The weekend of March 24-26, I went on a trip with my Art History Class (Early Renaissance) to Siena and Florence. I had heard a lot of good things about Siena, including one person telling me that it was his favorite city, so I had some pretty high expectations.
We had to meet down the street at 6:15am. When I got there, people were starting to walk toward the bus, so I followed them. Apparently, I was supposed to check in with my prof, but I didn't realize that.
Someone who was checking to see if missing people were actually on the bus asked if there was a "Jackie Boreba." I didn't think there was another Jackie, so I asked if he actually meant me. He said, "no" rather bitchy, so I didn't worry about it.
About 20 minutes later while we were still waiting for people, my roommate called and said that my prof had called my apt. looking for me. I told the guy who had said it wasn't me that she had called and asked my name. When I told him all he said, was "OK." He didn't even seem to notice that I had already asked if was looking for me.
The bus ride up to Siena was pretty uneventful except for learning that the bus had a black-box-like thing that recorded the driver's every move and his speed. The thing is, I've never seen any speed limit signs in Europe.
Anywhoo, by the time we got to Siena, I was pretty well rested. I don't really remember what I saw where because there was just so much. We weren't in Siena that long and it was rainy, but it was gorgeous. Definitely prettier than Florence. The food was amazing too. Actually, I think Tuscan food in general was good.
I spent the weekend hanging out with Kelly, who's a Brother from Alpha Pi (who, ironically, hosted Brother Bowl that weekend) and Dorothy, who goes to Temple, but I didn't know before. We pretty much ate all weekend when we weren't taking notes.
So some of the cool stuff we saw:
We had to meet down the street at 6:15am. When I got there, people were starting to walk toward the bus, so I followed them. Apparently, I was supposed to check in with my prof, but I didn't realize that.
Someone who was checking to see if missing people were actually on the bus asked if there was a "Jackie Boreba." I didn't think there was another Jackie, so I asked if he actually meant me. He said, "no" rather bitchy, so I didn't worry about it.
About 20 minutes later while we were still waiting for people, my roommate called and said that my prof had called my apt. looking for me. I told the guy who had said it wasn't me that she had called and asked my name. When I told him all he said, was "OK." He didn't even seem to notice that I had already asked if was looking for me.
The bus ride up to Siena was pretty uneventful except for learning that the bus had a black-box-like thing that recorded the driver's every move and his speed. The thing is, I've never seen any speed limit signs in Europe.
Anywhoo, by the time we got to Siena, I was pretty well rested. I don't really remember what I saw where because there was just so much. We weren't in Siena that long and it was rainy, but it was gorgeous. Definitely prettier than Florence. The food was amazing too. Actually, I think Tuscan food in general was good.
I spent the weekend hanging out with Kelly, who's a Brother from Alpha Pi (who, ironically, hosted Brother Bowl that weekend) and Dorothy, who goes to Temple, but I didn't know before. We pretty much ate all weekend when we weren't taking notes.
So some of the cool stuff we saw:
- Donatello sculptures
- Michelangelo's Bacchus
- Michelangelo's David and som other unfished sculputres
- Cimabue's cross
- Giotto paintings
- and a bunch of other stuff that I'm not going to bore you with.
People had been to Florence a few weeks ago for another and said there was a really good Mexican resturant, so we looked for it. After an hour or two, we just decided to have Italian. We find this "little" place and went it. It was actually huge, there was a large dining area on the second floor. Everyone seemed to enjoy what they ate. I what I thought was going to be manacotti, but it was more bready on the outside than pasta, but it was really good. After we got back to the hotel, we discovered that Dorothy had Doritos. Now, this might not seem that great to you, but it's been 3 months since I had them, so they were amazing. Kelly even threatened to kill her in her sleep for them, but I (being the voice of reason) argued that if she was asleep, we could just eat them, and it would cause less problems than a dead body.
On Saturday morning, we decided to load up on breakfast because it was free, so we didn't have to spend that much money on lunch. By the time our lunch break rolled around, we found a cool American-like resturant and ate there. We all shared a salad and then we eached got our own sandwich. We were stuffed and it only cost about 10 euro each.
Saturday night after we were finished with "classes," Kelly, Dorothy, and I did some mad shopping. We went to Ponte Vecchio to get Kelly a Cameo ring (she ended up getting it from the same place that Mary, Courtney, and Stacy got there's). While we were waiting for it to be resized, we got some gelato on a waffle. I had tried this the last time I was in Florence, and it sucked, but this time it was amazing.
We weren't really hungry so we decided to go into some bar that that had Mexican food to have Nachos and beer. We stayed there for a couple hours and then decided to get an Italian appitizers. That plan didn't work out so well--we ended up splitting a cheese plate and then each getting a meal. I got ricotta and spinach balls, which were really good.
On Sunday morning, we figured we'd be eating a lot again, so Dorothy and Kelly had a small breakfast. Unfortuantely, because we spent our lunch break doing last-minute shopping, we didn't get a chance to eat. Dorothy and I grabbed some kabobs on our way between sites, but Kelly didn't get to eat until late that night when we got home.
I was lucky when I got home. When I walked in the door, everyone (if you don't know this by now: Courtney, Mary, Stacy, Meg, and Tina) was there and cooking. We watched an episode of Project Runway. It was the perfect end to a perfect weekend.
On Saturday morning, we decided to load up on breakfast because it was free, so we didn't have to spend that much money on lunch. By the time our lunch break rolled around, we found a cool American-like resturant and ate there. We all shared a salad and then we eached got our own sandwich. We were stuffed and it only cost about 10 euro each.
Saturday night after we were finished with "classes," Kelly, Dorothy, and I did some mad shopping. We went to Ponte Vecchio to get Kelly a Cameo ring (she ended up getting it from the same place that Mary, Courtney, and Stacy got there's). While we were waiting for it to be resized, we got some gelato on a waffle. I had tried this the last time I was in Florence, and it sucked, but this time it was amazing.
We weren't really hungry so we decided to go into some bar that that had Mexican food to have Nachos and beer. We stayed there for a couple hours and then decided to get an Italian appitizers. That plan didn't work out so well--we ended up splitting a cheese plate and then each getting a meal. I got ricotta and spinach balls, which were really good.
On Sunday morning, we figured we'd be eating a lot again, so Dorothy and Kelly had a small breakfast. Unfortuantely, because we spent our lunch break doing last-minute shopping, we didn't get a chance to eat. Dorothy and I grabbed some kabobs on our way between sites, but Kelly didn't get to eat until late that night when we got home.
I was lucky when I got home. When I walked in the door, everyone (if you don't know this by now: Courtney, Mary, Stacy, Meg, and Tina) was there and cooking. We watched an episode of Project Runway. It was the perfect end to a perfect weekend.
1 comment:
Siena IS the greatest city on Earth. I wish you had more time to see it and experience it on a sunny day when you could lie out on the Piazza Publico after a nice panini. Then you could check out some Simone Martini and Ambrogio Larenzetti artwork.
God I miss that place.
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