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Turning 20 and Siena, Italy

Mariko Stenstedt
Nov 10, 2016
2 min read

I am VERY behind on my blogging. The month of October flew by. Between midterms, 4 Research papers, and lots of traveling, I’ve definitely kept busy.

Now that things have settled down, here’s my attempt to recap everything that’s happened these last couple weeks. Here’s to the fun times, my 3 (3!?) weeks left in Florence, and about 5 weeks left in Europe.

October started off with my birthday! My roommates and I tried out Apertivo at a place called Oibo to celebrate. Apertivo is held at a restaurant or bar before normal dinner hours. You buy “Apertivo” which includes an unlimited buffet and a drink. The buffet generally includes only appetizers but as vegetarian, this is perfect (my meat eating friends left a little unsatisfied).

After Apertivo, most of us went back to the apartment where my roommates made me a cake and sang happy birthday. I was so blown away that they took time out of their day to make my birthday so special. Needless to say, it was pretty cool to turn 20 abroad.

That first week of October was a busy week. In addition midterms, papers and birthdays, I accompanied my friend as she got her first tattoo. I had never seen anyone get a tattoo before. Let's just say I decided right then that I will never get one.

That weekend, our school went to Siena, Italy for the day, our first school-sponsored trip since our orientation in Piestrasanta.

Siena was really quaint. Supposedly the city still practices a lot of their old traditions and rituals dating back to the Renaissance. Every year they have a huge horse race in their center square (which, when you see how small the square is, is very impressive). We didn’t really hear anything else about their other traditions, but it still cool to see a city that is stuck in the past while simultaneously operating in the 21st century.

There wasn’t too much to see in Siena. I would say the highlight would be the church, which was lavishly decorated. The inside columns were covered in stripes- it almost looked like a zebra! The floor was also very interesting: the entire floor was covered with mosaics depicting the quest for knowledge.

In addition to the church, we went inside the city hall where we saw some cool paintings, but at this point I think our entire group was Reniassance-arted out. It did have an awesome view of the city!