Submitted by William Voges on the 2019 winter session study abroad program in Siena, Italy sponsered by the Department of Languages, Literatures & Cultures…
This last week has made me realize how quickly this program was flying by, I felt like it would be over before I knew it. I spent more time this week trying to maximize every opportunity. I went into every building and museum I could, I wanted to make the most out of it. I went inside the museum of medieval torture; it was very interesting. I also went inside several contrada musuems. Siena is broken up into 17 contradas, these are kind of like boroughs, or mini neighborhoods within the city. The contradas are mainly about community pride. You eat sleep and breathe your contrada. My host family was in the Contrada della Giraffa (Contrada of the giraffe) and in the house there were countless giraffe figurines, giraffe print art, and Contrada flags. It’s very unique to Siena, and it all leads up to their twice annual Palio, a horse race in which each contrada has a horse, and whichever contrada wins gets to brag about it for the next year, and trust me, they do. The contradas are so deep in their culture, that if a husband and wife were both born in two different rival contradas, during the time of the horse race, the husband moves out until the hype surrounding the race is over. They live for this race.
