Fourth of July, Siena-style

gli americani (the Americans!)

Sunday was a leisurely day, hiding out indoors from the 95 degree temperatures. However, it’s not much cooler inside since most of Siena does not have air conditioning. Studying for my Italian test Monday made July 4^th a little anticlimactic. However, all of the CET students got together and we had our version of an American BBQ. We organized a potluck and that evening had hamburgers, hotdogs, homemade mac n’ cheese, fruit salad, and homemade apple pie, while listening to our American music. With all of our red, white, and blue, we were quite festive, to the amusement of John Luigi (an Italian roommate) and his Italian friends.

Also that evening, I attended the once-a-month English service at the Anglican Church in Siena called St. Peter’s. It was held in a very small chapel, which was nonetheless beautiful, like most old buildings in Italy. There were only sixteen of us in the service, and I met most of them before it started. Everyone was very nice and welcoming, and most of them were British, who vacation in Italy every summer. I also met the priest before the service, so his homily that referred to John Adams writing a letter to his wife about America’s independence was humorous since he kept looking to me as the token American in the service. At one point he said (in his British accent), “You are all probably wondering why I am mentioning America’s Independence when I am on the losing side…” to which he then related it back to the theme of deliverance that the Scripture passage for this week talked about. After the service, I met two Italian opera singers from Florence who invited me to their performances, which occur every night in St. Mark’s (the sister church), and they offered to drive me back to Siena afterwards since the bus won’t be running that late at night. I got their email, so who knows, I may experience some Italian opera while I’m here too! I hope everyone had a wonderful 4^th of July!