Europe Update! 6/10 – 6/12 Lausanne Switzerland, Evian France, and Sienna Italy The last adventure we had during our first few Switzerland days was visiting Lausanne. It was a quick trip where we quickly toured a restaurant, then were sent off on our own. Deciding to be adventurous a few friends and I caught a steamer across the lake to Evian, France. Yeah, like the bottled water. That’s where it comes from! Since it was such a rapid pace I missed out on seeing the Olympic museum they have, because Lausanne is the “Olympic Capital” due to it hosting the International Olympic Committee. Regardless, it was still a beautiful city, and it was a clear sunny day on the lake! Following our lake adventure, we traveled a few hours by train into Italy the following day. A fellow NAU Italian professor met us at the train station in Sienna, Italy. I had been there before this particular visit, but it was still just as charming and historically awing as before! We stayed in small hotel along the city wall, and embarked later that afternoon on an expansive scavenger hunt! Halfway along my group realized that that we felt like we were rushing too much to enjoy everything we saw so we slowed down and stopped for delicious limoncello and meringue gelato! We also passed by a drummer for one of the contrade practicing by his district’s fountain! We saw the famous Piazza del Campo, the shops, and cathedrals! The best however, was a very intimate tour we had of the Noble Caterpillar Contrada. Siena is divided into contrade, or neighborhoods since the medieval times, and to this day they uphold their rivalries they have as neighbors and participate in the Palio horse race each year. The energy and passion surrounding the Palio for the people of sienna is like hardcore Super Bowl fans times 100. To go along with the bareback horserace itself, there are parades with drummers, flags, and costumes/uniforms. Our guide stressed how important it was to recognize that the contrade are not “reenacting” these events, but living it- these traditions have only not been held a handful of times since they started in the 15th century, mainly due to the World Wars. We were let into their private chapel, got to see their headquarters, previous uniforms, flags, and even some of their Palios (the ‘trophy’ a contrada wins is a hand painted cloth banner). It’s too much to write about honestly, but it had to have been one of my favorite experiences from the whole trip! While we were in Sienna we also took an amazing handmade pasta class. I got to make potato gnocchi, and cantucci which is like a biscotti! Both nights we were there we had very long, very European style dinners with so much food and wine I was done by the end of the first hour! The food however was absolutely amazing, and I can say I left Siena slightly bigger fan of red wine than when I had arrived!
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