Cooking course

I also had the opportunity to attend a cooking course with the BYU students currently in Siena. The teacher was great and the food was delicious. We made home made ravioli, bruschetta, and a dessert. Above are a few pictures of the group making the food. If any one else wants to sign up for the cooking course just email me.

Gelati Reconnaissance

Of course I sleuthed around for the best gelato while in Siena and I am happy to report that the Sienese Gelato is doing well!

Assisi and Tuscany by bus

While in Siena, I mapped out some of our day trips and am excited to take you to see some wonderful art and architecture! This is a picture of the Basilica di San Francesco in Assisi, which has gorgeous frescos by Giotto!

This is a view of the Tuscan countryside between Siena and Florence on a day trip via bus--a beautiful hour or so trip that we will be making a few times!

Classes at The Societa Dante Alighieri, Siena

While I was in Siena, I visited language classes that were in session (there is a BYU Italian Department program in session there now). The top picture is an advanced Italian course and the bottom is a lower level Italian course.

Here are some of the faculty that will be teaching our Humanities and Italian courses. The courses look great--I will be sending you the syllabi soon. Good news as well for the language and humanities courses, all of the books, materials, etc. for the courses are included in the program!

Societa Dante Alighieri, Siena

I toured the facilities of the Societa Dante Alighieri in Siena and met with the staff and faculty that will be teaching our language and humanities courses. This is a picture of me with the owner Sonia Di Centa and Luca Bonomi, the director of the school. Both are wonderful people and are excited to have our group there--they love BYU students! Luca has been working intensely to have every detail coordinated. He is helping arrange our day trips and entrances into museums, etc. and working on locating the homes where we will be living. He is amazing and will make our stay in Siena great. I think you will like both of them.

Blog for our program

I thought it would be nice if we have a blog for our program to keep in touch before we meet in Rome and to keep in touch with family while we are in Italy! I am hoping to have a couple of you maintain the blog while we are in Italy and perhaps contribute before we leave. So any super bloggers please let me know if you would like to work on this. This is a picture of the church of San Domenico in Siena that I took a week ago.