Walk, walk, then walk some more

(left to right: my street. me in front of my apartment. la piazza del campo)

So yesterday was the first real day in Siena. Lauren and I started the morning out by meeting up with the group in the Piazza del Campo which is in the heart of the city. There are only 11 people in the program, 10 girls and one guy. Everyone is great! They are so nice and we had such a fun time getting to know each other! Il Campo is where the famous Palio takes place during the summer. Siena is broken up into 17 different neighborhoods (contrade) and each contrada enters their best jockey into this horse race. People come from all over Italy to see this, and they pack thousands into a tiny courtyard (it is the opening scene in the newest james bond movie)!

We then headed to a local cafe where we had our first experience with Italian coffee. In the Italian culture it is common to go to a cafe up to three times a day. It is only acceptable to order a cappuccino until 11:30 am (anytime afterwards, you will get a "foolish american raised eyebrow look"), then the next two are either "un cafe" which is a shot of espresso or "un macchiato" (espresso with a little bit of foamed milk). Most of the time you are crammed into a tiny shop to drink standing up at a counter. I apparently had one too many espressos this day because I ended up not falling asleep until 6:30 am! (During my insomnia attack I disappointingly discovered that online tv stations don't work outside the US, so I couldn't even catch up on Desperate Housewives or any of my other "quality" tv shows)

After getting our morning caffeine fix we started our walking tour of Siena. Looking on the map it seems a lot bigger than in reality. We wound our way through the extremely narrow, cobblestone streets attempting not to get smashed into walls by vespas or taxis that don't seem to really care about pedestrians (most definitely not in Maine anymore)! We made our way to all the most important stops in Siena: CET (program) center, libraries, grocery store, good shopping spots, bus stations and of course the most important stop of all the infamous "gelateria"

Guisy, Lauren and I then headed to "il supermercado" to stock the kitchen for the week. On this program we only get 4 meals a week through the school which we'll use for lunches. Therefore, being on the wonderful student budget, we are planning on cooking most nights and buying the 1.40 euro bottles of wine! Giusy is a fantastic cook so we are really excited for her to teach us some traditional Italian dishes!

Abbiamo avuto una cena magnifica! A traditional Italian meal consists of 4 separate dishes, therefore we had an authentic dinner starting with the "antipasto" of bruschetta, cheese, prosciutto and salami. Followed by "il primo" a piece of lasagna and pesto pasta. Then "il secondo" traditional sienese pasta with meat sauce. As if this wasnt enough for three nights of dinners, it is followed by "un dolce" of tiramisu and vanilla custard dusted with chocolate powder (we used to worry about the "freshman 15", now were are worried about the "abroad 30")! This delicious meal was of course accompanied by a bottle of sweet wine from the Tuscan countryside.

We ended the night at an Irish Pub with a sign outside that read: "Esotichi Shots Liberi per Tutti i Ragazzi" (Free exotic shots for all girls).. oh Italy...So after a girls' night of dancing, signing and avoiding creepy looks from Italian men we all headed back to our apartments tired and ready for bed..