Ciao tutti!

Hey guys,

So this is theoretically a place for the members of who want to share shenanigans and adventures all over the Continent. Welcome.

I don't leave for quite a bit yet, but I would like to say how excited I am to go to SIENA, ITALY. I'm an Italian major-- it makes sense that I should be so excited, but I'm truly looking forward to an excellent summer that will allow me to have fun while simultaneously improving my Italian. Also, the amount of people who I know are coming to this highly estimable city is exciting-- so many!

I'm taking the L5 Course offered in Siena: The Florentine Renaissance, taught by Giuseppe Mazzota, chair of the Dept and general badass. From what I've seen of him and my six person class, it's going to be amazing and awesome and extremely educational. We'll be reading several things in their original language, and discussing various themes of the Renaissance as it happened in Florence, even though we're in Siena. Siena and Florence (or Firenze) have been rivals for centuries, and this is still manifest in the 1.5 hour drive between cities that should actually take 45 minutes, but no one wants to go to the other city. Ah, Italians. How I love them.

Siena itself is an ancient city-- it retains the look and feel of its medieval heyday. It's pretty much between Rome and Milan, in Tuscany, not terribly far from Florence or Pisa. It has no cars, as its streets are too small for them, and it's home to roughly the first half of Nemerov's intro Art History course. I'll be around in it during its most famous moment-- the Palio. The Palio is a horserace between all the different neighborhoods, or contrade, of Siena, that is the culmination of days' worth of flag tossing, feasting, and generally having a good time.

In any case, it looks to be a great summer for all of us!