I Cavalli Della Contrada Della Chiocciola

Well, I thought I’d take pity on you all and write now, because otherwise you’d have to wait until after Palio, and that would be the world’s longest note. Also, I must tell you that it’s refreshing to be writing in English, so I don’t have to think for five minutes before every verb to make sure it’s in the right tense. Having said that, (ßlook! A passato gerundio!) I will begin the actual interesting part of this message:

First things first, after the posting of a couple threatening (tho entirely untrue) notes around the dorm threatening room searches if the missing clothes didn’t reappear, Gabi’s clothes magically turned up behind the washing machine (where we’d checked at least three times when we first realized the clothes were gone). So she has her clothes back and we have all just gotten used to having drying clothes strewn about our rooms, which gets a little soggy, but keeps them safe.

Also, the test I was afraid of? It went just as badly as I thought. But I’m over it, and I did much, much better on the one we just took, so it’s all good.

Ok, so on to the really good stuff: VENICE!!!!

We arrived in Venice at around three in the afternoon and took a watertaxi to our hotel. Everyone says Venice stinks, but I honestly never really found it smelly. It’s possible that I was just so overwhelmed visually the whole time that my nose stopped functioning in order to allow my eyes more sensory perception. (ßI am obviously in need of sleep. That sentence is absurd. Oh well, I’m going to leave it. Deal.) Anyhoo, the hotel was not quite as snazzy as the one in Rome, but it was very pretty, and Gabi and I got to room together, which was great! The first day we didn’t have anything planned until 6ish, and Gabi and I were exhausted, so we started watching some ridiculous Italian priest-as-detective show called “Matteo” I think. It was hilarious, and also was about the Palio! Unfortunately, we both accidentally fell asleep and only woke up when Edoardo called us to see where we were because everyone was waiting for us in the lobby. Oops. But I’m actually really glad that I was still half-asleep, because Guzzi had arranged a surprise Gondola ride for us, and in my dazed state, I really thought I was dreaming the whole time. It was absolutely a dream come true. I just… I’m still having a hard time realizing that it absolutely really, truly happened. Oh, and our gondola was the prettiest. It had red upholstery so the big seat looked like a heart and there were golden seahorses on the side and *sigh* I love Venice! I absolutely have to visit it again before it sinks.

The next day we had a tour of the piazza and Saint Mark’s in the morning. The piazza was slightly claustrophobic, and I think I prefer Piazza del Campo in Siena, but it was lovely. Tho covered in pigeons. Really tame pigeons. One caught my head with its wing as it targeted tourists with bread. At one point Zack and I, just because we’re cool, went running through a HUGE flock of pigeons and set them all flapping (or waddling..) away. They were surprisingly resistant to taking off, tho, and we had to sort of shuffle through them, which made the whole exercise even more ridiculous than it already was. Going in to Saint Mark’s was interesting. No one had warned us that we had to have knees and shoulders covered again, so there were some interesting hoodie-skirts that inevitably came untied half-way through the tour and had to be hurriedly re-adjusted. The church itself was really beautiful, but the poor thing just couldn’t compare to the Sistine chapel or St. Peter’s.

Yes, I did just spend more time talking about pigeons than about a famous building.

Then we toured the Doge’s palace. It’s sad, but the thing I remember most is the unbearable heat. We saw some cool things, the huge globes, the dungeons, the largest room in the world without columns supporting the roof, and the paintings in said room, including portraits of all the Doges, except the one who was a traitor, and the stairs where they used to have public executions so the heads would roll down the stairs, awesome, huh?

After the tour we saw a demonstration of how they make things out of murano glass. Way cool! I wish I could make a horse out of a glob of molten glass! Crazy. I also wish I could have bought some of the dishes or clocks, but I feel like getting them home would have been impossible.

We had the rest of the day free, so Gabi and I went shopping! It was great, because we wandered off the beaten track and ended up finding all these cool little shops that were cheaper than the stuff on the main tourist drag. I think my favorite place was this little hole-in-the-wall antique store. The owners were incredibly nice, and there was some beautiful stuff. I didn’t buy anything, but Gabi got a beautiful locket ring and an old coin and I think something else. We really wanted to buy cameos, which we later realized we should have done there because they were authentic and about half as expensive as everywhere else, but by the time we realized that, the place was closed. Sad. My other favorite store was the one with the wallets and the nicest old lady worker/owner! She was absolutely the sweetest lady ever. Oh man, I bought so many souvenirs! And if I ever have lots of extra cash to blow (key word “if”), I want to go back to Venice to spend it. After having spent most of it on my family, of course…..

The next day was free until we had to leave, and we intended to go to the Peggy Guggenheim museum, but we got sidetracked by roughly 4000 stores that we hadn’t seen the day before and ended up just barely making it back to the hotel on time.

Did I mention that I taught 3 people to play euchre? I taught 3 people to play euchre. They’re totally hooked, which makes me very happy!

We got back to Siena Sunday evening and basically unpacked and did homework.

Last Monday is hardly worth mentioning, I studied for 9 and a half hours, it was boring. But necessary.

Tuesday we had a test. It was hard, but I did better on it that any of the others, so that’s good. Then we had a Palio expert give a lecture to teach us the intricacies of Palio. I won’t bore you with them, but it was really fascinating! And essential to the fabric of society in Siena. I am absurdly excited for Palio! Oh yeah, then we visited a museum of one of the contrade, and that was mostly fun. The highlight being the adorable old bald man with the huge mustache. Seriously, I wish it wouldn’t have been incredibly weird to take a picture of this man, he was always smiling and just absolutely adorable. Hehe.

Wednesday we toured the main government building. There were three really cool frescos, one being what “good” government looks like, one being the results of “good” government, and the last being “bad” government and it’s results. It’s a little oversimplified, but I feel like George Bush could probably use the visuals, he might understand it better… ;)

Thursday we had a workshop on traditional music and dance. It was incredible. The woman had an AMAZING voice! And we learned the tarantella!!! It’s a really hilarious, fun, and easy dance! I made the unfortunate discovery, however, that I am more sketchy doing the guy’s part than Zack is, and that’s just not okay… later Thursday we all got together in the garden and drank and went to a great little club here in Siena. It was really fun until, well, some people drank a little too much and, suffice to say that I was holding up hair for the rest of the night. Not my own, however.

Needless to say, waking up for class on Friday was great! Haha.

This weekend has been very quiet. I spent all of Saturday sleeping, watching the Olympics, playing volleyball and doing gymnastics in the garden, and working on my final project. It was actually quite fun.

Yesterday I worked on my project all day. Yuck.

Then I spent all of today working on my project. Guess what I’m doing tomorrow?

A few random end things: I have two new favorite candies, Happy Hippo and Choco Rhino. They’re delicious and adorable, what more could you ask for? Plus, there’s a Happy Hippo gelato called Pippo Pippo that’s also delicious and makes me very happy.

Favre ≠ a New York Jet. What is this crap?! Not okay.

And, next time I write will probably be from Poughkeepsie!