early monday morning, we began at 7am on the bus on our way to montepulciano... which
turned out to a be a VERY SMALL town that had like 10 churches and not much else, as most of these towns do. what it did have is some spectacular views... a few of us all ended up in the same spot for lunch, sitting on a wall at the top of a hill, looking out over the countryside, which became a pretty regular event for us on this trip... we were also able to go to the top of one of the buildings and take a few pictures... which was pretty cool... after about 4 hours there, we loaded back onto the bus
about a half hour on the bus landed us in pienza, the renaissance utopia town... even smaller than montepulciano... theres literally one piazza thats about the size of my apartment in rome... and in the 4 hours we spent there, most of us were able to do several laps of the town... upon suggestion by our professors, a few of us bought some wine and cheese and sat on a wall with a view consuming these goods until it was time to leave... very good idea... i recommend doing this whenever you have some free time in italy
that night we got to siena... pretty town, nasty hotel... we were tired that night, so we found some dinner and headed back to the hotel pretty quickly... early the next morning, we climbed our way to the top of the Torre al Mangia... which is a ridiculously high tower with ridiculously steep narrow stairs going all the way to the top... besides being totally out of breath by the time i got to the top, it was worth it... the view was beautiful! the rest of the day was spent shopping, i found a pair of beautiful leather scrunchy boots with a low heel... a little more expensive than i planned, but pretty awesome anyway, look for them in pictures to come... that night we went to the Taverna del Cecco, which was right across the way from our nasty hotel but ended up being a really nice place with good food... and we also went out for coffee with amy's sister alicia and her fiance alfredo... theyre getting married in about a month and we saw pictures of her dress... its really beautiful
wayyyy too early the next morning we visited San Galgano, an abandoned abbey somewhere out in the middle of nowhere... it was soooooo cold... once i put on a few layers it was much better, and i was able to sit still long enough to do a pretty decent sketch... after a few hours there, it was time to move along once againArezzo was the next stop on our whirlwind tour, and we spent a few hours there looking at the churches (really thats all arezzo has)... but i have no pictures... because my camera battery died... oh well
later that evening we checked into the most beautiful hotel we've stayed in so far, in urbino... we went to a restaurant called Morgana for
dinner (because the name was obviously irresistable) and it was delicious! We spent the whole next day in urbino... we visited the ducal palace... i actually stood in the middle window between the towers! it was really pretty, and there were some amazing works of art, one was "The Mute" by Raphael!! It was pretty awesome... later on, after lunch, we walked around the edge of the city and landed in a park with a nice spot to sit and enjoy the view, which we did... all afternoon... after another fabulous dinner in urbino it was time to get some rest and gear up for the last day of our trip!finally, we got to
assisi... as in st francis of assisi! the church is in 2 parts... the tomb, the upper church and the lower church and it is covered in the most amazing frescos depicting scenes from the bible and from the life of saint francis... besides the church, the rest of the town was pretty hilly... but if you climbed all the way up the hill, not only did you get another great view, there was a castle!! yes, a castle at the top of the hill... it was a very nice way to spend the last afternoon of our tripwe arrived around 7 last night back in rome, where i unpacked, showered, and went to bed... the hilltowns were fabulous, but its good to be back
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