Ok where were we...I had just gotten back to Roma from Venezia (Venice). I ran back to school, took a (wonderfully hot!) shower and hopped on a bus with 25 other students in my program to Tuscany. It was only a 4 1/2 hour drive, which I just slept through the whole thing. First, we arrived in Siena!
Here were some of my first looks:
Sienna was EXTREMELY hilly!
While in Siena, I had one of the BEST meals of my life. Unfortunately it was just so delicious that I forgot to take a picture of it, but it consisted of the local meat, wild boar, and realllly yummy pasta.
We were in Siena for a whole day and through out the day we heard lectures from our Professor Dawson on the town and especially about St. Catherine of Siena. St. Catherine is a Doctor of the Church of was a third order Dominican which means that she was not a religious but never married either and dedicated her life to going out into the town of Siena to care for the poor and needy. You might know her as the woman who greatly influence Pope Urban XI to return the papacy to Roma. I loved hearing the lectures because I felt like I wasn't just aimlessly wandering around but really got to see a very good portion of the town.
Inside the Duomo of Siena
Outside St. Catherine's house
Piazza del Campo
Siena was great, but cold. And being cold and tired and not my favorite combo. So I was very happy to get warm aboard the bus that evening and travel to Arezzo, which was about an hour away. We arrived at our hotel in about an hours time and Lauren and I crashed in our double. We were alseep within 10 minutes.
The next day we were feeling much better and ready to greet Arezzo! Out of all the Tuscan towns we visited, Arezzo was my favorite. For one, it is where one of my favorite movies, La Vita e Bella (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64ZoO7oiN0s) was filmed! I absolutely adored going around to the different sites that I recognized in the movie. Honestly, I was in heaven.
love love love!
The girls in front of the main Piazza in Arezzo!
Saw some frescos of Piero della Francesa in the Church of St. Francis...
found a park...
saw inside the Duomo of Arezzo....
And finished the day with a little wine tasting at Castel del Trebbio!
Unfortunately, my camera some how last the pictures I took of the wine tasting... still trying to recover them!
But here are some pictures that I took while riding on the bus between towns:
For our third stop in Tuscany, we did a quick scoop through Pienza for lunch:
And lastly we went to Orvieto, a beautiful little town on the top of a huge hill!
more frescos...
beautiful piazza...
and the duomo!
The coolest thing about Orvieto, was that inside there is the Chapel of the Corporal, which houses a consecrated host that actually bleed onto a corporal (or the small white clothe that the host and chalice rest on during mass). You can learn more about this Eucharist miracle here---> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporal_of_Bolsena
To say the least, Tuscany was by far one of my favorite weekends that I've had while in Europe. Megan and I decided that we are going to just drop school and start a B&B. Hope that's okay mom! :)
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