Traveling Seminar to Rome and Sicily, Spring 2010

It is the last morning of our traveling seminar, and I’m sitting with an arancino next to my computer. For those of you who have not been lucky enough to try an arancino, let me attempt to explain: imagine a warm, fried dough ball of rice, filled with spinach and cheese. Now multiply the size you had in mind by three, and there you have a small, slightly conical fried helping of Sicilian heaven. I should add that I have also had my fair share of cannoli on this trip. Its time to get back to Tuscany.

We began our journey in Rome, taking a seven a.m. bus from Siena on Thursday morning. CET Siena met up with the CET Florence group, and together we embarked on an IPS tour of the Coliseum and the Forum in the afternoon. When we weren’t touring, we were all able to see the Caravaggio exhibit currently in Rome. It was incredible—imagine all of Caravaggio’s greatest works in one location. We went to the Vatican on Friday (I got yelled at for sneaking a picture of the Sistine Chapel), and the Vittoriano, the national monument in Piazza Venezia, on Saturday with Kristin, our ICH professor.

We arrived in Catania, Sicily on a Saturday evening in the midst of a torrential downpour. The rain persisted for most of our trip, but it did nothing to hinder our packed schedule. On Sunday morning, we were able to sleep in a bit (sigh of relief), and went to a World War II museum explaining the Allied landing in Sicily, dubbed “Operation Husky.” Sicily was a critical battle in WWII, and served as a precursor and training ground to the much larger amphibious invasion of Normandy. It took thirty-nine days for the Allied troops to take the island. The museum had a reconstruction of a typical, Sicilian town square before the invasion, which was fascinating. Perhaps my favorite part was a room dedicated to the various uniforms of the times. It was very interesting to point out the differences between Italian, German, British, and American forces.

We then escaped the rain with a long lunch at the Café del Duomo. It was delicious, and we all took advantage of the frutti del mare (seafood) dishes. I had linguini with clams, mussels, shrimp, and a light white wine sauce. After lunch, it was time for dessert, and Anna led us to her favorite pasticceria. We tried all of the famous Sicilian dolci—marzipan, cannoli, cioccolatini…the list goes on.

Day Two in Catania: we woke up very early in order to climb Mount Etna. Unfortunately it was raining, so we met our guide, Sandro, and drove along the coastline for a bit. The seaside towns were beautiful, and he pointed out an old Norman castle atop a “pillow” of volcanic rock. We then ventured up 2000 feet to Mount Etna, and suddenly it felt like we were on the moon. The mountain was covered in snow and fog. None of us had any sense of distance, and I should mention that Tiernan, a favorite member of our group, was wearing running shorts while we all built a snowman.

Despite the rain, a wonderful trip. Back to Siena in the morning, after a cannolo and a cappuccino, of course.
Sean O'Hanlan
CET Siena Student Correspondent, Spring 2010