Yep. This is Siena.Basically I love it. It's gorgeous here and I wish  BYU was here permanently. I feel like I go to the Italian version of Hogwarts. My school has courtyards and vaulted ceilings, marble stairs, and brightly colored walls, and an excellent view of the countryside. I'll post more pictures of school soon.

So today was part orientation, part classes. We got shown around a bit by Luca, the Italian Director in charge of arranging our study abroad on the Italian end.  Then we had class this afternoon for an hour and a half. Tomorrow i have cooking class and then free time. Pretty excited for it all.

So I am going to skip over the stuff we did on the weekend, because honestly they aren't particularly significant, apart from the part where we ate more gelato than was good for us, slept a lot, and I watched Roman Holiday on my last night in Rome.

This morning we woke up at 6:30, finished packing and got loaded on to the bus. We made a pit stop in Orviento where we visited the duomo, and got some lunch. Then on to Siena!!! We arrived around 3:30 in the afternoon and were picked up by our families. My friend Sharissa and I are living with a older, middle aged woman. Her son and niece were there when we arrived. They live just down the street from her. She showed us around, gave us keys, and then left to go run errands. After settling in, we decided to make the pilgrimage to an internet cafe.

Today we went to 2 more church that we have to write about for class. They are part of the counter reformation where the Catholic Church was trying to prove that it was okay to have a lot of money if you used it to help people come to God.

After the two churchs, we went to a museum with lots of statues and such. As you probably can guess a lot of them were reproductions. Surprise surprise. Several where the real thing though so that was cool :)

After the organized part of our day we went to H&M and did some shopping ate at a cute little street restaurant got some more gelato and stopped in at toy stores haha

Today we started out going to the Villa Bourghese which is a giant park with an old mansion on the top. we walked the park then went to the “house” where there is an art gallery. It was very beautiful and we saw several Bernini statues there. Those were incredible! Absolutely gorgeous and so realistic. I’m kind of in love. I think he is one of my new favorite sculptors. Then we went to the National Modern Art Museum which had many famous names. We had to take notes, to write up analyses later as homework. Then we went to a church with Bernini statues and Carravaggio paintings. They were beautiful as well. Then we were done touring for the day and headed home for a bit. Later we went out to a nice sit down place for dinner. Then we went to Giolitti's for gelato. I've been there about 4 times now. some for gelato some for other desserts. Altogether I've been to four places for gelato and I have tried 7 flavors. One girl in the group has tried 18 flavors.

Today we walked through the rain, stood in the rain, and waited in the rain. In between all of this rain we saw The St. Paul Basilica called St. Paul Outside the Wall. It was amazing. Cavernous ceilings and an endless nave. We also saw the cloister where they  have a monastery. Afterwards we hiked through the rain to the catacombs and saw those. It was a bit creeping, very interesting, and made you grateful not to be an early Christian.

Afterward we waited for an hour in the rain at the bus stop. It was late but we did eventually make it back home soaking wet. During our long wait a giant caravan of official looking embassy type cars drove past with a police escort and a helicopter escort. I don’t know what happened but it must have been important.

Today we went to the St. Peter in Chains church. We saw the chains that held peter captive, as well as the tomb of Pope Julius designed by Michealangelo. Then we went to a different church with Carravaggio paintings. We had to write notes about the painting as part of class which we will use to write up an analysis of the piece of work. Then we headed to Piazza Navonna talked about the fountain there and then split up for the day. We went to the shopping district and saw a few things then came home for the night.

We went to Tivoli and Villa d’Este, a small city outside of Rome, out in the country. We took the train there. Saw the beautiful gardens there. and wrote about how they realated to paradise and the garden of Eden for one of our classes

Can I just nerd out for a bit?
I rode a train. On September 1st. Does that ring any bells?
If you don't know what I mean, just think about it for a while.

                                           I interrupt our usually broadcasting schedule to bring you this vital update:
                                                                           I FOUND A GROCERY STORE!!!

Isn't it beautiful? Up until this point I had only been able to find little markets and specialized shops, and now I know the truth. I have found the light! Thanks goodness someone realized that Europe needed a version of Walmart