Inspired by http://foodporndaily.com/, a site dedicated to like-minded people who's taste buds govern much of their daily life, I am posting pictures from a meal we had recently in Pienza. Get ready to food-gasim.

A ricotta and zucchini filled crepe with roasted tomatoes. The crepe itself was so delicate it literally melted in your mouth and along with the warm ricotta and tomatoes - magnifico.

Italian eggplant parmigiano - not breaded but pan fried with fresh pomodoro sauce (tomato sauce) and melted cheeses. Sweet potato/squash muffin with some sort of grainy aspect, like corn meal. Roasted potatoes with rosemary and greens.

White chocolate mousse with warmed berries and pomegranate seeds. Soooo rich...soooo good.

The beautiful artwork that lined the insides of the villa's garden. Molto bella.

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All of this food has inspired my daily cooking as well. In an attempt to save money - and stop myself from eating pizza at every meal - I have been cooking in a lot. And with such fresh and local ingredients, I would be crazy not to be cooking myself gourmet meals every day.

At this very moment I am eating a salad with: sundried tomatoes, mozzarella, chicken, roasted potatoes, zucchini and red bell peppers in a pesto sauce and drizzled with oil and balsamic. From the mouth and mind of Jenny McClelland, "nom nom nom".

The song we are teaching all of the Italians....along with the dance moves.

This morning Mackenzie and I decided to wake up early and explore more of Siena. We started at 9:30 and took almost three hours to walk along side the walls of the city. There are a lot of entrances or portas into the city and we tried to see every one.

We also got hit by a car and then gestured at because obviously...it was our fault. But it resulted in no major injuries and we were left to walk down ancient walled steps and up extremely steep cobblestone streets. We saw some of the many churches in Siena and stumbled upon one where it was recess for an elementary school. Seeing and listening to them made me realize that the books they are reading right now, even those are way over my current italian language level.

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Side note if you are into mythology: Siena was founded by Senius who was the son of Remus whose brother Romulus founded Rome. If you know the story of the she-wolf, what is interesting is that word in ancient times was synonymous with prostitute. So taking the story out of it's mythological context - they were abandoned by their parents and raised by a prostitute.

Another side note: picking of the horses for the Palio is happening in the next month or so. I'm in the unicorn contrada so let's hope we are in it. Apparently bribery and betting is allowed so me and some Italian grandpas are going to be discussing strategy soon.

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At one point we saw a flicker of water and realized we had somehow found our way to one of the first aqueducts of the city. Between seeing the thousand year old stones that built that aqueduct and gazing up at each porta's statues and ordainments I realized how my life is such a flicker in time. If you conceptualize time as a flowing ribbon - which I learned in philosophy most Western civilizations do, although many other parts of the world think of time extremely differently - than my life is a dot.

I'm walking streets older than we can imagine

and I'm walking them because I'm trying to make my dot

the most interesting and exciting dot that it can be.

I just found out today that my apartment building is 600 years old. Reason #1,20092384 I love Italy.

Venezia and Tuscany

Last Friday me and the other 14 people in AHA - only one guy - set out for our first group excursion into the Tuscan landscape. Our first stop was the mezzadria museum, a museum dedicated to showing the original sharecropping economy of Tuscany. It is set inside an old farm house and we learned about the relationship of landowner to farmer and with the typical farmer's household. It was fascinating to learn that sharecropping may not have as many negative effects as I once believed. Although it is very contextual, this system worked for many years in Tuscany and still has it's traces in today's economic system. I made sure to photograph an old wine press so my whole family can appreciate technology.

Our next stop was the beautiful small town of Pienza where we visited a parmigiano regaino factory. The relationship of dairies to cheese factories to aging firms is incredible and most of it is built on strong relationships of trust and dedication to a fine product. The town of Pienza itself has one of the most gorgeous views I've seen yet. The rolling hills of green look like they are made out of play dough and the trees alongside the lonely roads look perfectly formed from a distance - dotting the landscape like they were painted there.

The tour of the cheese factory was led by an amazing man; he became paralyzed from the waste down after a motorcycle accident four years ago and has traveled to America and many other places after the accident to prove to himself he was capable. He - like most Italians - was quick witted and had a dry sense of humor. After pestering him with questions I became known as 'clever girl' in a long drawn out Italian style southern accent. We got to sample cheeses aged from just a month to years and some flavored with truffles and hazelnuts (Italy is a large world producer of hazelnuts).

I personally liked the cheeses aged for longer and some of the parmigiano that was around 3 years old tasted like my parent's favorite cheese Manchego. We taught the man a popular American dance - Teach Me How to Dougie - in our ridiculous sanitary outfits we had to wear and got his information so we will be sending him pictures and what not. He was so great and I know he will be a nice contact to have for a while.

From there we went for a quick stop to Montalcino to visit an enoteca and fortezza or a wine shop and an ancient fortress. The view from the top of the fortress was outstanding as was every view we saw in Tuscany that day.

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The next day we left for Venezia or Venice for an overnight excursion. The 6 hour bus ride was an eventful one. The ride just to Bologna where we switched buses was the windiest I have ever been on. I had brought lunch with me and at one point when I was asleep my can of tuna flew out of my hands only to hit the other side of the bus - which sounded like a gun shot - which is good because I was two seconds away from following my tuna can.

We arrived in Venice and were greeted with sunshine reflecting off of the water and the vibrant colors of the houses mesmerized me. I easily took 50 pictures of just houses and their various colors.

The peeling of the ancient and water logged paint created beautiful backgrounds for modern graffiti, which was beautiful in its own way. Below are Bellini's - Venice's famous drink that wasn't that great.

Just as we were reaching a 5 hour lost-just-keep-walking point and debating getting a gondola ride just to get back to our hostel we found a group of kids our age also in the cracker isle at the grocery. We started talking and before we knew it, three of us girls were in a gondola with some Italians and for the next 6 hours we talked politics, pop culture, taught them bad words, they taught us bad words, and only left the gondola to order pizza. We got to see the real Venice; not the tour of the canals the gondola drivers have down to a T accompanied by funny english banter, but canals up to their houses and canals that you can only go through if you lay down on the boat and canals with only street lights lighting our way and canals that led into huge bustling squares. It was a great night, an unforgettable night.

One of the funniest things about the trip was the amount of signs for their famous square: San Marco's.

Italian Pop Music

This is a popular Italian pop singer: Fabri Fibra with his most popular song right now. Its everywhere!

Puffy Coats and Jogging Polos

I really can't believe I have forgotten to mention all of the strange/weird/quirky things I've encountered here.

1. Puffy Coats - this is a trend that has us all baffled because to us it is SO HOT. After asking our Italian teacher why everyone stared at us when we weren't wearing coats we got the explanation. Italians dress according to the season, not necessarily the weather; because it is spring time here, they are wearing giant coats. It makes me feel better to know they are probably sweating just as much as me.
2. Really Ugly Puffy Coats - the sheer fact it's a giant puff coat isn't enough. They must be some sort of metallic color and if the sleeves zip off (because summer season is right on spring's heels) that is preferred.
3. Graphic T's - there are more Simpson's, Hello Kitty and Levi shirts here combined than in America and Asia (as a joint union)!
4. Running in nice clothing - the Fortezza or fortress is an ancient structure where most of Siena does their working out. It is a little less than a mile around the top and I still can't seem to figure out the direction people go. I always seem to be going the opposite. Combine that with my Nike gear and ciao, sono americana (hello, I'm american.) People like to run in velour track suits - again with the its blazing hot here people?! - and polos.

Despite all of this I love Italians. No where else in the world could you get "I don't know, maybe, sure, or perhaps" as an answer to almost any question any time of day. There is saying that in Italy, time is a gentleman or being late by 45 minutes really isn't that big of a deal. When I stress about getting things done and being on time I get a strange look and then someone tells me:

relax.

Aperitivo

Theme of the trip:

"don't hold back"

Tonight we had our first aperitivo experience. We got a drink for around 5 euro and then took many trips to the buffet where there were two pastas and little bite sized pizzas. One of the girls here is on this kick to not have gelato or pizza for a week...I personally think she is clinically insane.

We got gelato on the way home. Banana - which literally tastes like a banana, not like that gross laffy taffy stuff - and chocolate with nuts.

Cinque Terre

Me and four of the girls on our trip had the grand adventure of traveling to the West coast of Italy this last weekend to visit Cinque Terre which, in Italian, means five lands. It is a group of five coastal cities that are connected by various trails. We got onto the train at 9 am from Siena - not fun - and after switching in Empoli found ourselves in a car with four other American students: three guys from Wisconsin and 1 from Michigan. They had been studying in Florence for three months and were going to Cinque Terre as well.

When we got off the train in Monterosso we were greeted with bright blue oceans and beaches. We checked into our hostel and convinced the guys - who were only going to stay the day - to just plop on our extra bed. That night I slept on a king size bed with 4 other girls...we're getting cozy real fast.

We sat on the beach for a while and when we got hungry - which is 10x more often than back in the states - we searched the back streets of Monterosso and ended up finding the best meal of my stay in Italy thus far. We ordered a spicy muscle dish for the antipasti and ended up literally drinking the broth out of a ladle.

They were the best muscles I have ever had and the spicy broth they were in was the most flavorful and rich one I've had the privilege of tasting. This area - of Genova - is known for their pesto and so it was pesto ravioli that I got. The pesto tasted like it had been made three seconds before smothering my ravioli in it. I ate everything on my plate and then helped some other people. Even the bread that came with the meal was scrumptious so when the pasta ran out, I ate the rest of my pesto with the bread.

One of the guys from Wisconsin is almost fluent in Italian and with all of our gestures (and limited Italian) combined with his language skills we were able to communicate to the restaurant owner that it was the best meal ever. He invited us back for more the next day!

Unfortunately when we woke up, the main trail between the inner three cities was blocked due to rock slides. We got advice to take an alternative trail and even though it looked difficult we said yes. Little did we know it would be straight up hill for almost an hour. But then again, after that meal, maybe it wasn't a bad thing.

It was all worth it though when we got to the top and looked out over Monterosso and the Italian coast line. Pictures don't do it justice so I won't try with words either.

We have determined that we are living a "post card life".

We took a train to the last city so we could do the famous Via dell'Amore or the walk of love. Couples traditionally bring a lock and key with them and on this segment of the hike they lock the lock to the railing and throw the key into the ocean. The story goes that when this trail between the cities was built the residents were thrilled because they finally had access to each other. This specific spot was ameeting place for lovers who would graffiti proof of their love on the trail's walls and railings. A traveling journalist noticed the graffiti and coined the term, the walk of love.

Although I wasn't with a romantic other and we didn't have any locks, that trip with four of my best girl friends here and four new friends from the train, was one of the best of my life.

We said our goodbyes to the boys and made our way back to Siena,still dreaming about those muscles. On the bus ride into downtown Siena we met a traveler from England that we helped get to a hostel and then went out with us that night. We also met someone studying here from New York.

The people you meet when you are traveling always will have a special place in your heart. There is an unsaid connection when you experience something as thrilling and sometimes scary as traveling together. The girls on this trip that I have traveled with I am already extremely close to and I know we will just get closer. Even those guys - Paul, Luke, Devon and Jason - I will always remember. I'm looking forward to future travels now and the amazing people I'm going to be meeting.

Two Cultures

Today we had our class "Food, Farming and a Sense of Place" and we spent our time exploring the market in Siena that is held every Wednesday morning. The sheer amount of different meats and cheeses was astonishing and that was before I saw all of the seafood, vegetables, fried foods, roasting chickens and kabobs - which I devoured. The beauty of the varying colors and textures and smells and tiny elderly people pushing me out of the way to get their food was wonderful. There is no such thing as a line in Italy; there is the first person and the mob behind them where you must push and shove to survive. The strangeness of men half my size and three times my age elbowing me in the ribcage is wearing off.

Yet with all of these romantic images of Italy, it makes me wonder: what really is my impact on Italy as a tourist and as an American? I learned in Thailand the importance of responsible tourism and those theories have me thinking here as well. The fun, food and goods I seek and how/when/where I seek them have a tremendous impact on their economy. This romanticized "other" that so many Americans seek when they travel, well is it really the version we have concocted in our novels and films? Or do we only experience the predetermined experience we seek? Its difficult living in this place, not just visiting, because I am straddling a line of two cultures. On one had, I want the sensation filled experience I have read about yet is that the true, authentic experience of Italy? And how does my being here affect Italy as a country, Siena as a city and Italians as people?

yummy waffles

Firenze

Spent a weekend exploring Siena and Florence - Firenze in Italian - and getting acquainted with our new Tuscan world.

Friday we set out to get lost, which in Siena isn't hard. Our perpendicular streets with alphabetized street orderings are a thing of the past. Living on "High" street in Eugene, I had learned to notice familiar houses as landmarks rather than street signs and the same goes here. I know coming back from the school and Conad - the big grocery store - when you see the modern gelato place on the right and then this really really cute pair of boots in a store window on the left you turn left. Lets hope those boots never get sold.

We walked along the wall which gave us a beautiful view into the agricultural lands outside of the walls. I'm still amazed at the amount of vineyards I see dotting the landscape. I see a plot here, a plot there which makes me wonder how it is organized? Does each family in the country have their own plot? I am used to seeing our own vineyards that are confined and obviously belong to just us, or King Estate's sheer mass of vineyards. We found a poster advertising a 35 euro wine tasting bus tour with four cities around Siena. We will probably be on this trip with middle aged British couples - the most popular tourists here currently - but we are thinking about it in order to attempt to understand their rich history with wine.

As we were walking around we noticed two younger boys following us. Every corner we took they seemed to be there. Because we don't know Italian, my genius idea was to say Ciao. Granted this was supposed to be a sassy goodbye, a hint that we didn't want them there. But alas, I forgot ciao was like aloha, it also means hello. This prompted them to follow us around for even longer and my friends have appointed me NOT in charge of the cross cultural connections for now.

Its been so sunny here we are exhausted at the end of each day from walking around for hours. We woke up early though on Saturday and went to Florence which is about an hour bus ride. Stepping off the bus you immediately feel a buzz in the air. The vibe is completely different from Siena which is smaller, more relaxed and less international. It was exciting to be there and we will be going back a lot on the weekends but we all agreed, Siena is our home.

The markets in Florence were wonderful. There were many merchants selling bruschetta toppings, jams, and olive oil and I was happy to taste test each one. The most popular stands were those for leather goods such as wallets, purses and jackets. Scarves and pottery were also all over the market. The market stands were often right outside of the actual store and with the approximity of all of the food, all you smell is leather and italian cooking. Delicious.

We wandered in Florence as well and found ourselves on a beautiful bridge overlooking a not so beautiful river. As we were taking pictures some Italian boys hopped in. They think we are the funniest creatures and often tell us we look like Britney Spears which is not the greatest image of America we were hoping to exude. We found a looking out designated for couples - one of many - because Italy is meant for couples. Everywhere we go romance and love are the main themes and the undercurrent of every city is sensation.

We found a plaza where people were laying down and sunbathing. With a nearby grocery store to supply us with Heineken, an ancient water fountain supplying us with water and our 5 euro sit-down lunch of pizza and salad, we were and all elevens out of tens. But to be honest, its hard not to be happy in Italy. We soaked up the sun for a while and walked back to the train station. Along the way we got coffee gelato and then we saw a waffle stand selling waffles coated in nutella, so we got those too. Our motto here is don't hold back which means I'll be getting new (and bigger) jeans soon.