In two days, it will be my official one-month anniversary of living in Siena. And so far, I think I have crammed more into this month than one year at school in the US. That may be a little dramatic, but I can illustrate (with text and photos!!) my point. I suppose travelling first comes to mind when I think of how I’ve been spending my time here. My friends and I took a day trip to Florence and Volterra, a small Tuscan town, and on a field trip for our art history class, we went to San Gimignano, another tiny Tuscan town. I had heard that San Gimignano was a very beautiful place, but you really just have to see it to truly appreciate it. It was a very calm and quiet village with one street reserved for murmuring tourists and families. We climbed the tower connected to the city hall which looks over San Gimignano and the Tuscan countryside and then fled down the steep stairs to have ice cream at a world-renowned gelato shop. So it wasn’t really your standard field trip.
This past weekend, we made an excursion to Cinque Terre, a fabulous choice on our part. Cinque Terre is in the region just to the north of Tuscany, in Liguria, so it only took a few hours to get there. We stayed in hotels in La Spezia and then took a train into the first of the small five towns on the rugged coastline. There’s one point on the train ride where you are in a tunnel for a few minutes, and when the train emerges from the darkness, all you can see is bright blue water and the mountainous coastline. The first time seeing it is so stunning, and it’s not really a vision you ever get over. We hiked the most difficult trail on the first day and then left the rest for the second day. This was a great decision, I think, because I woke up on day number two with legs feeling like the size of Russia. Getting out of bed was rough, but I was motivated by the fact that the weekend here had cost me at least 100 euro. So on day two, I pushed through the pain of my aching body and enjoyed the three hikes we did between four towns. We went swimming at our favorite of the five towns, Vernazza, and ate pizza and gelato. I just don’t think I could ask for a better Sunday.
This sums up my travels here so far. This Friday is Il Palio, the huge horse race and festival in Siena, so we will be staying here for the weekend to celebrate. This also means that my wallet can recover and prepare for the next time I travel. In the meantime, between horse races and travelling, there has been a lot of gelato, so much so that I think it’s worthy of some reflection. I am keeping a mental journal of all the different types I’ve had and my reactions to them. So far, I’ve had hazelnut, pistachio, toffee, white chocolate, white chocolate with nutella, yogurt with nutella, vanilla with chocolate chips, vanilla with white chocolate, chocolate with nuts, milk with graham crackers, crème, chocolate, nutella with bread, dark chocolate, and nutella. The key is to get something different every time, unless you’re having a bad day. Then you have to go to your old standby which for me is white chocolate and hazelnut together on a cone. Just thinking about it reminds me that tomorrow is Thursday which means it’s free gelato day sponsored by CET. Excellent, but now the only problem is that I have twenty-four hours to deliberate what flavor I’m going to get. Meh, I can’t ever go wrong, for it all tastes so right.
Melissa Mitchem
CET Siena Student Correspondent, Summer '10
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