This week has been nice and laid-back, quite the opposite from last week’s Palio, but a good reprieve especially since I had my midterms this week. I’ll give a recap of the highlights so far. On Monday, when I arrived to Italian class, I went to our classroom as usual, only to be kicked out of the room by another Italian professor. I tried explaining to her that I had my “lezione” here every day, but she was insistent that I had to take a test. My attempt at Italian failed because she pushed me into the elevator and pushed floor two. Thankfully, when I arrived at the second floor I saw Marco, my professor, and explained to him the situation. He said that she thought I was a new student needing to take a placement test. Little did I know, that when class started 10 minutes later, I really did have to take a test – a surprise midterm from Marco! Somehow the date of the midterm was lost in translation for Elena and me, so it was my first experience taking a test I wasn’t prepared for. Thankfully we reviewed beforehand in class, so we both did fine!
On Tuesday for my Art and Art History class, we toured Palazzo Pubblico, a public palace that used to be where the Governo dei Nove (Government of the Nine) took place. It is now a museum, and we saw some very important works, such as Simone Martini’s Maesta. This painting was very beautiful as well as interesting because it was used not only as a tribute to the Virgin Mary but as a political symbol, showing Mary as Queen of Siena. It was painted a few years after Duccio’s Maesta that I’ve mentioned in a previous post, but it surpasses it in technique. For instance, Martini used molded gold, mirrors, real stone, actual parchment, and real silver on the painting. The other paintings of note that we saw were by Ambrogio Lorenzetti from 1338. These included the Allegory of Good Government, Effects of Good Government, Allegory of Bad Government, and Effects of Bad Government. It was very interesting to see the virtues extolled during the 14th century; for instance, Justice is personified multiple times, more than any other characteristic of good government. As usual, we ended the tour by climbing to the top of the Palazzo Pubblico and seeing a wonderful view of Siena’s countryside – which made me very excited for this weekend’s traveling seminar with class to the Tuscan hills of Pienza and Monteoliveto.
Another highlight of Tuesday which has to be mentioned is the arrival of one of the CET’s student’s package of peanut butter! We all enjoyed some peanut butter cookies that she made, since peanut butter is nonexistent here! That evening, Leno joined us for dinner and brought along four flavors of gelato for dessert from Kopa Kabana, our favorite gelateria! With Stella’s antipasta of grapes and cheese, scrumptious cous cous (loaded with chick peas, sundried tomatoes, pinenuts, mint, olives, golden raisins, yellow pepper, tuna, etc.) and turkey with mushrooms, plus gelato, we were very content… Stella now knows the American term “food coma”!
Today in Italian class, Marco had a special “treat” for us. After having us write scripts about ourselves, saying to make it like a “Facebook page,” we recorded a video of us speaking on his computer, so we could practice our pronunciation. I have uploaded the video for your enjoyment (and my embarrassment!) … I still need to practice how to roll my “r’s”! Ora vado studiare (Now, I go to study) because I have a midterm in my Art and Architecture class in two hours!
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