A Cultural Mix and a Trip al Sud

This past week has been an absolute whirlwind. The four day school week is so great, but the 4-7 hours of class a day gets tiering, along with trekking across Italy every weekend! It's a rough life... #problems

I'll highlight a few of my favorite moments/times from the past week:

1) The Angel Food Cake. 

Silvia invited Maddie to dinner one night while she stayed in Siena, so Madeline and I made an Angel Food Cake for Silvia, Gianni, and Molly. Gianni and Silvia had never had one before, so I was really excited to make the cake that is pretty famous in my family with my grandmother's recipe. The first hilarious thing was that Silvia had measuring cups with the US customary system because she's had so many students stay with her, she knows we struggle with the change! The next was that when I told her the oven needed to be preheated to 375 degrees, she laughed. For any of you that were wondering, 375 degrees F is about 190 Celsius. 

Dinner was great. Silvia studied in England, so her English is really quite good. She could understand Madeline when she spoke, and whenever there was any Italian spoken, Molly and I translated for Maddie. Maddie speaks Spanish, and Molly also speaks some French, so all together we had a plethora of linguistic capabilities!  

I was actually kind of nervous when I brought the cake out after dinner, but all of my worries were eased when Gianni took the first bite and said it was great. Then he asked if I'd ever put liquor on it, which is pretty common in Italian desserts. So, we had my cake and recipe from the U.S., with the usual whipped cream and raspberries, and then a little Italian twist. It was just a multicultural night, and I was so glad to have Maddie there!

2) The Local Experience

Coming from such a small hometown, I'm used to a high level of trust and familiarity with a lot of the people/shops/places at home. Siena is proving to be similar, and our group has already become 'regulars' at a few places. Every day, we go to this little pizza shop across from our school when we have a break. Its to the point that the lady there knows exactly which kind of pizza we are going to want! One day, I had ordered my slice and I only had a large bill or 1.50 in euro coins, and it cost 2 euro. I was just about to ask one of my friends to lend me 50 eurocents, but the lady said it was no problem and that I could pay her whenever we next came into eat there! I was pretty shocked, granted it was only 50 eurocents, but there are places in my hometown that would never even do that. Talking to some other people it seems to be a general consensus, both that we're always short on money and that the Italians trust us enough to be good for it another time. Also, there is one bar that we go to get coffee almost every day and he's started charging us less than the written cost, which is a great perk! 

3) From Siena to Naples, Sorrento, Capri, Positano, and back. 

I was sitting in class when I got a note from Molly saying "We're leaving at 2 because all the other trains are full. I'm packing for both of us so meet you here around 1:30." That was the start to a whirlwind of a weekend. I'll just have to give quick bullet points because we had a jam packed 3 days!

-We jumped on our connecting train to Naples so fast we didn't realize until 3 hours in that we were sitting in First Class. The overall consensus was, 'Why move?' So we didn't. First class chillin' the whole way.

-Day trip to Capri. I went to the Blue Grotto by myself, and it was absolutely breathtaking. Literally, I almost cried. I met Zoe and Molly on one of the most beautiful rocky beaches I've ever seen. The water was every beautiful shade of blue. 

I also wanted to say that my weekend was full of texts and pictures from Mom, who went to see my cousin get married! Everyone looked so wonderful, and it made me miss my family so much, especially my Stefani family! As if being in the country where the Stefanis originated isn't enough to make me miss them! Congratulazioni to Jason and Tara Stefani! Wish I could have been there!

"The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, is in its loyalty to each other."

Stefani Bell, CET Siena Student Correspondent Summer 2012