You Better Work

I know that it seems as though all I do in Italy is eat (and yes, we do joke that sometimes we are not traveling our way through Italy, but eating our way through it), but the initial reason I came here was to work as an intern; which is what I do fours hours a day, five days a week (most of the time). I might be a little bias, but I definitely think that Michelle and I have the sweetest internship of anyone that has been here this summer.

We work in the Complesso museale di Santa Maria della Scala, built right across from the beautiful Siena Duomo (Cathedral).

The Santa Maria della Scala was mentioned in a deed as early as 1090, where it become a hospice, where pilgrims could be given care and shelter, and one of the first hospitals in Europe. They also had an organization to look after abandoned children and the poor [those orphans were often more fortunate than those with parents, as they received food, clothing, trade training (boys) and a dowry (girls)].

The Santa Maria della Scala functioned as a legitimate hospital all the way until the 1980s (in fact, my Nonna used to work there as a nurse and Rebecca, who gave us our internship preparation class in the first week, was born there), when it was closed and renovated as a working museum, highlighting many of the works that the museum and Siena acquired and commissioned over the years. In fact the original Fonte Gaia (a plaster model of the fountain currently resides in the Piazza Pubblico) was moved and renovated there after a man stood on the fountain and broke part of it during a Palio in the 1500s (he was put to death).

Michelle and I assumed that all we would be doing is working in the front desk, selling tickets and translating English/Italian, or watching the works of art to make sure ignorant people don’t touch them or take pictures of them.

When in reality, what we do is so much cooler than that.

Beneath the Santa Maria della Scalla lies a huge archive of archeological items found mostly in Siena and surrounding areas of Tuscany; sections of this museum are closed off for excavations still taking place.

Everyday, we work with a woman named Debora who is one of the people in charge of the archeological section of the museum. We normally don’t go into the actual museum, but work daily in what is called the magazzino, which is really just a storage room where artifacts not currently in the museum are kept.

In the magazzino, we have unpacked, organized, reorganized, re-reorganized, and double/triple-checked the inventories of seven different collections. While at times it may have been tedious, and wearing rubber gloves can get annoying, every single day I was so thrilled to go into work and see what new treasures and artifacts we uncovered.

It’s also amazing how much they trust us. I mean the first day, we helped put together a bronze pot that she said was from 300 AD (the word for puzzle in Italian is still puzzle in case you were wondering). We’ve dealt with terracotta pots and lanterns, some Grecian urns, thousand year beads and bronze jewelry (I was very tempted to steal the ring that fit me too well), human bones that were from 200 BC (Michelle and I enjoyed putting together some vertebrae, spotting the femur, or tibia and fibula, and the jaw pieces that still had some teeth). We had these beautiful shards of glass, black vases and goblets, old bronze buckles and handles, and there was this really cool Egyptian statue that looked like it was made of jade. Needless to say, when I get back to the Y, I plan on talking to someone about minoring in archeology.

Plus we work with really awesome people. Luca (or as the Sienese pronounce: Luha) is our security guard who will always greet us with “Boungiorno Belle,” or “Ciao Stupende.” Mauro (not Mario) is in charge of the restoration (restauro) work and always has more gloves and plastic sacks for us when we can’t find anymore. Nora: I want to be her. End of story. But seriously, she is probably late twenties, Debora’s assistant, is gorgeous, and dresses so cute everyday. I want to be her. Debora is also a hoot. She prints everything on the back of already used paper (cheaper + recycling), she waddles when she runs, talks really fast, has various degrees of magenta and orange in her hair, is late and then gets a coffee every morning (which is why we now come at 10 instead of 9), loves her two cats (one is named Ciste, after crusty things you get in your eyes when you sleep. I don’t understand either), and has the Friends theme song as her ringtone. I adore her, as well as various others who work at the front desk and watch points.

(front entrance.)

(the Duomo right outside.)

(side room of the magazzino.)

(Our least favorite job: cleaning the cassette. One morning we came in and the pile was taller than me. Dang it.)

(I know it looks like we just have pots, but everything else is harder to see through the non-earthquake proof glass shelving.)