Cinque Giorni!

Whoa! It’s amazing how fast time can fly. It has been five days since I wrote a blog! Due to issues with internet and the fact that really hardly anything has been going on, I just never got to it. I really kind of was getting tired of posting my blogs from my little iPhone keyboard :-) and the internet at school was down all week. It was quite frustrating! But I’m getting caught up now. So... The past few days:

Wednesday was back to class. It was rather difficult getting back into classes after having a four day weekend.... But I managed. I was a little out of it though. After classes I really didn’t do much. It’s rather sad, but even in Italy you can get bored! It’s my own fault though. There is plenty to do... I was just tired. I’m even having a hard time remembering what I did! Hm... Oh yes I remember. I went over to Sarah’s apartment and hung out. They have internet there so it’s always nice to be able to hang out there. But I spent most of the time using the internet to research my Switzerland trip. It’s very difficult trying to figure all of the details out for a four day trip when you don’t have the internet at your finger tips! I spent most of the afternoon and evening there trying to plan hotels and trains and everything and what to do and blah blah blah. I also spent quite a bit of time trying to plan out the remainder of my time in Italy! It’s unbelievable but I will be stateside in 18 days! I made up a calendar and started filling it in with things that I still need to do while here in Italy and things that are already planned. Originally I was going to spend a weekend in Cinquaterra, but that changed. I could have gone next weekend, but I’m going to be going to Firenze again to try and see the Uffizi, Accademia, and the Medici Chapel. So this weekend I didn’t go anywhere at all! I’ll get to that later. A lot of it also has to do with $$$. Sadly. These little trips can be very expensive and I just needed to realize I can’t go everywhere. Every museum costs money. Every bus ride costs money. Food costs money. Water costs money. Air costs money.... Ok I’m just joking it doesn’t (or does it?). I think a lot of it has to do with the realization of the cost of going to Switzerland for 4 days. Things there are really expensive, but I really really really want to go! So that was Wednesday...

Thursday was a fun day! Class was class as usual. I’m starting to get a little better at things, but class is the boring part of the day. After class I went to il super mercado a fare la stessa (go grocery shopping, I think the spelling is off?) because we were cooking a big huge dinner that night for one of our roommates who was leaving and it was also his birthday! He has been a fun roommate. He was from Sweden and was here before us so it was fun getting to know him. We made a full Italian dinner for him. The antipasti was just a simple cheese and meat dish. I was in charge of il primo piato and I made tortelli con prosciutto topped with formaggio (parma e fette) e basil. Il primo secundo was delicious. One of our roommates is a pretty dang cook and he made a dish with noodles and chicken breasts and he made this white and red wine sauce that was absolutely delicious. It was really yummy. Then for dolce the girls had bought a tiramisu gelato cake from the Kokokabana (spelling) down the street. It’s arguably the best gelato in the city and the cake was delicioso! Of course during the meal we enjoyed a nice bottle of vino rosso and then a vino dolce (which I didn’t really like. I prefer the vino dolce that’s bubbly!). It was a really fun dinner. There were a ton of us all crammed into our apartment and we had quite the fun party. Afterwards we all went out to the Tea Room, a local little bar/eatery that is awesome! It was my first time there, but everyone had gone there lots before. It really was cool. They specialize in all sorts of tea but they also have cheap desserts and different drinks too. I will definitely be going back to get some pictures for you Ben! We ended up running into some people from class there too and we all had a really good time eating and talking and drinking and just relaxing Italian style.

Friday was back to class....
After class I tried to get on the internet at school for a few hours (basically tried to fix their internet) to no avail. Italy is about 10 years behind the US when it comes to implementing technology. It’s quite strange. They HAVE the technology, but mentally they are 10 years behind in how to use it and implement it. Anyway, instead I ended up going over to another apartment and eating some dinner and just hanging out all night. We had a really fun time singing random songs and making cappuccinos. Time really flew and before I knew it I was in bed!

Saturday I slept in! Yay! For quite awhile. I was really tired. I think I really needed it. It’s been hard to sleep in here because it’s so hot and I have to leave my window open, and the street below is always really noisy. Friday though it was actually pretty cold and I was able to close my window! I know it seems like a waste of time sleeping in in another country, but sometimes these things are necessary. That afternoon I made a trip to the Siena Cemetery. It is just outside the city wall and pretty close to where we live. It was quite the experience. It was strange being in such an old cemetery. Old as in almost a thousand years old. We just don’t have anything like it in the states to try and compare it to. I’m not even sure how to describe it. It’s absolutely unbelievable. They only have so much space to bury people here, so long ago they started burying on top of people. Basically the cemetery has gotten taller and taller and taller. I did quite a bit of archeological research on my own (meaning I went where I wasn’t supposed to go) to try and figure out how they did things. I took some pictures that I’ll have to show, because I can’t really explain it. Basically there are generations on top of generations. After so long graves are forgotten, and new ones get put on top of them. It’s crazy. I’ve never seen so many graves. And buildings too. People weren’t just buried in the ground. They have two and three story buildings that people are buried in the walls. It really makes it seem like such a waste. I like the way the Romans did things. Make a ceremonial death mask to remember the person, then burn them. It seems so much more logical. What’s the point in spending so much money and time in making this glorious field of people when they are just forgotten in two generations and someone else gets buried over them? It’s silly to me. All those bodies just become dirt again anyway! Let’s speed it up and save space! But anyway.... It was very interesting to see the old ways of the Etruscans combined with the Catholic ideas in a lot of the tombs. Many of the tombs were not really Christian at all... But they appear to be. If people really knew the history of their own people they would realize many of the symbols they place on their tombs are actually pagan! (pagan in the sense of non-christian) So that was an interesting experience. After that I walked my way back to my apartment, took a break and then headed to Il Campo. I just sat in Il Campo probably for about an hour just watching the tourists. It’s really fun to do. Then I finally decided I was going to make the climb up il Torre del Mangia. So I started the climb up the 400 steps to the top! The view from the top was amazing. It’s the highest point in the whole area and it was awesome to look out and see the hills surrounding Siena and all of the town too. It’s quite the amazing tower. The building was built first with no intention of building a tower, then later they decided to add it. So they did. There is no foundation for the tower or anything. They just stuck a huge massive tower on top of a building and it’s still standing today. Nobody really knows how exactly they did it because there aren’t any remains of the original plans but it’s still standing after over 800 years! It’s quite the tower inside. Before I climbed it I was watching a wedding that was taking place and it was neat because there was a guy at the very top of the tower than manually rang the bell for about 15 minutes after the wedding happened. I think it must have been a really important family or something because there was another wedding that day that they didn’t ring the bell for.... But it was neat to see that and then go up there and see the bell he rang. After my excursion I decided I had earned a gelato and I bought one and sat on Il Campo and ate it and just watched people. I ended up staying there for almost 3 hours! It was just so relaxing sitting and watching people that I couldn’t leave. I finally did though and came back to the apartment and made up some dinner. Basically I just relaxed for the rest of the night until getting to sleep.

Today! I’m finally caught up *phew*
Today I slept in a little bit and then I got up and cleaned! Earlier I had bought some cleaning supplies and what not and I had decided today was the day. I just couldn’t take it anymore. Put five guys in an apartment in Italy and it gets pretty bad. I was starting to get scared to go into the bathroom. So I threw on some rubber gloves and I tackled the whole place. The bathroom now sparkles :-) and the kitchen is much much better! Yay for me! I didn’t really clean anywhere else in the apartment because it took me almost two hours just to clean the bathroom and kitchen! You don’t even want to know how dirty it was, but let’s just say I am much happier now. It was very therapeutical for me. I liked the sense of accomplishment, which I haven’t felt the whole time here in Italy, so it was very good. After that I decided I was going to go see the famous Duomo here in Siena. It’s supposed to be one of the prettiest ones in all of Italy, so I knew that eventually I’d get to it and today was the day. I started out with the Museum where most of the original “stuff” from the actual Cathedral now rests. They replace most things here in the actual buildings with replicas so that they can put the originals inside where they are safe and easier to see. It was an interesting experience. I’ll go into some history:

Siena used to be a rather powerful city. It competed with Firenze and the two have always been rivals. The duomos of each city were a competition as are most things in the cities. Firenze of course won the competition because Siena took a huge hit with the Black Plague and then Firenze came and conquered it. Siena is now a city of about 60,000 people, and it’s amazing to think that at it’s height in the 1200s it had 60,000 people too. It never fully recovered after the plague hit in the 1300s. So most of the art and everything here is medieval, because they never really went through the Renaissance like Firenze did (or like Firenze started). The artwork in the Duomo as well as the construction is all medieval. One of the most famous medieval paintings is actually here in Siena. So I was able to see all of those things. It was very interesting to compare it to other styles that I’ve seen in Roma and Firenze and Venezia. The medieval style was very different. This particular painting, by Duccio called the Maesta, is amazing. It’s strange because it’s the beginning of 3D painting, but not quite there. Having seen some 3D painting already it was very interesting to see a piece that is a transition piece. Duccio and the painters of his time were starting to grasp the idea of 3D/mathematical perspective, but they weren’t quite there. And the church still wouldn’t let them paint that way. During medieval times you can notice that none of the paintings look real. The Church believed it was blasphemous to depict real humans in art, as God was the only one capable of “painting.” Good ol’ Dark Ages. That’s why the art from that time is always disproportionate and strange looking. They weren’t allowed to make it look real... Until the Renaissance hit of course. That’s why this painting is so amazing. It was commissioned by the Church so Duccio had to be careful on sticking to their guidelines, but he still tried to put his own artistic touch on it. Another part of the museum is also climbing to the top of a part of the church that was never constructed. After Firenze started building their duomo, Siena wanted to make theirs even bigger. In fact it would have been the largest duomo of all Christiandom at the time, but the Black Plague hit. They only constructed one wall with some columns and a facade for what would have been a massive nave to the already existing church. Today you can climb up the facade and look out over what would have been the nave and also see the duomo from an interesting angle. It was pretty. After that I went into the duomo.
The inside was really pretty. Very very busy! I have a really hard time with the gothic/medieval churches because they are SO BUSY. Things EVERYWHERE. Statues, paintings, different color stones, etc. It drives me crazy. The style of the time was show off as much as we can which was very opposite of the Roman style. The Romans HAD style. They built gorgeous buildings and used contrast and colors properly. They utilized simplicity in design. Somehow that all got lost in the middle ages and you get messy design! Yay! Basically the more you have the richer you are so let’s show it all off in one room! It was still very pretty though. The unique thing with Siena’s duomo is the people who designed it. The entire project was overseen by Giovanni Pisano (he spent 10 years on it) but there are sculptures by Michelangelo, Bernini, Danatello, Duccio, and other amazing artists of the time. It’s really a hodge podge of amazing art. Michelangelo was commissioned to do certain parts and he started on them, but then he was given the job of the David in Firenze so he abandoned the duomo (duh! Who wouldn’t?!). Bernini did a whole chapel. Duccio did the largest painting and also and absolutely amazing stain glass window over looking the whole church. It really was quite the sight. The floor consists of stories of different Bible scenes. There was art everywhere. There is a library attached that was added on in the 1400s that was absolutely beautiful too. It was fully frescoed by Piccolomini and was done in 3D/realism and it’s amazing. Sometimes it’s hard to tell where the wall ended and the actual 3D ceiling began because the paintings looked so 3D. I felt a true appreciation for the talents of these people. It just blows me away. And it is so interesting to see, up close and personal, the progression of our society. It’s also really sad as well because had we never experienced the Dark Ages we would be so much further ahead now. All the Renaissance really was was picking up where the Greeks and Romans left off. Mostly the Greeks though. The pinnacle of our Renaissance was the height of the Greek society. Imagine if we hadn’t wasted 200 years in the dark! Silly Popes.

So now I’m just relaxing some more! I’ll probably cook some dinner soon and then go relax at il Campo and get some gelato. I’ve actually really been enjoying just relaxing here in Siena. I think I just needed to realize that I can’t do all of Italy and to slow down. I have a whole life ahead of me!

As a final note, I’d like to say congratulations to Reid and Rachel! I’ll try and do better on keeping my blog up-to-date. The next few weeks are going to be pretty busy/crazy! Only 18 days.... Whoa! Ciao for now!