A touch of history and racism

Today I intended on sleeping in a little later than usual since class didn't start until 4 but I was rudely awaken by the cacophony of the church bells from just down the block at 6, 6:30, 7, 7:30, 8, 8:30 and 9, at which point I angrily rolled out of bed to start my day.  One of my friends and I headed to the campo (basically the town square) to climb the tower that overlooks Siena.  Little did we know that climbing this tower required that you essentially crawl up two flights of stairs because the roof is too low and the walls are too close together for you to stand tall or face fully forward.  I'm not claustrophobic, but I could see the need for the panic buttons that were installed in this part of the stairwell.  Moreover, these stairs were used by people going up and down...poor planning medieval sienese, poor planning. Fortunately, that lasted only two flights and the rest was relatively manageable facing forward and standing up straight.  When we got to the top, I was awestruck.  I really can't describe how beautiful it was, so I'll let pictures do the talking. 

The Duomo and part of Siena

The Campo

My attempt to be artsy with the bell at the top of the tower

We also enjoyed the museum which had some pretty awesome frescos from relatively recent times (late 1880's) and older periods (1400's) and some pretty sweet modern art from the past ten years.  It was a trippy combination of art but it was manageable.

Later, in cooking class, we found out that our teacher dislikes chinese, black, and polish people.  But hey she's momeryl whatever.  I think she also bashed the french a bit.  She was on quite the roll.

Moving on to some fun history about Siena.  Every year in may and august (16th) Siena hosts this crazy no-rules horse race in the campo.  People have been known to drug the horses, kidnap the jockeys, etc.  It's called the palio.  Well there are 17 sienese neighborhoods that are represented at the palio, and have been since 1729 (before that, dating back to the medieval times there were as many as 59 contrada represented).  Each contrada has it's own flag, mascot, and history and the rivalry between contrada runs deep.  It's like ManU and whatever other soccer team ManU has a rivalry with combined with Britney Spears and Christina Agulara, with a little USA UK rivalry thrown in there.  It's intense.  Some contrada even have their lamp posts sculpted to look like their mascots (they're pretty cool).  I'm staying in Selva.  Here is a wikipedia description of my contrada:

Selva (Forest)

Selva runs west from the Piazza del Campo in the centre of the city. Traditionally, its residents were weavers, but when the contrade were mainly military they had a reputation for being excellent archers.
Selva's symbol is a rhinoceros at the base of an oak tree hung with hunting tools. Its colours are green and orange, bordered with white.
Winner of the Palio, on August 16, 2006, with Salasso on Caro Amico. Won the Palio last on July 2, 2010, to much upset from Nicchio (favored to win).

So that's some fun facts about my contrada.  Here are some fun cooking facts:

1. In the middle ages, bakers specialized in white or brown bread.  They had separate guilds.
2.  Adding butter, margarine, or oil shortens gluten strands in the dough, hence the name of shortening.
3. Bleaching flour is done by allowing the flour to age, turning from yellow to white as it oxidizes.  This can also be achieved by using vitamin c (ascorbic acid), azotic carbamide, or peroxide.
4. You need steam when baking bread to prevent the surface from drying out, to aid in heating dough faster, and to increase the rate of expansion of gas pockets.  You can through in ice cubs once the oven is pre-heated (professional bakers, pump in steam).
5. Bread will go stale even if there is no moisture loss.
6. San Fransisco is associated with sour dough since the bacteria needed to start the process is common in the air there.
7. Biscotti means twice cooked in Italian.
8. Most cakes were pound cakes until the 20th century.
9. Pasta means paste or dough in Italian.
10. Noodle is a German word that refers to any pasta like preparations made outside the Italian tradition.
11.  It is a myth that Marco Polo brough noodles from China to Italy.  Pastas were in Italy by the 6th century.  Marco Polo did his thing in the 14th century.  But, there is evidence that China has had noodles since 200 BC.
12. Naples, Italy had the ideal climate for pasta preparation, leading to pasta becoming a common street food in the 19th century, which, in turn, led to shorter cooking times and the popularization of cooking pasta al dente (to the tooth) by the late 19th century.
13. You can improve cooking water and reduce stickiness of pasta by adding a splash of lemon juice
14. Sauce comes from the roman word "jus" (an ancesetor of juice and "jus" as in "a jus") and latin "salsus" meaning "salted"/
15. Gravey came from the french word grane meaning "made with grains"
16. Sauce should taste too strong on its own since the food dilutes it.

See that wasn't too bad.  OK off to bed.  Cheers to the daily adventure.