first impressions.

Buongiorno!

Months ago, I decided I would like to take a summer course abroad. I could travel to another country, earn a credit, and meet some new people. I’m majoring in English at the University of Toronto, and there were only two summer abroad programs with English classes. One in Oxford, England, one in Siena, Italy. Since I’ve already been to England, I decided on Italy. I’m taking a course called “The Novel.” There are only about eighteen students in my class, but there are six other (larger, I believe) classes.

The group flight left last Thursday (July 30) just before 9:00 p.m. (Toronto time). We were flying for seven hours, and arrived in Rome, Italy at 10:45 a.m. (Rome time). Now, remember, most of us were in Toronto right before this. Toronto, when we left, had yet to see real summer. The temperatures weren’t rising above 25 degrees and it had been rainy and cloudy almost the whole season. We arrived in Rome, where it was closer to 35, and the sun was beaming brightly. We were hot and tired. But, we were in Italy!

From Rome, we took a bus to Siena. It was a long ride, but the view out the windows was pretty stunning. There were hills everywhere, and houses with red clay roofs dotting the countryside. Unfortunately, I was pretty tired from having flown all night with little sleep, and my first look at Italy was through sleep-glazed eyes, which kept closing on me.

Siena is a medieval walled city, built high on some Tuscan hills. It has some pretty steep hills throughout the city, and you can’t walk anywhere without going up and/or down at least one slope. The bus wasn’t allowed inside the city walls, so we got off at Porta san Marco, one of the many gates leading into the city. The gate was pretty gorgeous itself, and was just a taste of what was to come inside the wall. We walked over the hills to the residences. Again, I must remind you, most of us just came from Toronto. Walking up and down hills in the heat after a long day of travelling would not seem like the most pleasant experience, however, we were walking through the streets of a medieval Italian city. I, for one, was happy taking it all in.

The buildings run along the sides of streets, with hardly any sidewalks to be found. The thing is, there isn’t much traffic in Siena. Most of the vehicles I’ve seen are mopeds to zip around the city, or trucks carrying goods. Everyone else walks. The streets are crowded with tourists, and are fairly narrow in some parts, which would make driving a car through the city most likely slower and definitely more frustrating than simply walking. Cafes, restaurants, and shops can be found down every alleyway. However, there are a couple streets dedicated to shopping. And the closer you get to the Piazza del Campo the more shops there are, especially tourist shops. (Piazza del Campo basically means “Field Square,” and is the square in the centre of the city).

Over the weekend, I did a lot of exploring, wandering Siena’s back streets and paths. Our first couple of days we had sunny, hot weather. Yesterday, however, it rained. Not for very long, but while it lasted it was a torrential downpour with very aggressive-sounding thunder. This didn’t stop me however. I continued my exploration through the city. I was soaked, but it was worth it. The colours, especially of the red clay roofs, were really brought out in the wetness. Siena is a beautiful city with stunning views, but I’ll post more about Siena’s sights and history another day.

Just a warning though, my computer didn’t seem to want to read my SD card properly. So, thinking it was the card, I bought a new one. I was able to load yesterday’s pictures onto my computer, but today I tried to load more pictures, and it didn’t work. It keeps saying “You need to format the disk in drive F: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?” But if I say yes, it tells me that if I format the disk, all the info on the disk will be deleted, so I say “Don’t continue.” If anyone has any suggestions of how to fix this, please let me know! I don’t think I’ll be able to get through five and a half weeks in Italy with only 3 GBs of space. If not, I may have to just buy some disposable cameras once I run out of room, or another larger SD card. In any case, I may not be able to include many pictures in my posts, unfortunately.

One thing I was really worried about before coming here was that I didn’t know anyone on this trip. However I do love meeting new people, and I have met a lot of really cool people :) .

The other thing I was afraid of was being homesick. I’m not devastatingly homesick, but I miss everyone already! The past few days have been awesome and I feel like I’ve been here for weeks, but at the same time, when I look back on the past couple days, I can’t believe they’re already done. I have a lot of reading, writing, and sight-seeing to do, so I have a feeling the next few weeks will just fly by.

Anyway, that’s it for now. I’m going to Florence on Thursday, so my next post will be all about the birth-city of renaissance :) .

I miss and love everyone!! Ciao <3