nothing is too wonderful to be true.

I ended my study abroad program on Wednesday and welcomed my wonderful family to Italy on Thursday.  After their stressful arrival into Siena, carrying my massive suitcases down 99 steps, and and long windy roady to our Villa in San Gennaro I was finally able to appreciate seeing my parents and welcoming them to my new home. We are staying in the most beautiful house of a friend-of-our-family and travelling around Tuscany while catching up on the last four months.  On Friday my second family, The Hanson’s arrived and we celebrated by walking through Florence to the top of the city where Michelangelo Park is providing us a great view of the city. We drink wine and ate paninos and while enjoying our first evening together in Italy.  Today we were able to visit the cities of Cinque Terra which were hit by a mudslide less than a year ago. Though some of the cities were still in shambles, you are able to see the beauty that once was there. The people have come together to rebuild and remain a family of sorts. Being in the sun and walking along the coast reminded me of home and being at the beach with my friends:), something I can’t wait to do! The rest of the week consists of Rome, Venice, Siena, and anywhere else we may find ourselves. 

howdoiputthisgently: I WAS LIKE: Truth.

minnesota-life:

Today is my LAST day. LAST weekend was my final adventure. I traveled to Germany to visit my friend Sayf and his family. I forgot what it was like to be around my friends from home and it just made me more excited to get home and spend time with them. Germany was more beautiful than I can explain and that’s partly because Sayf and his family welcomed me into their lives and made my time there so worthwhile. I saw REAL castles and one of the first Lutheran churches in Germany as well as some wonderful German nightlife:) LAST family dinner. Sunday my roommates and I prepared our last “family dinner” together. We made a feast of all of our favorite foods and laughed about all the craziness that had happened at that table over the semester. I am pretty sure there were tears in my spaghetti. LAST exam. This week I took my final exams and today is my LAST final, LAST class, LAST walk to IES. LAST time seeing my professors who made school bearable. LAST night I went to dinner with some of my best friends at our favorite restaurant. We filled our stomachs with wine and good food and our hearts with better memories. It was also our LAST night out in Siena, we went out to karaoke and sang like it was our job. LAST song. LAST vodka lemon. LAST drunk walk home. Today is my LAST DAY. It will be spent in the Campo with my friends, drinking wine, eating gelato and probably crying as we reminisce on the past four months of what has been some of the best times of our lives. We have our FAREWELL dinner tonight with all of IES and from there many of us plan to lay in the Campo until the sun comes up. Though today is my LAST day in Siena I can only hope that it will not be my LAST time in this place. My experience here has been more than a blessing and I hope that I can be blessed again in the future to come back and enjoy the same wonders that made me fall in love in the first place.

I am officially down to two weeks left in my program here in Siena. Very bittersweet.  In the last week I have taken a final, written a 10 page paper on immigration and racism in Italy, visited the Uffizi art gallery in Florence, watched my first Italian film, went to a Siena soccer game, climbed a mountain to Fiesole, sang karaoke with my Italian professors and cried a small amount knowing I will soon have to leave this incredible place.  Over the weekend I visited with a friend of a friend from MPLS. Her name is Michele and she is a former Auggie who fell in LOVE with Italy in the same way I have. She now currently lives in Florence in the most WONDERFUL neighborhood with her husband whom she met here while studying a few years ago. She showed me places in Florence I had not yet been able to ADMIRE and opened my eyes to new small TREASURES. Her and her husband Leif welcomed me into their home with the most delicious meal and introduced me to FISH, which until Friday I had never been a fan of. Michele and I ventured up to Fiesole, a small town outside of Florence that sits above the whole city. Along the way we basked in the sunshine and discussed the many reasons that we both ADORE this place called Italia and she gave me much needed advice on my transition home. It was truly a BLESSING as well as much needed time away. Back in Siena the city prepared for Santa Caterina day. Flags lined the streets, the sound of drums echoed on every wall and people gathered in the campo to see the parade of the contradas AND the relic (the thumb) of Santa Caterina!!!! I have never experienced something so MAGICAL. All 17 contradas, dressed in full medieval uniform carried the flags and played a unique rhythmic tone on their drum as they marched to the Campo where many more people awaited including lots of important people that I don’t know. I listened for awhile to the officials talking in Italian and just admired the SPLENDOR, when my ears catch the words “Cardinal of Siena”… I was in the mist of a REAL Cardinal!!! Not the bird of course, but from the Vatican himself, a cardinal. I was in AWE. He gave a prayer for the city of Siena and it’s people and then was handed the relic of Santa Caterina and blessed the city with the thumb and his word. I had been blessed by a Cardinal by the Saint of Siena’s thumb….. needless to say I was freaking out!!!  Talk about the best afternoon ever. A few more speeches, a drumroll or two and the departure of all the contradas and just like that the campo went back to it’s usual business.  I enjoyed dinner with my roommate Charlotte, got gelato with her and Mario and sat in the campo under the stars and talked about the EXCITEMENT we all experienced. I laid down and looked up at Palazzo Publico which was adorned with candles and how perfectly it fit into the sky and I knew in that one moment that Siena had indeed stolen my heart and getting it back would be more than difficult, but that’s ok because my heart and I don’t mind staying.