Class After Class

Yet another interesting week.  We had our first true excursion for our renaissance art class on Wednesday.  We travelled by bus to Siena, which does not have a train station or a major highway that runs to the city by the way.  We started off in the Saint Catherine of Siena Church.  The church is rather plain, but houses several relics of Saint Catherine.  They have her thumb, her whip, and, most notably, her mummified head! In the past, the reliquary that holds her head was only opened on religious holidays, but we were able to see it in all of its… glory.  It was definitely an interesting sight.

Next, we moved to the Duomo of Siena.  The Duomo actually has quite an interesting history. If you didn’t know, Florence is actually the arch rival of Siena and when the Duomo was finished, Florence immediately started to build one that would be bigger and better.  Of course, the Sienese couldn’t allow that and started a massive project to expand their church, with the original building being only one transept of the final product. Unfortunately, they faced many setbacks including bank failures, unusually rainy years, and, to top it all off, the Black Death hit the city in 1347. 

(Fun Fact: Music Notes were actually created by Guido Monaco who was born here in Arezzo!)

Funnily enough, however, just as Kirk (our professor) began to talk about the rainy season, it started to hail! It was just pea-sized hail, but it was still hilarious.  We tried to escape under the arch of the building so Kirk could finish talking, but it just followed us.  It seemed to be coming from the building itself! Eventually, Kirk gave up and we went into the museum and Duomo to look at the art.

Afterwards, we went to the Piazza del Campo, which is a giant half circle piazza in Siena.  It’s actually where they do the horse races, or Palio del Siena.  Unfortunately, that race happens in the fall, so we didn’t get to see it. We did get to go into the town hall, and then have lunch a La Finestra.  We had the special pasta of Siena, which is called Pici.  It’s a thicker, chewier, spaghetti type pasta that was amazing.  We followed it up with a gelato in the blessed, yet highly elusive, Italian sunshine in the Piazza.

 Ceiling of the Music Book Room

Music Book in the Duomo.

It's actually like 3 feet tall, FYI.

Palazzo Publico/Town Hall in the Piazza del Campo

On Thursday, we had a pasta making class! It was so much fun! We made three types of pasta by hand: ravioli, tagliatelle, and potato gnocchi (in the north they make it with milk-soaked bread -yuck!). They were all really easy to make and unbelievably delicious! All we did was mix a cup or two of flour with a little salt and an egg.  We made the flour into a little volcano, cracked the egg into the volcano, and then (attempted) to whisk the egg while slowly adding the flour without destroying the volcano.  Some of us had more success than others.  This dough was what made our tagliatelle and ravioli.  The gnocchi was just a cooked and cooled potato mixed with a little flour and a bit more salt. And, obviously the best and most important part, we ate the pasta! It was so good and yet so bad for us. 

Tomorrow, most of us are headed to Perugia and Terni.  Perugia is another college town with some cool views and (another) beautiful cathedral.  Terni, however, is just a small city in Umbria.  However, it has a Cioccolentino going on, which is a chocolate festival! Guys, I am beyond excited for this trip. Terni’s patron saint is San Valentino, which is actually really cool.

Oh, three other students and I also planned a trip to Naples and Pompeii for our first free weekend which is next week.  We get to travel to and from Naples and stay in a hotel for super cheap, which is great for poor college students!

Well, it’s almost dinner time, so that’s all for now!