Field trips

Ciao everyone!

I just got back from the orientation field trips to Assisi, Perugia, Siena, and San Gimignano and I am exhausted!

On Thursday (9/4) afternoon, I went to the Mercanto Centrale for some fresh groceries. The ground floor is all deli products like meats and cheeses and some pasta places and the upper level is all the fresh produce. Everything is pretty cheap. I made my first italian lunch when I got back to the apartment: a salad! haha i know it's nothing fancy but it was delicious! We went out to an Irish pub that night which had karaoke (ann, i thought of you and that place in france that we went to with karaoke cause we sang grease! lol!).

On Friday (9/5), I had to get up really early (6:45!) to get ready for the field trip. I slept on the bus (of course!). It was nice to get out of Florence for a while and see the countryside of Tuscany. Our first stop on the field trip was Assissi. Our tourguide's name was Eugene. He brought us all through Assisi and gave some interesting information about the churches, St. Francis and other structures. He talked a LOT though and people started losing interest so I felt kind of bad. My favorite part of Assissi was the seeing where they keep St. Clare's body. There were some people posed on the street working for money. One was dressed as Jesus which was really weird to see and the other was a Franciscan. We grabbed a quick lunch in Assisi and got back on the bus to head to Perugia.

Perugia was really pretty! It has some great views which i know unfortunately won't look as great in pictures. We walked along a street that has the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria on it and it lead to a huge fountain in a piazza. The fountain has carvings to represent each month. Overally, I think I enjoyed Perugia better than Assisi. From Perugia, we rode the bus to the Park Hotel which was outside of Perugia's center. We were all exhausted after so much walking in the sun and hot weather that we all went to bed after dinner.

Today (9/6), our first stop was the medieval town of Siena and our tourguide was Annalisa. Siena was the birthplace of St. Catherine of Siena, who convinced the Pope to return to Italy after he relocated to France. Her head and her thumb are preserved in the Basilica of San Domenico. Siena has separate sections within the town all represented by a specific animal. Each section competes in a biannual horse race in the city's largest piazza. There's also a fountain with flowing drinking water right in the piazza.

From Siena, we drove a short way to San Gimignano, also a medieval town known for its preserved towers. San Gimignano is also known for being the only place to make Vernaccia wine, so of course i had to buy some! Again, the views of the vineyards from the high hills were amazing! After leaving San Gimignano, we drove to the Fattoria Castello Il Palagio for dinner and a wine tasting. Tuscany is well known for its Chianti Classico and we tried some at the tasting. We were able to walk into the cellar and see some of the barrels. Unfortunately, we weren't able to walk through the actual vineyards. Dinner was HUGE! We started with an antipasto plate with so many things on it. Then we had ravioli for the first plate, some other pasta with ragu for the second plate, some pork, greens and potatoes for the third plate, and finally a blueberry pastry square thing for dessert. Everything was delicious and the setting in the vineyard castle was gorgeous.

We're going to Pisa tomorrow in the morning and then we finally get a chance to relax on the beach in Viareggio. It's almost 2am now and I need to be up by 8 tomorrow so I'll post again tomorrow night!

Ciao!
Eliza