The Adventures of Two Pregnant Women, a Toddler and Myself

The graduate students had a three day field trip to northern Lazio and southern Tuscany this past weekend. On Friday, they went to Caprarola and Bagnaia, on Saturday, Pienza and Montepulciano and Sunday, Siena.

Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola

Villa Lante in Bagnaia

Papal Palace in Pienza

Montepulchiano

The wives of the students could not let the husbands have all the fun so we trekked up to Siena to met them. Since the program does not welcome the wives on trips not even for the bus rides, we had to find our own transportation. Figuring out how to get to the different towns, deciding not to go to all of them because of the amount of transfers and the organizing of all of the travel details took us a few days to do. Judy, Mercedes and I decided that we would travel by train on Saturday to Siena exploring the city until the husbands arrived Saturday evening then leave Sunday evening.

While George and the other husbands were on the field trip on Friday, we enjoyed leisurely walking around Roma, popping into shops, eating gelato and visiting San Agostino. George enjoyed the toy shops we went into and then slept for a good chunk of the afternoon luckily missing out on the shopping.

This is the leather store near our apartment that I have been in quite a few time to drool over their stuff. One of the ladies loves little George. Every time I walk in she remembers us and asks how Georgie is doing. (She knows his name.)

Our Lady of Childbirth at San Agostino

A famous toy shop near the Pantheon in which there are Pinocchios of all sizes. I bought George's first souvenir here!

At 6:30 am on Saturday, we headed towards the Ponte Sisto to hail a taxi (we got it in about a minute!) to take us to Termini. In Termini, we had a little difficulty figuring out the train system. Getting the tickets was easy but deciphering the ticket and knowing whether or not to validate it was a whole other story. It was at this point I was thinking if only we were in the States this would be so much easier. There would be signs everywhere explaining this in every language under the sun and there would be clear cut rules to follow. We finally figured it all out with the assistance of the information booth attendent and a female cop which were little adventures in and of themselves.

In Italy there is no such thing as a line, one must be aggressive and go where you want to go regardless of other people. So as a person used to lines, I tend to be at a disadvantage. Also in the States, I normally view cops as people who can help someone and being a woman, I normally go to the male cops because they tend to be nicer to me than female ones. So using that previous experience when needing help in Termini, I approached two male cops. They could not have been less helpful. They kept talking to each other until I loudly said "Scuisi" and when I asked my question the best I could in Italian/ gestures, they basically waved me off. Finally a female cop came up to me and helped me. Previous experience in the States will not always help me out here!

At the start of the train ride, the four of us had a whole compartment to ourselves but about haft way on our first train a younger Italian man came up to us and told us that we were in his and friend's seats. We tried to say that we did not think there were assigned seats and even if there was would he mind sitting in the many other available seats. But no he was very insistent that these were his seats and he must have them so he kicked two pregnant women, a toddler and myself out of the seats and the compartment. Is chivalry dead in Italy? And on this note, in Rome and while traveling we have encountered many stairs. In order to get up or down them, I hold the heaviest end while Judy or Mercedes (both pregnant and visibly so) grab the other. Only one man the entire time I have been here has asked if he could help us!

On to more pleasant things to share... Giorgio loved the train! We read one of his favorite books "Freight Train". I am not sure he realized that we were reading about a train on a train but he seem to be excited about the whole experience anyway.

Our navigator, no wonder we got lost later on ;P

We arrived in Siena around 1 pm and we all sighed with relief. It was not as bad as any of us had imagined and now that we have taken the trains it should make it easier for next time. We walked to our hotel, checked in and got to the room to freshen up. While freshening up, Giorgio got a bloody nose and in order to stop it I pinned him down, Judy squeezed his nose and Mercedes tried to distract him so he would stop screaming.  Thank you God for friends who are willing to help and to a child who consistently makes life interesting!

While in Siena we literally saw most of the city. We went to San Domenico, to Catherine of Siena's home, went into over a dozen ceramic stores, to the Campo and to the Duomo.

San Domenico

Duomo taken from outside of San Domenico

One of my favorite moments was eating gelato in the Campo while little George was napping (if he is awake then I have to share my gelato).

Around 6 pm, we heard that the bus the student's were on had broken down so they were delayed. Knowing that news we decided to stay out in the city. So we rested a little at a cafe and then we went on to explore more shops. When we began to gradually make our way back to the hotel, we ended up getting turned around twice and thus accidentally explored the rest of Siena.

When the husbands arrived, we headed out to lovely dinner to celebrate Judy's birthday! Giorgio was great! He had slept during much of the walking around Siena so he ended up staying up quite late!

I recreated two dishes that we had at dinner a few days after we got back from Siena. I made an appetizer of pecorino cheese, crisp pears and honey then the main dish was steak, arugula and tomatoes tossed in balsamic and pecorino cheese on top. George bought the cheese in Pienza (home of Pecorino cheese) for me as a nice surprise!

On Sunday, George, Giorgio and I headed out after breakfast slowly making our way to the Duomo for mass. We had been told mass was at 11am at the Duomo but it ended up being in the church on the opposite side of the piazza, Santa Maria della Scala. I was a little disappointed since I wanted to go to mass at the Duomo again (we had gone when we had first arrived in Italy.) But it was great to be introduced to this gem of a church as it is easy to ignore it when the magnificent Duomo is right there.

The fresco over the high altar is Santa Maria della Scala

After mass, we walked towards the Campo going into shops, grabbing lunch at a neat little formaggio/ salumerie shop and then spending time appreciating our surrounding in the Campo.

Around 2 pm, George went to meet his classmates and professor at the Duomo for a tour and I went to meet Judy and Mercedes at the hotel in order to head to the train station. Our train ride back to Roma was uneventful. We all enjoyed resting our legs after all the walking and seeing beautiful Tuscany go by. Georgie especially enjoyed the sights outside the train. At times, he vigorously pointed outside and talked very passionately. Wish I could know what he was so excited about!

Giorgio and I enjoyed our adventures with Judy and Mercedes and are looking forward to many more to come! The next field trip the students are going on is to Venice, Vincenza, Ferrara and Florence! The wives are planning on tagging along. We have been also talking about taking a day trip to Assisi soon!