Christmas time in Siena

The city of Siena is getting prepared for Christmas, and everyday I see new decorations being put up. There is lights on every street and on the outside of almost every store, along with Christmas trees everywhere.  All these decorations make everything more jolly, I love it! Its weird to think that Ive been here almost 4 months already and now its Christmas time. Siena really knows how to celebrate Christmas, they even put an ice skating rink in the park near piazza gramsci, which was a great idea because I love to ice skate.  I just love all the holiday spirit here.

Lights on the streets

Little Christmas trees

More lights and reefs 

Setting up the big tree

End product

Pizza stores getting ready 

Trees everywhere!

Bruxelles

Questo weekend i miei amici e sono andato a Bruxelles. Ero nervoso perché molte gente mi ha detto che non c'era molto da fare. si sbagliavano! mi è piaciuto molto Bruxelles e ho pensato ci fosse molto da fare. C'era molto di piccoli negozi che hanno venduto il cioccolato, pizzi e oggetti d'antiquariato. Inoltre in ogni strada c'è stata almeno 4 posti cialde e 3 venditori che hanno venduto le patatine fritte. Le cialde erano probabilmente le migliori cialde che ho mai mangiato. le patatine erano così buoni. Raccomando che tutti dovrebbero andare a Bruxelles e mangiare tutto il cibo!

Notte di pioggia in Belgio

Un negozio di cioccolato

CIALDE!!! aka WAFFLES!!!

l'Atomium

l'esercito di terracotta

Begli edifici

Un negozio famoso cioccolato

Il "Manneken Pis"

Un bar comunista che consente alle persone di firmare le pareti

Le nostre firme

Più cialde...MORE WAFFLES!

Thanksgiving in Italy

So Thanksgiving is a time where families and friends come together to celebrate the things that they are my thankful for. Its weird for me to not be home on Thanksgiving, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade and helping cook(aka peel the potatoes-not really cooking anything). Ive done the same thing for Thanksgiving for my entire life so it was odd to do something different this year. It was kinda sad not being with my family especially because all my best friends who just got home for their breaks went to my house for dessert even though I wasnt there. But Thanksgiving in Italy was really fun, all the people sharing stories on what they normally do and the Americans telling the Italians what Thanksgiving is all about. It was a really interesting experience and the food was really good so I didnt mind spending one Thanksgiving away from home because I know next year Ill be back doing what I normally do.

Fall

Its finally starting to look like fall in Siena! Fall might be my favorite season because I love when the leaves changes color and it becomes a little chillier. I like all the season but spring would have to be my least favorite only because I have bad allergies but I think each season is great its its own way. Fall is the time of sweatshirts, cold night filled with drinking tea and sitting by firs (well in America at least not so much in Siena. I dont think starting a fire in the Campo would be a good idea). Fall colors are also so warm feeling with the dim yellows, browns, and oranges. I just love fall and experiencing the season change in Italy has been very interesting! 

Tuscany Lanscapes

Being here made me realize that Tuscany is place of incredible views. Every town in the region has breath-taking scenery, and each view is different and great in its own way. Literally every single view looks like a postcard. At first when I read the assignment of "postcards" I thought it meant actual postcards, which it didnt so I changed my blog post to postcard like scenery.       

Santa Agata

These are all photos of Santa Agata, a church located just next to the onda fountain. Its a really pretty church  but it wasnt my favorite thing to photograph, because its just a building to me. It has no emotions or anything like people or other photos do. I guess if I was more religious it would have more a value to me but it doesnt. So this if my place from 5 different views even though theyre kinda similar. I also put the pictures in black and white because when I went the there lighting was odd and I didnt like how it came out in my photos. 

City Safari

One of my assignments is to photograph a “city safari”, I didnt really know what that meant so I decided to take pictures of things around the city that most tourist dont see. As I wandered around Siena, because I tend to do that often, I noticed a bunch of things that Ive never seen before, like the little garbage trucks or streets with no people on them which doesnt happen very often. A big thing I noticed was all the construction going on, when I first arrived here there was none, I guess its because now its colder outside so less tourist come and its the best time to fix everything up. There is a lot of construction around Siena, plus all my pictures are taken in the night time since thats when I decided to go out and search for city like things to photograph. The night gives most of my photos an eerie feeling which I never felt in Siena before wandering down random side streets and construction sites in the dark. I like how they all have a similar color tone/spooky feeling.