CIAO SIENA!: la mia vita nella contrada civetta

As a lot of you know, I switched from an apartment to a homestay for this second semester. I’m already feeling like that was one of the best descisions I could have made.

I have to speak Italian every day, all the time, which is really helping already. I also get to catch a glimpse into real Italian life. I live with a woman named Rosanna and her son who is… forty. In Italy, he would be classified as a mammone (a mama’s boy: a boy who lives at home… forever.) Culturally, this is very common, but I feel like even culturally he might be a little old. Her other son lives a couple minutes by walk away so he comes over for dinner often also.

Rosanne explained to me the first day that she is very worried about her son. She is worried that he eats too many vegetables and needs more meat to be healthy. She said, (in Italian), “Every day, EVERY DAY he wants more vegetables! This is not good! He goes to the gym (he trains people in judo) too much! This is NOT healthy!” Almost every night at dinner they fight about his intake of some kind of food. Although actually, he is very healthy. It’s a strange/funny/interesting thing to witness.

The younger son, who is thirty, is preparing for his trip to the states to see his girlfriend. In May, his girlfriend is going to move here to Italy indefinitely. His girlfriend is the girl who lived in my room last year, studying abroad exactly like I am now. When I told this to a friend she said, “Oh my god... you’re going to fall in love with the forty year old aren’t you?” As cool as that would be, unfortunately for us all he also has a girlfriend who lives in Germany.

But really, I couldn’t have gotten more lucky with this family and house. We live exactly in the center of the city in the civetta (owl) contrada. The flat is incredibly beautiful and takes over the top floor of the apartment building. Then there is a spiral staircase and my room on the tippy top of the apartment with a terrace with a view of the duomo and the tower in the piazza. Rosanna cooks a traditional Italian meal every single night and makes me a café every morning. On top of all of that, they are just really genuinely wonderful people to be around. What I did to deserve this I do not know, but I will enjoy every moment of it!

I’ve also been very happy because for some reason Italian suddenly feels so much more comfortable and easy. I’m in the advanced Italian class this semester and feel like I’m absolutely in the right place. It’s a huge difference from how I felt at the beginning of last semester.

I spent my a lot of my first weekend hanging out with an Italian friend. It was really fun to look around at the places we were every now & then and realize that I was the only non-Italian in the entire room. I had to speak in Italian so much that my brain felt like I had just gotten out of class after a weekend with my host family and Italians. But, this is what its all about.

Best thing that has happened to me so far:
I walked through the piazza with my Italian friend when a group of my American classmates saw us. Later, one told me, “I said, ‘Hey look. There is an Italian girl who is blonde!’ Then you got closer and I said, ‘Oh wait… actually I think that’s Hannah...’” So I successfully blended in for the first time ever. This is a big accomplishment for me.

Other best thing:
They put up a frittelle stand in the piazza del campo right next to my apartment. Frittelle is a fried food kind like a hybrid between churros and beignets and they are tooo DELICIOUS. This could have also been labeled the worst thing that has happened to me because these fritelle will be the death of me.

I forgot to mention the other member of the family is Jerry, this molto grasso gatto. Here is Jerry doing what Jerry does best.

Every moring Rosanna makes me a cafe. Not too long ago, I didn't think I was a fan of straight espresso, but I love it! It has grown on me so much that I think I'll continue to make this every morning in the states. Rosanna knows I like it so much that she leaves the entire pot for me to have another cup when I'f like. She also realized how much I love oranges so the table always has a big pile of oranges. She's great!

This is my bedroom. I'm standing in the bathroom and my bed is to the left. Straight ahead is the door that leads out to the terrace and the spiral staircase going downstairs.

Here are some pictures of the duomo I took out of my bedroom window. I didn't want to go onto the terrace to take photos because it's too cold out today (about 40 degrees F). Yes, Italy has ruined me.