SiEnA

well, my blog is only partially a success, if you want to see any photos, you have to go to my facebook. wish they could both be in one! (pics + writing) i know how exciting it is to only see words here... but hey, its better than nothing!

wow, siena is... beautiful, breathtaking, and full of life. it is definatly a must see if you come to italy. we are slowly becoming "locals" here, i say slowly because a.) we look american b.) we are still learning italian and c.) well, i just felt like putting a c. =)

listening to stories about everyone elses host families, i realize that i am pretty lucky. our family is pretty chill and laid back. we eat dinner around 8 or 8:30 at night (STILL not used to that!). our family loves to practice their english, and so our dinner conversations are half in italian and half in english. it is an interesting experience to have to switch back and forth between the two. beniamino is an amazing chef, he takes pride in his cooking, and loves it when we ask for the recipe. we have a primo piatto of pasta, a secondo piatto with some type of meat, cheese, bread, and then our dolci, which is anything from gelato, or fruit, to some type of torta (cake). italians like their food, and so they dish us up plenty of food, and then have us finish off whats left. like beniamino said "eat all you can now, diet when you get back home," is it sad to say that i'm taking his advice? well... when in italia!

school is going good, it is overwhelming, but good. our italian teacher, enzo, if a fun, easy going teacher, and we laugh a lot in our class. talbots classes are fascinating, we are reading dantes inferno, and i am suprised at how much i like it! there is so much to take in and learn here, sometimes its hard to keep it all in order...

we have taken two weekend trips. last weekend we went to florence, and this weekend, we went to san giminano and volterra. florence was a slightly overwhelming, get to know the city trip, but we did eat at the best gelateria in europe, vivoli. i got blackberry, raspberry, and lemon. simply to die for... and the bobboli gardens are beautiful! recommend going there too...

san gimignano is known for being the city of towers. they didnt have enough money to restyle the city with each new arty fashion, and so it is a purely medieval town. the towers in all the other cities, like florence and siena, were all cute down to normal, apartment style height. but in san giminano, they were kept tall, and the nobles and rich people lived there. no ladders, and practically no windows. but the view from top definatly makes it worth it.

volterra is less touristy, and you get more of an italian feel there. we didnt have much time, but still loved the place anyways. we went to an etruscan museum and saw ancient burial tombs and more. (the etruscans lived in this region before the romans took over) it was simply fascinating to see some of their ruins!

my new goal is to read the book of mormon in italian, and finish it at least by the end of the school year. its harder then it sounds, so we'll see how it goes... we have a free weekend, this weekend, so some girls and i are attempting to plan some trips. i realize that while i love siena, i am a country girl at heart... i prefer to be in the smaller, less crowded cities, surrounded by the beautiful tuscan countryside.