Pictures of my apartment! (Finally)

  Siena, Italy
Thursday, March 15, 2007

So, I don't have pictures of my bedroom yet, which is a little silly, but I'll put those up as soon as I take them.

Welcome to my apartment!  I like it.  It's cozy, gets pretty cold at night, and used to have mold in the bathroom.  But then our Italian roommate made some phone calls and a man who looked to be in his 40s knocked on our door at about 10:45pm.  I was alone in the apartment at the time and had just talked to our nextdoor neighbor on the phone, so I assumed it was her.  I opened the door and there was this man with bags of stuff.  He said, (in Italian), "Oh, I didn't think anyone would be here."  I had the door half closed at this time and asked him what he was here for.  He mentioned the bathroom and I asked for clarification.  He said he was going to paint it white.  I asked him to come back the next day, because I was creeped out (and rightly so).  He looked disappointed but said he would be back at 10am.

I know, I know.  I shouldn't have answered the door in the first place.  And I should have closed it again as soon as I saw who it was (we don't have a peephole).  But luckily I didn't die.  And I've learned my lesson.  No more opening the door when people knock.

He did come back the next day and spent over 3 hours in the bathroom, scraping the gross mold off and then repainting the walls and ceiling white.  It actually looks really nice now, so I'm glad he came.  And he did apologize the next day for coming the night before.  (I can't imagine if none of us had been home and had arrived with him in there, scraping at 2 in the morning.  He had the keys to the apartment.  Scary.)  Oh well, so that was my weird painting man adventure.  On to the apartment!

We live on Via di Camollia, named after a famous soldier from Roman times.  The street leads to Porta Camollia, which used to be one of the main entrances to the city.  Walking in the other direction for about 7 minutes leads straight to Piazza del Campo, the main piazza of Siena.  It's a great location, with 3 pizza places within 30 seconds, one of which sells anything for 1 euro after 10pm.  I had a slice of pizza there last night.  They even have nutella-covered-and-filled pizza-like thingies.  Soooo good.

We're on the very very top floor of the building.  I've gotten pretty good at walking/running up the stairs.  It is a bit tiring though, especially with groceries.  Here's the final flight of stairs to our door.   Actually the door you see at the top of the stairs is for the apartment next to us.  Our door is along the left wall.  Then, opening my door.... more stairs! On the left is our Italian Roommate, Sarah's room. Then our little little living room with the television that only gets one channel.  Then, straight ahead, you can see more stairs leading to the room I share with Anne. Here's another view of the living room, with the huge bear with a shirt that says "Rude Boy" on it. He's fun. Our first Italian roommate left him here, so he's just a part of the apartment now.

To the right of the living room are (yes) more stairs.  They lead to a little landing and, to the right is the bathroom, and to the left the kitchen.   The washing machine is also in the kitchen.  It's the warmest room in the apartment, so I spend a lot of time in it.  I'm actually there(/here) right now.    There's also the water heater and the heater for the house.  It's the box on the right side, next to the oven.  When you turn on the heat, it goes for about 20 minutes, then a little red light turns on and you have to press the lit button to get it going again.  But, after the first time, it only goes for a couple of minutes before turning off again.  It's silly, but I guess it saves a lot of energy, so it's a good thing.

Trash is picked up every morning at about 10 and you just need to remember to bring it down and set it by the door to the building.  I finally went last week to sign up for recycling, and got huge recycling bags.  I haven't quite figured out how often that gets picked up, but I saw other people put out the bags on Monday, so I did so too.  At the supermarket, you pay extra for bags so it's best to bring your own.  But then we use a lot of bags to put trash in, so about half the time I just get them at the supermarket.  It's a great system.

So, that's the apartment!  I hope you like it.  (Uh-oh.  The heat just turned off.)  And I really hope that at least a couple of you will get to see it.  That all depends on when my exams are and if I pass them and everything.  We'll see!