Small Town Charm

My experience in Siena was absolutely incredible. I did not know much about this small city before I arrived, and instead had the opportunity to discover what it means to be Sienese in the city itself. I had no sense of Il Palio, or the importance of the contrada (neighborhood) until I was living with a host family in La Civetta (the owl contrada), who had won Il Palio just three weeks before I arrived. The members of the neighborhood were eating huge dinners that lined the streets in celebration for the first month I was abroad, and I could hear them celebrating and singing long after I'd gone back to the apartment. Pro Tip: If you hear Christmas carols in August, it means you're in a Contrada that won, who are bragging by telling the other contradas through song that their year is over, and they'll have to wait to have another chance at glory until next summer.