and decided to explore some of the areas in Siena I
hadn’t been to before, like Nicchio down Via Pispini or the church for the
Madonna di Provenzano in Giraffa. It eventually got way too hot and so I went
back home and dropped by Conad to pick some things up. Once home I had lunch
and did some chores before meeting Megan to go to Orto dei Pecci. I’d never
been and it is quite a peaceful spot, we lay down in the shade with our books
and relaxed free-of-guilt for a while before heading back home. I wrote up the
last blog for my University of Bath Placements’ Blog which you can read here: http://blogs.bath.ac.uk/hss-placements/2017/06/20/year-abroad-viii-final-thoughts/ After dinner I met with Vero, Megan and Néstor
to go to Maudit for the bigliettini
night but unfortunately it wasn’t on so we had a couple of drinks and were
joined by Millie, Simay and Christina and then went out in a hunt for food and
treated myself to a Peterland cone of chips with chicken nuggets because why
not. We chilled in the Piazza for a bit and then eventually went home to get
some sleep.
On
Wednesday I did some research about trips before I leave and Megan came over to
book our trip to the Industrial Triangle from the 4th to the 7th
of July. It is going to be crazy as we are doing Torino, Milano and Genova in
literally three days, but I hope it turns out fine. I would’ve liked to
travel more but there isn’t enough time. It will be the last trip we do before
I leave because then my sister comes over and even though I wanted to travel
around with her it is a) way too hot and b) way too expensive so we’ll stay in
Tuscany and visit a couple places around here and try to survive the heat.
There will be a lot of gelato involved and hopefully a couple of contrada
parties and beach/pool days…
Then I had
to sort out some things with the landlady before meeting Emilia to go to
Fortezza and go over her Spanish presentation. She was very good actually!
Quite nervous about her test but she did great so I’m happy for her. Once back
home I did a bit more of trip planning, went to the gym (and nearly melted into
nothing in the process) and had a night in. I was woken up at around 4 by Dan
though, because the shower door shattered into pieces. There was glass
everywhere. It was a nightmare. So now we are showering with only half a door until
we get it sorted out.
On Thursday
morning I did some laundry and then went to the Ferrovia with Megan to book all
the tickets for our little trip. That was the most productive thing I did all
day because after lunch I literally just lay in bed and tried to nap and
watched Youtube for like a solid four hours. I eventually got out of bed and
into the shower to get ready to join Megan and go to the contrada dinner at
Onda. Going to a contrada dinner was one of the things in my bucket list so I’m
happy I was able to do it. It was a bit awkward at first because we were
clearly outsiders and didn’t really know what we had to do in order to get some
food but we eventually figured it out and so we ordered gnocchi al pesto, a
selection of grilled meats and some salad and sat down on one of the long
tables until they brought us the food. It was pretty cool because the dinner
was outdoors in the contrada garden overlooking Orto dei Pecci and they had a
bar, a barberi game, live music... There was a lot of people and everybody was
enjoying themselves. The food took ages to arrive though because they had a
problem in the kitchen but it eventually came and it was very good. There was a
group of younger people sitting next to us and we all laughed when a very drunk
man decided to jam out to the live band and was really feeling the music... We
also saw Duncan and we ended up staying for the whole concert which was a
folk-rock band called The Occasionals. It was pretty good and we had a lot of
fun!
The next
day I ran some errands in the morning. I watched OITNB with Dan and then went
to the gym after a light lunch and decided to look up the Erasmus paperwork I
have to sort out soon. The rest of the day I spent chilling at home, popping
into Conad for a few more things and trying to beat the heat before heading out
to meet Vero, Megan, Simay, Christina and Ody in the Piazza before going to
Onda. There were a lot of people at Onda but we weren’t really digging the music
because it was a random rock group from the area so we decided to go to
Bellavista. Not digging the music there either so Vero and I ended up grabbing
some pizza and eating on the Piazza before going home #typical Also, they had
already set up half of the fencing for the Palio which made it so exciting – it
is so soon!
Saturday
was incredibly hot and it was the day we decided to have a barbecue because the
previous night had been San Juan and being in Italy we didn’t have a bonfire,
so it was barbecue instead. We were sweating so much because it was incredibly
hot, but Megan and I met around half one at the Coop with Vero, Sonia (a
Spanish aupair), Ody and Giovanni and we got the things we needed (not without
a bit of struggle in not forgetting stuff behind #(not)organizationgoals ). By
the time we arrived at the Villa it must’ve been around half two and so we
prepared the Greek salad (to make Stefanos proud) and then left Vero and
Giovanni cooking the chips while we took the rest of the things to the park to
start the barbecue. Turned out there was another group using it so we had to
wait for them to finish. All in all, we had lunch at 5pm, but it was very good
and filling – Greek salad, hamburgers, sausages, chips, lemon beer and
watermelon. So good! After that we packed up and went home. It was still
incredibly hot and I barely managed to get some sleep before having a light
dinner and showering. There was a Rettorato party organized by uRadio with DJ
Smerling playing so we had to go. I
had to change my outfit because it was insanely warm but Vero and I met with Megan,
Sonia and another aupair girl in the Piazza to drink some wine and Jess came
round to say hi. When we got to the party it was absolutely packed but the
music was really good and we had a blast of a night. We bumped into a lot of
people (which was bound to happen, when all of Siena was there) and managed to
lose people on the way and find them back again. At the end, we found Emilio
and danced with him until the music finished and then we went for pizza and had
it at the Piazza. He was nice enough to walk us home – at last an Italian with
no double intentions haha
On Sunday
it was hot (again). I slept in until I was woken up by the drums and then had
breakfast while watching OITNB with Dan and did some cooking. After lunch I
phoned Erin and then did some work and Vero came over to use my laptop because
she’s having problems with hers... Hopefully she can sort it out soon. I then
went with Megan to get some dessert to bring to Francesco’s, because he was
cooking lasagne for us! It took us a while to find a tiramisu but eventually
Nannini’s delivered. We also bumped into the Onda and Leocorno parades while
out. Once back home I got ready and then I met Megan to head over to
Francesco’s. We had a lovely night. As I said, he cooked home-made lasagne for
us – from scratch! As in he made the white sauce and all. It was so, so yummy!
His Chinese flatmate was also there and we had a lovely evening having dinner
together and singing along to Francesco’s guitar until we were told off by the
neighbours. Really fun night.
On Monday I
woke up early and went to run some errands in the morning. It was super warm as
usual so I had to do it early because I didn’t fancy walking around Siena in
the heat. They were filling the Piazza with sand in preparation to the Palio
this Sunday so it was closed. We now have a beach but no water, unless you want
to crash Fonte Gaia which is probably not a great idea… Then at home I did some
work and chilled for a bit. I went to a super hard gym session which left me
with quite a few sore muscles and met up with Vero and Megan in the evening on
the Piazza to have a chat and relax.
On Tuesday
morning I got up early because I was going with Megan to Florence to visit the
Cupola. I was pretty excited, but we started the day missing the bus and having
to take the next one which did not look like we were off to a great start…
However, we managed to get there just in time and somehow managed to skip the
queue and be the last two into the 10:30 slot. It was pretty hot in Florence
and we had to climb a lot of stairs up a very narrow staircase, but it was so
worth it! We walked around the circumference of the inner cupola and saw the
frescoes up close, and then we walked in between the two cupolas up to the base
of the lantern, from where we could see all of Florence since it was a sunny
day! It was amazing! Even more so after having studied it in high school,
visiting it irl was crazy!
After the cupola we went for gelato at Don Nino’s to
cool down and we visited a couple of shops and then at midday we went to the
Museo dell’Opera del Duomo. I wanted to go because they have Michelangelo’s
Pietà Bandini and it was great to admire it too. I’d love to see his Pietà
Rondanini in Milan but I don’t think we have enough time unfortunately… Aside
from that, the exhibition is interesting but not breath-taking. They have taken
the originals out of the Cathedral and created a museum with them. There’s
another statue by Donatello and a lot of sculptures which adorn the Cathedral. I
particularly liked the part about the Cupola, of course, and there were a
couple of videos by Bill Viola which made me think of Dad! After the museum we
decided to go to l’Antico Vinaio in Via dei Neri to get ourselves a panino and,
let me tell you, it is so worth the wait! Mine was porchetta with onion chutney, ruccola and roasted courgettes and it
was so tasty! Megan’s had porchetta, crema di tartuffo, spicy sauce, grilled
veggies and ruccola and was also really good. Can’t go wrong with them, the
queue is there for a reason!
After eating our schiacchiate we had to do some walking to help with digestion so we
walked to Giardino di Boboli which I hadn’t been to before. They were quite
nice to walk around in, but it was very hot so we ended up climbing to the top
of the hill and crashing on the lawn for about an hour to regain our strength…
And then it was time to go back. We passed a few other shops we needed to go by
and then caught the 6:10 bus back to Siena, arriving in the middle of a
rainstorm that got me soaked in the 40m from the stop to my house. It was fine
though, because all I did after that was go straight in the shower and watch a
film before bed after a long, tiring but satisfying day. If you are curious, I
watched ‘Wild’, which was interesting but I think ‘Into The Wild’ is still way
better in terms of insightful/roadtrip/based on true story/hiking films.
And today I
woke up at around ten and decided to go to the market, even though rain was
menacing… It did start pouring down while I was browsing the market but I had
luck today and got myself two tees and two dresses, so I’m pretty happy. The
rain has stopped now, and I’ve been home doing laundry and getting a couple of
things done. Also, watching Orange Is The New Black with Dan; only two more
episodes to go now, so hopefully will finish it soon! This season is crazy!
This
afternoon I’ll be staying in as it’s super-hot and windy outside and then I’ll
go to the gym and probably to Al Cambio with Megan and Ody tonight as they have
another ESN night today.
Tomorrow
start the days leading to Il Palio, which is this Wednesday, so I thought I’d
wrap the post here and dedicate the next one solely to the festivities, as it’s
the heart and soul of Siena. Unfortunately, I missed the ‘prove di notte’ this
morning, when they try out the horses in the Piazza, but it was between 5:30
and 7:30 in the morning and I didn’t actually find out until I woke up today,
so no chance of my getting there unfortunately. I will keep you in the loop in
regards to the Palio – I’m so excited!
A presto!
Zoe
