Friday after class I went shopping and walking around town with Hillary. We dressed up so we would actually look somewhat decent enough to not look suspicious when we went into some of the nicer stores here. haha. We found some cute stuff for Hillary though and I managed to not buy anything! Amazing!
Friday night I stayed in and watched a movie which was a nice change of pace from our usual weekend activities of exploring florence till early hours of the morning.
Saturday there was an optional school fieldtrip (like there is everyweekend) but I actually wanted to go to this one so I got up at about 6:30am to get on a bus to siena with a bunch of other students from SACI. First we went to Siena (look it up online if you want to know about it) but it was really nice. It was about an hour drive away from Florence and totally worth the trip. It was similar to Florence in some aspects, but was much hillier, much cleaner, and much less touristy! I had the best cup of hot chocolate i've ever had there in a cafe off the central piazza of the town. (the piazza where the twice annual horse race is held) It was seriously hot chocolate as in it was the consistency of a melted chocolate bar! I can never drink powdered hot chocolate from the states ever again after this. amazing.
In sienna we learned a lot of historical stuff, went into a bunch of churches, saw the face and thumb of st. cathrine (i think that was her name) and yeah.
After Siena we went to San Giminiato (again, look it up if ur curious) but it was probably one of my favorite towns i've been to so far. It was not much of a touristy town compared to other towns i've been to like it. Again in San Giminiato we did the touristy art history tour of the churches and museums etc... Hillary and I ditched out on one of them early and went up to the top of a bell tower with an AMAZING view of the tuscan landscape!!! It was a cold cloudy day that day so at the top we could see the rain falling on various hills in the distance and the colors were so rich and green and beautiful! I love getting out of the city and actually being able to see some life and breath fresh air! I am quickly learning that I don't think I can ever live in a city as much as that has seemed appealing in the past. I need my ocean or mountains or BOTH!
San Giminiato also has the best Gelato place ever! Actually they were voted best in the area or something for the past few years! I got pink grapefruit-champagne flavored with lemon and it was really strange but really good! (one of their signature flavors or whatever so i had to try it!) As the sun was setting in San Giminiato our group all met up and had some pecorino cheese, some sort of meat i didn't eat and some white wine from the area. Kinda fun, but the concept of wine tasting with my school weirded me out. Definitely not normal, hah!
On sunday I slept in most of the morning then Hillary and I ventured to IKEA. That store is crazy here! Even crazier than in the States. Soooo many people were in there it was chaotic and crazy and hillary and I both ended up with that "mall daze" feeling by the end. BUTTT we got stuffed animal elephants and named them Marco and Polo (mine is polo) they are amazing and super soft and sooo cute!
Other than that I haven't been up to much. Terrible weather the last couple days. It is definitely fall around here. Not sure if that is good or bad yet. Guess we'll see! Have some crazy weekends ahead of me! This weekend i'm either going to Rome or to the Chocolate Festival. Either way i can't really go wrong! They both sound pretty amazing!
Hope you are all doing well! Miss everyone lots and as much as I love it here I can't wait to be back home!
A few photos are posted below - Ciao!
best hot chocolate i've ever had - this was the end of it. amazing!
Me in the main piazza in Siena where the horse race runs around! (Piazza Publica i think?)
This is St. Cathrine's tomb or shrine or something weird and creepylike. See that glowing square in the middle? That is her face. Yeah, her face, skin and all with her nun hat on. I do not understand some of the Catholic traditions. Her thumb was also saved in this same building. It was in another case. I decided that i am going to have my thumb saved and handed down from generation to generation once I die. So family -- take note of this please. haha....!
This picture I snuck. We got to see the fresco of Good and Bad government in Siena (very famous in art history if you don't already know about it)
This was in the main church "the duomo" of Siena - The whole room was painted like this! Amazing but a bit intense!
This is my souvenir from Ikea. Actually this elephant AND this blanket! Necessities to this room now that it is getting cold!
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