Submitted by Lauren Miller on the 2016 winter session program in Siena, Italy sponsored by the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures…
This week started off the same as all the others, but changed very quickly. This was our last week of school at Dante Alighieri and we got slammed with work. I had two quizzes, two presentations, my final and an oral exam. We did not get to enjoy our last week too much since we were all very focused on getting our work done. We finally finished classes on Thursday and my parents came to Italy to meet up with me for my free weekend. Friday morning, I met my parents in Florence and we went on a wine tour of Tuscany! On Saturday, we got up early and we saw the Statue of David before climbing the Duomo of Florence and the clock tower. After lunch, we went on a half-day trip to see Pisa and it’s leaning tower. On Sunday, we left early to get to Siena so I could show them my favorite city and my home for the past three weeks. We went to mass in the Duomo of Siena before seeing Dante Alighieri and going shopping for a while. My parents had lunch with my Italian grandparents and my two roommates. Somehow, even with a language barrier, they were able to make fun of me at lunch. After lunch, my parents had to catch a bus back to Florence to get on a train to Rome. We had our last meal with our host parents at 8 o’clock and it was filled with Face Timing all of our families so they could meet our Italian grandparents before we left and us crying because we didn’t want to leave. Leaving Siena was so difficult. I fell in love with this city and never want to leave it. I hope that one day, I will be able to get back to Siena to see my Italian grandparents again, but for now Facebook and Skype are going to have to be enough.