Day Three - Rome to Siena

Day three of my trip, from Rome to Siena

June 9th 

12am Italy

What a day!!!!! Liz and I woke up early again. Got our two small buns and jam for breakfast and then headed to the spanish steps. We were right on top of them yesterday and somehow we completely missed them. So we went back this morning so that we could actually see them, and walk up them. It was a success. Then went back to our hotel room to kill some time before we had to catcht he train to Siena. We left our hotel at 11:30am and walked to Termini Station to catch our 12:45 train to Siena. We got to the station around noon, and we ate lunch there, and waited for the board to tell us which platform to catch our train. We caught our train on platform 1E which was a much longer walk than I was expecting. We thought that we might run into some other students from our program on the train, but we didn’t see anyone until we had to transfer in Chiusi. We took the tarin with them the rest of the way to Siena, but we didn’t really talk to them because they were sitting behind us, and one of the girls was chatting up an Italian guy. HA! (rolls eyes!) The train ride was pretty uneventful otherwise. We got to see all of the countryside which was so beautiful. We rode through this rocky areas - like rocky hills -  and had to go through tunnels about every 5 - 10 minutes or so. the tunnels were uncomfortable because they put this weird kind of pressure on our ears that kinda hurt a bit. (So after the 3rd tunnel, I was pretty done with tunnels, especially at a rate of one tunnel per 5 - 10 minutes!).

We finally arrived at the Siena train station at 16:30 (they use army time a lot here) and there were a clear group of people sitting around in a circle signing back and forth. So I went and joined the group, and met some of the other students, and got my Italian phone. We all got a welcome package with a map of Siena, a bus pass, a paper with a desctiption of our host family, and some other random things. Then we just all waited around chatting until our host family came to pick us up. I discovered that my roomate is Farah, the only other Canadian who a I met a month before this trip when she stopped in Toronto on her way to backpack around europe before this trip. I was pretty happy to be paired with her because I already knew her, and we have this Canadian bond! We were the second last group to leave the train station, and we didn’t even get picked up by our host family. We actually ended up taking a taxi to our house with one of the school staff (not because our host family forgot, or didn’t want to come get us, but because of the following description). We arrived at a beautiful new condo, and walked in to a sweet old woman, and her old husband who live with their cat, Pippo, and their son, Allessandro who has a vision impairment. They don’t speak a lick of English, and it has been WAY TOO much fun getting to know each other. We have just been laughing all night as I flip through my Italian - English dictionary, and Farah and I stumple over one word sentences. I cannot believe how much Italian I have learned in ONE night. Amazing amounts! The woman, Emma is so funny!!! She just laughs at us, and mimicks Farah because everytime Farah thinks she understands what someone is saying she says, “oh oh oh oh oh!!” And then the woman will point and laugh and say, “oh oh oh oh oh!” and then I start laughing at them both because its just such a funny situation. 

Alessandro showed us around the neighbourhood, where we could catch the bus, and what not. And then we came home and were fed a fantastic home cooked italian meal! Beggining with a pasta and meat dish, and then pork roast, and peas with bacon in it. We had a gelato drumstick for dessert...yummy! Then we chatted the night away until 23:30, laughing, and working through choppy phrases. I’m exhausted from thinking so hard about what each italian word could possibly mean for the past 4 hours straight. I think I’m going to be further along in Italian by the end of this trip than I thought I would be.