La Mia Vita in Italia: Classes, Siena, San Gimignano, and more Florence

I have now been in living in Italy for over a week, and I absolutely love it so far. Since the last time I’ve posted I’ve started classes, visited two more Tuscan towns, experienced Italian nightlife, and eaten a lot of fantastic food!

All my classes have all gotten off to a great start. I’m taking Italian Cinema, Nietzsche & Fascism, Florentine Renaissance Art, and Advanced Italian. I think Italian Cinema will be really great. I learned a lot about film in my Italian culture class last semester, so I’m excited to actually watch the films now. We have our first film screening tonight. Advanced Italian should be good as well. There are only 5 other people in the class, so it’ll be nice to get such direct help with the language. For my Nietzsche & Fascism class, we just started reading Nietzsche’s Antichrist. Nietzsche is pretty crazy, but his work is really interesting to discuss. And so far my favorite class is the Florentine Renaissance Art. The professor is great and funny, and we get to do site visits in Florence once a week.

And that brings me to another exciting aspect of my week, my first art class site visit in the city. We looked at il Palazzo dei Medici and the Basilica di San Lorenzo. Both were absolutely stunning. The amount of detail that goes into the architecture of these buildings is unbelievable. After the site visit a few of us stayed in Florence for lunch. We went to a cute little restaurant and had some pizza. I got Caprese and a glass of white wine. It was very refreshing to do in between my classes.

The following day I was able to look at some more outstanding artwork and architecture in two different Italian towns: Siena and San Gimignano. The whole program left bright and early for a day trip to the two cities. Siena looked like a dream when we first arrived because it was extremely foggy. All of the buildings were surrounded by white. We visited il Duomo di Siena and a couple churches. Once again, the amount of detail in the artwork of these buildings was outstanding. Every ceiling has intricate, beautiful mosaics. I think I said ‘Wow’ in almost every room we entered. We had a little free time before heading to the next town so I wandered around Siena and found a café with the best espresso I’ve ever had. It was a little Jazz Bar, with American Jazz music playing (but in Italian), and the owner was very nice. But jeez that espresso, I didn’t put any sugar in it, and it was sweet, rich, and amazing! I found my next sweet, delicious treat when we continued on to the town of San Gimignano… gelato! The town is supposed to have the best gelato in the world, but unfortunately that shop was closed. Luckily, we found another gelateria, which had the best gelato I’ve ever had. Although, it wasn’t just the gelato that made San Gimignano incredible, the town is gorgeous. It looked like it came right out of a movie. It has these beautiful antique castle-looking towers, and great views of the Tuscan hills everywhere. I really enjoyed both Siena and San Gimigano, to say the least.

Another update I’ll give you about my past week is about the Florence nightlife. I went out with a couple groups from my program on Thursday and Friday night and experienced the Italian bars. Unfortunately, a couple of the places we went were very American. One of the bars was called the Lion’s Fountain, and I think every other student studying abroad in Florence was there. Another place we went to was called the Red Garter; this one actually had Italians in it, and also had karaoke! Some other students went to a Jazz Club and said it was very fun, so I think that’ll be my next stop.

And of course, I still love the food. The pasta in the villa really is the best I’ve ever had. And I cannot get enough the dessert. We had homemade cheesecake the other night… I don’t think I’ll ever be able to have American cheesecake again! Luckily, I am balancing out all my eating with hikes. There are beautiful mountains right near the villa. I went on a 2-hour hike yesterday. It was amazing.

I miss and love you all at home. Hope you are making it through with all that cold, snow. I know I’m surviving with it being in the 50s here. J

Molti Baci!

-Laura