Our group has been in Italy for a week now and I have loved every minute of it. Every city, every tour, every meal and everyone I have met has been amazing and truly is making this the experience of a lifetime. Touring Rome and Florence and seeing the architecture, art and culture has been eye-opening, and now living with an Italian family in Siena has just been reinforcing the language and culture.
My roommates and I are living with an older, retired woman named Silvana who is the sweetest. She is always willing to talk to us about our day, answer questions about Italy and her life, help us with homework and teach us Italian. So far, a couple of things have stood out to me while living in Italy. The first is that the food is amazing.
At home, I am a very picky eater, but here I have tried and loved everything! My favorite dish so far has been la pasta carbonara, which is pasta in an egg sauce with pancetta bacon. In Italy, they also eat more courses during dinner than we do in the United States. For example, dinner usually starts with antipasto with food like cheese, salami, and bruschetta. Then we have a pasta dish, like pasta with pesto. Then we have a meat dish usually consisting of chicken or pork with vegetables.
Then we have potatoes, salad and sometimes fruit. Finally, we end with dessert like i biscotti which are Italian cookies. By the time all of us finish all of this food we are all stuffed and ready to take a nap! I also feel this experience is unique because most of the students I am travelling with know little to no Italian, whereas I have been learning it for almost ten years.
I think this a unique and helpful opportunity because I get to speak Italian to people like our host mom, but then I also get to translate between my friends and the people speaking Italian. This is not only helping the other students learn, but me as well, so I am very appreciative of the opportunity. Lastly, I am appreciating the history and culture this country has. I have never liked learning history, however, being here is a different story. In fact, in middle school art class, I painted the Pantheon for an art class and to see the monument now in person is crazy.
