Living the Italian Life

It's finally slowed down a little bit here. However, the slow going means that things are winding down for the trip. I have to fight of the melancholy feelings these days and I'm trying not to think about having to leave in 10 days. Tuesday and today, we've wrapped up our last two days of classes in Roman Archeology and Art History. Tuesday, we took a trip to Siena.

Sienna is part of the four major cities including Florence, Venice, and Naples. This town was an interesting surprise for one of our excursions. Most of the other cities that we've visited have been completely founded on religious bases and the churches are the center of all life. Sienna, however, is made into 17 districts that are extremely comptetive. Sienese citizens will identify with their district first and foremost, then their city, and then Italy. They take great pride in their district. This shows every year on July 2 when the city hosts over 70,000 people in the Campo (town square) for horse races. Flags fly all over the square and people pay tons of money just to go and watch the horses fly around the circle. We also visted the civic museum where the paintings and architecture were created to be an intimidation to the entering city officials of other places. Marco, who has been our expert for Assisi and Sienna, pointed out that the church was even more focused on the city than on religion. The 17 district flags are flying right next to the chapel and frescoes of Mary and Jesus. There are small bulletin boards encased with glass that announce deaths, births, and all of the local happenings for the district's people. We ate at a great restaraunt...Marinara pizza (olive oil, marinara sauce, garlic and basil on a thick or thin crust) is my new cheap and safe meal.

Today, I made myself stay in town and relax before our finals tomorrow and our long trip to the North. I went with three other gals and laid out by the pool to study and read under the sun. It was the perfect end to our classes and time in Castiglion Fiorentino. Tonight, we sat in the courtyard for a private concert from one of the Resident Coordinators who used to be a student here. We'll attempt to study for Roman archeology tonight, though no one is really sure what to expect for the final.