Getting Acquainted

Day two in Siena. I feel like we've already seen SO much and we've only really had one day here in the city. This morning, after a refreshing night of sleep we met up with our group and Jack (the philosophy professor on the trip) gave us a basic tour of the town. Not so much a historical tour, but more of a cultural tour so we could get accustomed and acquainted with the city. Since walking is our primary means of transportation around the city he wanted us to be sure we could find our way to the main meeting points in the town. He showed us some bakeries, butchers, a park, the cooking school, and University of Siena (one of the oldest universities in the world) to name a few of the places. This town is just too cute! By the end of this thing, I am going to have way too many pictures of windows with cute little shutters and window boxes and alleyways with clotheslines and vespas!

Palio flags for each contrada!

Stephanie and April

The Tortuga fountain (in the Tortuga - Turtle contrada).

We spent the whole morning with the group, then broke off and bought a fan for our room just to keep the air circulating (although right now its 59 degrees, that's like wintertime in Savannah, haha). On a side note, the weather has been absolutely gorgeous, but Dr. Belzer told us that it probably will not stay this way for long! We grabbed pizza and bruschetta for lunch and then took a little nap before class this afternoon. 

Around 3:30 we met up with our History of Italy class in the main Campo then headed to a cafe down the street. So sat around and sipped cappuccino as we discussed Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. It's too bad I couldn't just take all my classes this way, I can definitely get used to this!

After class we had a short break to run back to our room before cooking class. We met up with Dr. Belzer, her kids and a couple others from our group to walk over to the cooking school. When we arrived Fernando (aka Nando) the head chef was waiting for us. Stephanie and I mostly worked on the tiramisu with Chef Fernando's instruction. One of the steps was to dip the lady fingers in coffee. Well after dipping I don't even know how many lady fingers in coffee, washing my hands at least four times and showering, these lady's fingers still smell like coffee. We (our group) cooked a delicious four course meal complete with antipasti, homemade pasta and sauce, meat and potatoes and tiramisu. So delicious. So SO delicious.

Stephanie and Kristin

I'll leave you with this beautiful view... (if you want even MORE pictures follow me on instagram @mgibbs5190 or #gibbsgirlsgotoitaly)

Ciao!!