Last week in Siena...no that was 2 weeks ago (or MORE!!)

Hi all, yes I have been on the move for 2 weeks (or more now!! Ha) now after leaving my beloved adoptive home and family in Siena!! I have seen and done lots and moved quite a way but that will have to wait whilst I tell you about my last week in Siena...

It was a bit of a whirlwind actually, especially as it was a short week due to the public holiday on the Monday. I cant even remember what it was for...maybe all saint day?!? haha

But I spent that day doing some sight seeing around Siena...since I had neglected to do this up until this point....it is too easy to forget when you are living somewhere!!


It was a weird last week at school though, for a number of reasons;
1. There were only four of us left in our class; two older women (Liv from Norway and Susanna from Swizzerland) and another young girl (Mirjam from Swizzerland) and myself

2. We were all finishing on the Firday so our class would be no longer for the following week and so we were all gearing down
3. The school was only holding classes for one more week after we all finished before closing for a few weeks for Christmas and New Years holidays so it was extremely quiet there on the whole
4. The teacher who we had all had for most of our time at the school who was from Naples, had to go home at the end of the week before for a family thing. She was very quirky and took a while to get used to but wasnt going to be back for our final week and left in a very odd way...and so we had a different teacher (one I had had a few times for my second class) ofr our last week and she was great but very different

That is Chica pronounced "Kika" (or Christina), the teacher next to me

Then I had promised my family...or offered I should say, much to the delight but also the hidden concern of my host mother...that I would cook them dinner as a 'thankyou gift'. The response to this suggestion was "Will it be an Australian dinner?"...so I had my work cut out for me, but WHAT IS an Australian dinner I ask you?!? haha

So I cooked Roast Chicken with stuffing, roast potatoes, roast carotts, steamed beans and gravy for them all...and it was my brother Michael who gave me all the instructions for this (via Facebook of course!!), and this made them even more impressed!! It went down well but they thought I had served them too much cos I gave them as much as they would eat in their normal 2 courses, or less even, on one plate and in one course!! haha...BUT, the hit of the night was the Apple Crumble!!!! With ice-cream, or gelato as they call it of course. My host mum couldnt get her head around serving hot with cold, but as soon as her daughter who has lived in Oz and the US before, declared that this is one of her favourite desserts and her son and his girlfriend went back for seconds, she asked me for the recipe!! Unfortunately I dont have any photos of this night cos it was a bit crazy and even later dinner than the normal 8pm!!

For the rest of the week I did a lot of sight seeing in Siena...all the things I hadnt done for the 3 weeks I had already spent living there. These included climbing La Torre di Mangia, the main tour in the main Piazza which has great views of all of Siena.

I also visited the Duomo (big church...exact traslation I promise!!), La Pinacotecca (main art gallery), Museo Santa Maria Della Scala (museum in the old pilgrims hospital), and much more!!

On the Thursday night I went out to the locals' favourite restaurant in town with the women from my class and a few others as a farewell type thing before our last day of school...it was fantastic!!

The last day of school was a bit weird as it was the end of all that was planned for me!! AND I was saying goodbye to all of these people that I had become quite close to in a weird way.

But there was still more with school people on the Saturday as it was a big festival day in Siena...St Lucia's Day and school had organised an excursion to check it all out and to have a bit of an explanation of everything.

SO...St Lucia is the saint of eyes and we went to the church and I had my eyes blessed!! YAY!! As though they arent already stuffed!! haha
And then we wandered as a group through the market that was set up for the festival along the street...there were stalls with lts of bells that were hand painted with motives of the different animals that represent the different areas of Siena...

And many many stalls making the traditional thin chip type biscuits that had an aniseed taste, with automatic machines...

It is yet another festival for lots of sweets and lollies, but this was not a problem for me!! You all know me and my food.

Then Sunday I took a day trip to Pisa...and YES, I saw the leaning tower, but I must admit that the tower definitely wasnt the best thing that I saw in Pisa, I thought the Cathedral was much nicer and more spectacular. So I spent more time looking around in there and the baptistry rather than paying 15 euros to climb the tower.

And yes, like everyone else I had to have one of those photos of me touching the tower...

But are you impressed, they are ALL self-taken!!

Officially as part of what I paid for with the school I was actually suposed to leave my home-stay on Saturday but my host Mum insisted that I stay on to see St Lucias day festivities and then also offered that if there were more things that I wanted to see around Siena, to stay and do day trips...and she wouldnt let me pay her more money too!!

So Monday I then took a short day trip (due to the restrictive buses) to a small mountain village called Volterra which was very cute, but VERY cold and quiet!!

But I think the best part of the day was the bus trip to and from through the gorgeous Tuscan winter countryside!!

So my time in Siena came to an end; my host parents dropped me at the station in a rush to catch my train to Bologna, the start of my travels through Italy...

I think this final photo sums up my time in Siena quite well...umbrellas, wet pavement and christmas lights!!

Ci vediamo

Jo xoxoxo

Home sweet home...for now!! (or THEN!!)

NEWS FLASH...I am no longer in Siena!! I left this morning...and am now in Bologna.

So now that I am no longer living there...I will show you were I was living all of that time!! HAHA...not deliberately, I obviously just didnt get myself organised enough to take these photos and post them before...

So as I think I have already told you, I lived with a family made up of Luciana and Roberto, the Mum and Dad of about 55 and 60 respectively. Then there are three grown children; Isobella who I think is about 32, has a husband and 14 month-old and lives in Birmingham with her family. She is a translator and so speaks english, but only once to me. She lived in The States and also in Oz for a while, in Melbourne. Then there is Morris who I think is about 30 but is with the military and so was rarely at home. And thirdly there was Ronald who is 28 and often at home for dinner with his girlfriend Elena, who was very nice, spoke clearly to me and was always patient with my slow italian!!

I had what I think used to be Isobella's room, with a single bed, a window, desk and a cupboard and some drawers in a massive wall unit...

And I guess the house was more of a townhouse or large appartment on the ground floor of a big Palazzo which, Luciana told me, is the old train station, I guess from a long long time ago...

The house was the last on the end on the ground floor...

The second window is mine.

And then my trip to school every morning...

Yes, there was lots of umbrellas most days!!

And then on Mondays and Fridays there was always piles of yellow and green garbage bags along all of the streets in the central storico. It was kinda quite funny!! But they were very prompt in coming along to pick all up and the streets were all cleaned very regularly too...Mondays out the front of the Palazzo at about 7.30am...I always knew about it!!

And then the school...

Another old palazzo...what Siena is mostly made up of...and apparently a lot of them are partially or fully empty because property prices are so high and renovation and resotration restrictions are so tight!! Sound familiar?!?

But the building was once a very important school for the area...for deaf and mute children.

And my classroom...it looks a bit plain and boring which is exactly what I thought on my first day but I came to love it...despite it being a bit cold and airy!!


Just to prove that I did study, do work and learn!! See my name at the bottom?!?
The headings say "Have to do...Dont have to do"...it was a set of ten commandments for a good teacher!! haha

I will write more soon about my last week in Siena.

Ci Vediamo
Jo xoxoxoxoxox

One more week of studies...

Well actually this is not true, I actually finished at school today but I havent updated you all on week 3 here in Siean, so you are getting that first and then later I will post about my last week of studies...OK?!? Or as they always say here "tutt-ok?!?" meaning 'tutto ok', a mix of italian and english meaning 'is everything ok?'...

So as I said in my last post, the Tuesday after my weekend with Alex speaking aussie english all weekend, was a MASSIVE struggle!! But then the rest of the week seemed to fly by...but what did I do is the question!! haha...not even I can remember.

Tuesday late in the afternoon there was a seminar at school on a very famous and old author called 'Boccaccio' which was a bit of a challenge. He was a writer from the 1300s or thereabouts and so it was all old-school italian, a bit like how old school english is a bit weird and hard to understand even when you are a native english speaker. For those of you who went to school with me and did literature...or have read it...it was a bit like Franz Kafka, particularly in how wierd and gory the tales were...

Thursday we had good 'ol "Happy Hour" again like 2 weeks ago!! This time I chose not to join them all at the first bar with the 'free dinner' which I dont think you could classify as dinner and I dont know that it was worth the money. I stayed home and had dinner with the family, spoke to Mum and Dad on the phone and then headed out and met them all at the second bar 'Bella Vista Social Club'. I particularly wanted to go as one of the girls from my class (Anita) who I also had my fourth hour of school with everyday (and for some of the time just the two of us), it was the end of her last week and she was keen to go out.


Anita is from the north of Italy, so is Italian and has an italian passport but was at school learning italian because the part of Italy that she is from many, many years ago used to be part of Austria and so they still speak german there in majority. It was great with her as we were forced to speak italian as obviously I dont speak german and she only speaks a little english, so we were better with italian and it was good practice!!

Then on the weekend I was quite busy...

Saturday I took the bus to San Giminiano. I cant say that the weather was very cooperative...blue sky one minute, blowing a gale the next, pouring down with rain and next and then sunny and clear sky again!! This didnt effect my view of San Giminiano, I still loved it!!


I had spoken to one of the women in my class on Friday about going as she was planning to go on Saturday too, Suzanna from Swizzerland, and so we saw each other on the bus in the morning and then ended up spending the whole day together in San Giminiano.

We saw the Duomo (Cathedral) with lots of amazing frescos, the pinnacoteca (art gallery) and climbed the tower, we tried to have a gelato at the world famous gelati shop there but it was closed for winter and we wandered the streets and had a look at all the shops.

Views from up on the tower...

We stayed late enough in the afternoon to also see how much more beautiful the town became once the sun went down and all of the Christmas lights were turned on...unfortunately my camera had run out of batteries by this time!!

Then on Sunday...

I took an early train to Lucca...a town a little north-east of Pisa. Once again, Suzanna had the same plans and so we saw each other on the station in the morning and caught the train together but had some problems as we didnt know we had to change trains at the first Florence station and not the main one and so we missed our connection...and this lost us 2 hours in Lucca!! This was worse for me as I was only staying for the day but Suzanna planned to stay overnight. Never-the-less we eventually made it after a short detour in Florence (AGAIN!!) and then I spent the rest of the day by myself enjoyin Lucca as I wanted to move faster than Suzanna as I only had a couple of hours.

Lucca is another gorgeous medieval walled European city!! I loved it and there were a lot of people as it was a long weekend and all the italians had Monday (the next day) off too...so there was quite an atmosphere there...also with the lead up to Christmas and markets and all the rest.

I saw the Duomo...yes, another church!! haha...

The many markets and decorated piazzas...

Had a quick lunch on the move...

The Amphitheatre Piazza...a piazza and surrounding buildings built up on the foundations of an old amphitheatre...with a very interesting and very modern christmas tree in the middle...

And I had a "passeggata" around the old city walls which was beautiful as the sun was shining and then started to go down and it was a great way to see the locals of Lucca and the italian tourists out doing there thing as they were all also having a walk after their long Sunday lunches...

And then I found a slow food market before racing to the train to return to Siena!!

Then on Monday it was a public holiday for one of the saint days but there wasnt much happening in Siena apart from the regular Wednesday marjet, also being open this Monday. I stayed in Siena for the day and wandered the market...AGAIN!!...and then attempted to see some of the Siena sights...The Pallazzo Publico with its museum and the Duomo!!

Ci vediamo
Jo xoxo

Firenze, what a city!!

So, another week in Italy down...but dont think I am wishing them away, definitely not...infact if anything I wish they werent disappearing SO fast!! But it is always the way...

Well it is definitely cold in Siena now and I am SO thankful for my new coat!! You may even be able to spot it in the following photos...I have been told by a friend from home, who will remain nameless but might be mentioned later in this entry, that it is "very italian"!! haha...I guess you can judge for yourself. But I am definitely curently living by the saying "When in Rome, do as the Romans do!"...very appropriate I think!!

School continues to be challenging but I am definitely still learning and managing to take new information and vocabulary on board which I think is one of the biggest things for learning a new language AND being able to use it. The second most important thing in my opinion is having the courage to speak or at least try to speak, get it wrong and learn from your mistakes...I am happy to say that my spoken italian has improved out of sight and every day I am able to explain more about myself and my life in Australia to my host Mum, who is always in for a chat no matter what time of the day it is.

Luciana (host mum), continues to cook amazing and different food every night...I dont think I have had one exact repeat!! We have had soup as 'primo piatto' (first dish) many nights and also different kinds of risotto, and often for 'secondo piatto' we have some type of thinly sliced meat in a sauce with a side of veggies of some description.

So all of this good food, and having already done it in Sicily, inspired me to do some Tuscan cooking classes here in Siena. This was fairly easy to organise cos the school runs them.
So Tuesday and Thursday night I had 4 hours of cooking class which included preparing 4 courses and then eating it all with some nice wine with the other members of the class, each night.

Tuesday night there was 4 of us...Stefano (a Swiss banker...came good with the amazing wines), an Irish couple (for whom I had to translate at times cos the chef spoke italian and a few words of english) and I. Then on Thursday, there were too many of us and there wasnt really enough to do; Stefano (again), an Australian mother and daughter (from near Morton Bay...crazy Queenslanders!! haha), a family of four Americans from Boston (need I say more...) and I. Oh, and we had different chefs each night which was interesting...

Tuesdays menu consisted of...

Antipasto: Sformatini di melanzane (mini eggplant and roasted capsicum fritattas)

Primo Piatto: Ravioli di spinaci con burro e salvia (hand-made spinach and ricotta ravioli with butter and sage sauce)

Secondo Piatto: Pollo con limone (Chicken with a lemon sauce...much better than Lemon Chicken as we know it)

Dolce: Panna cotta con frutto di bosco (Baked vanilla cream with berries of the forest)

And Thursday...

A saying springs to mind... "Too many cooks spoil the broth"

The menu consisted of...

Antipasto: Crostini di fagioli (Bruschetta with cannelli beans and red onion)

Primo Piatto: Strattecini con funghi e pormodoro (hand-made pasta with a mixed mushroom, tomato and chilli sauce)

Secondo Piatto: Pollo in crostata con sformatini di finocchio (baked chicken in a crust with a side of a mini fennel fritatta)

Dolce: TIRAMISU!! (not as good as Mum's though!! haha)


Needless to say, I rolled myself home both nights!! My stomach has definitely expanded!! haha

My other big excitment for the week was having Alex come and visit me!!

She flew into Pisa from London (for those who dont know...where she is living at the moment), and we met in Firenze (or Florence as we call it...am a bit confused at the moment why we have to have a different name for it in english when the italians have a perfectly good name for it already...same goes for all the places in Italy?!?). Alex arrived early Saturday afternoon in Firenze and we stayed there two nights together.

I had booked a hostel for the both of us and this turned out to be one of the best parts of the weekend...it is definitely true that your accomodation choice can make or break a city for you, it can determine whether your like the city and shape your lasting impression of it...

So the hostel was nice and small and we obviously stayed the two nights...it was VERY centrally located too (only about 10 minute walk to The Ufizzi Gallery). But the best bit was that breakfast AND dinner was included. So both nights all who were staying in the hostel crowded into the little kitchen and sat down to share some wine and a basic meal that was prepared by the owner...

After Alex arrived early afternoon Saturday we went and had a classica Italian long weekend lunch at a restaurant and caught up and everything and then spent the evening wandering the streets of Florence and exploring before returning to the hostel to drink wine and eat with everyone else...As Im sure you can imagine, this turned into a night of too much wine!! haha

Sunday we did more exploring; more little streets and markets, the Duomo (cathedral), the marathon that was on throughout the city and finally The Ufizzi Art Gallery. We were obviously exhausted after The Ufizzi and felt that cheese and wine was a good idea!!

Oh and Alex found a bunching balloon lying around from the marathon and ended up holding onto it and playing with it until they took it off her at The Ufizzi cos she wasnt allowed to take it in.

And on Sunday, we stopped for pizza for lunch...Alex's aim for her 2 and half days in Italy was to consume as much good italian food as possible...I think we were fairly successful!!

Monday we did more wandering and exploring...oh, and of course had the classic italian breakfast of a cappucino and a pastry both mornings...walked up to Piazza Michelangelo where there is a great view over the city and hit the market for Alex to do a little shopping, before grabbing our bags and heading for a nice lunch spot...In fact we liked the one from Saturday SO MUCH that we went back!!

We then raced to the station for Alex to get a train in order to get back to Pisa in time for her flight back to London town...

Bye Alex!!!

It was a whirlwind weekend but SO GOOD to see Alex, a familiar face and be able to speak english solidly for three days....and not only english but Australian english!! haha...I speak english with some others at school sometimes when we dont have the words in italian but none of them are native english speakers...

So I wagged one day of school for the week...and let me tell you, I struggled big time to get back into the italian on Tuesday!!

Ci vediamo,
Jo xox

PS - Havent got around to taking photos of my new house...will do so for next blog.