Onda Cena!

Yesterday’s adventures that are noteworthy include our Art and Architecture’s visit to the Duomo’s crypt and the Museo Dell’Opera. The crypt, which really isn’t a crypt because there are no dead bodies, was very interesting because we saw the different levels of the Cathedral, which I explained from yesterday. (It was coined the crypt because when it was discovered, archaeologists were unsure of what it was.) In the second level, there were frescoes preserved from the 1200’s that still have the original color. Because the different cathedrals were built on top of each other, these frescoes were preserved and were still vibrant blues, reds, greens, and oranges – very pretty! Then we visited the Museo dell’Opera, the Cathedral’s museum. The most important piece of art we saw was Duccio’s Maesta, painted from 1308-1311. It was incredible! We’ve learned a lot about this painting because it is the most important artwork in Siena. It depicts the Virgin Mary in the center with a robe of lapis lazuli, a blue precious stone which was more expensive than gold at the time. She is holding the Baby Jesus as saints, angels, and the four patrons of Siena look on. This painting is noteworthy because Duccio includes Florentine, Byzantine, and French influences. Furthermore, he used real silk drapery from the Middle East as a model for Mary’s robe… several other painters did this too, and the ironic part is that they even copied the lettering (thinking it was decoration) so Christian paintings from this time often include Arabic stating “Allah is the greatest.” Lastly, Duccio wrote around Mary’s throne the words, “Holy Mother of God, bring peace to Siena, and life to Duccion, because he painted you like this.” Not only does this show that Duccio wasn’t exactly humble, but it is the first record of an artist signing his painting. This shows that artists had reached a new social status; whereas before they were considered lower-class workers, now they were extolled for their creative genius. But perhaps the most interesting part of seeing the Maesta was spotting a famous movie star, who was observing the painting the same time we were! We saw Stanley Tucci, the bald actor with glasses in Julie and Julia, The Devil Wears Prada, The Lovely Bones, Monk etc. PG kept trying to get us to be quiet as we were all whispering to each other about who the actor was, and he finally gave up saying, “Would you rather this movie star be on your midterm than the Maesta?!” At the end of the tour, we climbed the extremely narrow staircase to the top of the tower and saw a fabulous 360 view of Siena.

That evening, the whole CET group with Guizzi and John Luigi (Italian roommates of some of the students) and Anna (the program director) met at 8:30pm to go the Onda contrada for a big contrada “cena” (dinner). Onda is the wave contrada with the dolphin mascot. The evening was amazing, not only because of the atmosphere, excitement, and food, but because of the people we met. At first I was a little disappointed because four of us were separated from the rest of the CET group. We were placed in the middle of the contrada, and the nine others were at a table all sitting together at the end. But it ended up being the best situation because we sat next to a very friendly girl in her late 20s named Catalina. She is from Romania and just moved to Siena eight months ago, but she knows Italian very well since she is dating an Italian (hence why they were at the Onda cena). Her boyfriend, Pasgualino, and her friend, Roberto, were also sitting next to us. They were all extremely nice and spoke to us in Italian all night since they didn’t know English. Two of the CET girls at dinner with me have taken two years of Italian so they were able to carry the conversation. However, they were so encouraging and let Elena and I (the two Italian beginners) speak, helping us with conjugations and translating when necessary. The dinner lasted about 3 hours, so I got quite a lot of Italian practice with such friendly people! We even made plans to meet up with Catalina again for gelato or café. I was so excited after dinner about how much Italian I actually understood, and it was very encouraging being able to practice what I have learned. Now for the food… the first course was a pasta ragu dish with bread and was quite tasty. We were also very hungry because the food wasn’t served until about 9:30. The second course was a shish kabob of different types of meat and veggies, and it included a side of roasted peas. Wine was included with the meal too. The best part, however, was the chocolate, raspberry, cream-filled torte! Yum! At the end of dinner, everyone in the contrada starting singing Onda’s songs, and a group of old men near us were harmonizing together, which was so fun to listen to. The dinner ended around midnight, so after exchanging emails with Catalina and saying “ciao,” the CET group headed to the Piazza del Campo to take in more of the excitement in preparation for the Palio. Yet with school this morning at 9am, we didn’t stay out too late, especially compared to most of Siena which will be celebrating 24/7 until the end of the Palio!