Casato

My new apartment, Casato di Sotto, is just a stone’s throw from the Piazza del Campo— the large central square in Siena. Entering from the street you must pass through both a decorative iron gate and a stone courtyard to reach our front door. Number 15, citofono (doorbell) Sguerri, “Casato” is where we call home. The apartment is huge and sharing with three roommates is a nothing like the nightmare quads of Thurston. Everyone has a space to disappear into. To describe the setup I would use the American term “split-level”. If you go down the marble (yes, marble) stairs it leads to a spacious living room, bathroom, and small kitchen. Upstairs one finds the three bedrooms—two singles and a double plus another full bath. John, our director, tells us that these apartments are certainly not the typical living space for students at the university. Actually when I came to Siena with the Aielli &Benevento group this summer, our tour guide Elena used the façade of one of the IES apartments as an example while talking about the development of the city.

My room is very spacious. There are high ceilings crafted of the traditional brick with wooden beams running across—like the rest of the apartment is designed. The furniture is beautiful-- old wood-crafted pieces with marble tops. However these pieces are oddly mixed in with IKEA desks and lamps. It is quite eclectic. The best part, however, is a wonderful double shutter window that when leaning out you can glimpse the tower in il Campo.

I share my room with una compagna di stanza. Her name is Lauren and she is from Nebraska. Interestingly enough, her twin sister, Catherine, went to GW for two years during which, we had a class together. I’ve certainly felt the reality of the phrase “it’s a small world”. My other roommate is Julia. She is from the Chicago suburbs. It has been nice to meet people from different parts of the US. Finally, we have one Italian “RA”. Alice (pronounced Al-ee-chay) is an intern for IES and also attends the University of Siena. She is twenty and comes from northern Italy around Milano. I am fortunate to have an Italian roommate. With Alice and the other two student interns, Anna and Mariapena (“Mapi”), I can really practice my Italian.

The electrical situation is quite interesting in Italy. You have to be very careful that not too many appliances are plugged in and running at the same time or you’ll be in complete darkness. In the US everyone is “going green”, but in Italy conservation is not something they have to think twice about. Resources are not as abundant therefore it is second nature that lights are never turned on if not needed, laws strictly regulate recycling, clothes dryers are not found in homes, and of course too many electrical appliances running at once means a blackout. We even have a crawl space in our bathroom where there are lines to hang our clean laundry to dry.

So I’m learning to adjust and with that of course bring many positives. There may not be air conditioning but we have been sleeping with our window open and the breeze feels wonderful. You quickly learn how spoiled we are in the US. Often times we take for granted many of our modern day conveniences.