Southern Tuscany weekend

Southern Tuscany was absolutely gorgeous. I have never been to a prettier part of the world-- seriously! Although there was not much to do in this area, it was more than made up by the beautiful vineyards, the countryside, and the architecture.

We left for Southern Tuscany on the buses around 7:45 in the morning on Friday and the ride was about two hours (A lot less than past weekends). We first stopped at Montalcino, which is a small medieval town. It is known for their Brunello Wine. Once we got off the buses, Peter (one of my travel coordinators) led a group of us to a nearby historical castle (See picture above of me and Lillian in front of the monument). We then looked around for a cheap place to get something small for lunch. Me and Lillian stumbled across this little cafe which served sandwiches, coffee, and pastries. We ended up getting a caprese sandwich which consists of tomato, mozzarella, olive oil, and spinach on foccacia bread. It was so yummy!

We were there a little over an hour so we just looked around at the open-air market and local stores or bottegas as they call them in Italian. Once we all loaded unto the buses we were off to Sant'Antimo for a 1.5 walk, which led to a gorgeous Romanesque Church. This hike was mainly downhill the entire way and it first started off on a rocky path and then it narrowed down to a steep rocky terrain. I ended up getting quite a workout going on a downhill hike. I was actually very sore the next day! Quite the surprise... once the hike was over we visited the old church which had amazing architectural columns on the inside. There is a picture of the Romanesque church below.

We got onto the buses again and headed to Bagno Vignoni, which was the home of a small medieval spa that had hot springs. It costed quite a bit to get into the hotel-- 14 euro! But this included a lovely swim cap (see picture below of me and Lillian) that was required to wear inside the springs. I am still in awe of how the springs are continuously hot (like a sauna) all year long. How does it stay so hot all year?? haha. Apparently in the winter the hot springs steam all over. I think the hot water comes from underneath the earth or something scientific like that. Anyways, it was pretty cool and it was very relaxing. It smelled a bit like sulfer but it wasn't too bad.

We were at the springs for about 2.5 hours and then we finally headed to our hotel at Vescovado di Murlo. The town we drove into was extremely small-- there was only one bar in the entire town! It was almost refreshing though that there wasn't a huge night life; it allowed our group to finally relax and enjoy the nature surrounding us. We relaxed for about an hour and then our hotel provided dinner for us. It was alright-- we had pasta with meat sauce and then pork slices with gravy and green beans. The pasta was good but I am not a fan of pork so I was still pretty hungry after dinner. For desert we had ice cream cones. (kinda random-- reminded me of american icecream "drumsticks".) After dinner me and a few friends met at the one bar in the town and socialized for awhile and then me, Lillian, and my friend Elliot explored the town and my friend accidently fell in a construction site (see picture of her struggle below haha) She's OK-- don't worry! It was really funny at the time.

We had a curfew at our hotel for 11:30 so we made sure to get back by then. This is not your typical "hotel". The hotel was apparently opened just for our group because this is not a typical time of year that tourists visit. I'm not sure why-- Fall is so pretty in Southern Tuscany! The next morning we had breakfast at our hotel as well. It wasn't really a very satisfying Breakfast though-- it was just a croissant and yucky coffee. I really miss American breakfasts. We are talking your typical bacon and eggs, and omelets! Oh yes, and of course pancakes and syrup. I am not much of a Breakfast person, but I sure do miss my dad's eggs in the morning! (or the cog's omelets back in Spokanistan) Once we all got on the bus and headed to the vineyard where we were having our wine tasting. Peter suggested for us to where comfortable shoes, so it probably wasn't the best idea that I wore my cute new flip flops, but I ended up being OK (Hopefully the tendinitis foot doesn't come back!). It was quite the schlep up the mountain to the vineyard but it was definitely worth it. This place was phenomenal! We tried three types of wine: a white, a red, and a reserve red. I am not much of a wine drinker yet, but these were pretty good. I ended up buying the white and the red for my parents so we can share them when they come up here on the 31st.

After the tour and tasting at the vineyard, we stopped at the smallest town I have ever seen, Murlo. Basically we walked around an Etruscan museum for like half an hour and then walking around the town literally took less than 5 minutes. The town did not have any stores, or restaurants... just a museum and cute little houses and a great view of Southern Tuscany vineyards. The last thing we did as a group is visit Pienza, which is a Renaissance town of Pope Pius II. We were given a ridiculous amount of time at this location-- almost 5 hours! Me and Lillian basically just went shopping crazy and had a bite to eat at another local cafe. The town was quaint and had another great viewpoint of the countryside, but we were exhausted from walking around for that long. After Pienza we had dinner at our hotel again which was friend pork, french fries, and some red-sauce pasta. It was alright-- I am not always a fan of the planned dinners but at least I dont have to pay any extra out of my pocket.

That night I just hung out at the hotel (because there is literally nothing to do except go to that bar) and just chatted with some friends. The next morning I had Breakfast, and as a group we made one final top at San Galgano where we visited the abandoned Cistercian Abbey and the Chapel of Monte Sipei with the sword in the stone. Now don't get too excited-- the stone is one of five that claims to be the "real one". There is a picture of the abbey below.

That pretty much concludes my weekend in a nutshell. Sorry the entry was so long- its hard to write one post about an entire weekend that was full of things that I saw and did!

Ciao raggazzi!

A stressful week in school!

Its been so long since I have been able to write! This week has been crazy busy. Classes are finally starting to pick up so its been pretty stressful. This week alone I had my first Italian quiz, principles of marketing test, and oh yeah I got assigned a huge essay in my ethics class. Joy! The Italian quiz went really well- I got a 99%! I also stayed up with my friend Cierra until like 2:30 studying. That probably wasn't necessary, but you never know how hard the first quiz/test in a class.

Tomorrow we are heading to Southern Tuscany and we have to meet at school at 7:45 and load the buses. I am very excited! Apparently there is hot springs where you can go. I have never been to one so that should be interesting. I heard they are pretty but they smell... hmm... I think I'll take my chances and go! They are naturally hot and you are able to swim in there I'm pretty sure. Haha, we will see!

I am so exhausted right now. I have been running off a sleep deficit the past week. Ironically I got more sleep on my last trip to Cinque Terre than this past week at school. I have been studying up late every night and I went out one night just to take a break from studying. Perhaps that wasn't the smartest idea but I came back around 12:45 which was a lot earlier than my friends who went clubbing till 4 am. Geez!

Yesterday my introduction to florence class went to the the church of Santa Maria Novella. It was beautiful! The frescos were especially gorgeous-- its hard to believe all the artwork and building was done by hand in the 13th century! Take a look on facebook under "sight seeing florence" to see more pictures. I am including a picture from the tour yesterday.

Well thats all I have suprisingly. Today I was pretty productive and did some laundry-- I was pissed though because it ate my 5 euro and I ended up having to pay an extra 7 to do my laundry that is already expensive before they jipped me! Its annoying because there is no supervisor-- just a security camera by the door. Its bizzare. Anywhoo well I'm off but I'll write when I get back to Florence on Sunday evening.

Ta ta!

- Inside the Spanish Chapel

A weekend in Cinque Terre!

I had another fabulous weekend of traveling. This past weekend as many of you know I went with the Gonzaga group to Cinque Terre, which means five regions. This place is so beautiful! We had another great weekend of weather, and me and seven other girls were lucky in that we snagged the only 8 person apartment and the rest of the group stayed at a hotel about fifteen minutes walking distance from us. Our apartment overlooked the water and we had a balcony that we could sit and watch the ocean. It was gorgeous! Even though the apartment was less than par, the view made up for it. It was funny though because the guy only gave us three towels for 8 of us, and we had no toilet paper. We ended up snagging some from the hotel where everyone else was staying. Oh well…

The first night we got there we were pretty tired after having school and then traveling, so we ended up just finding a small little Italian restaurant and chatting for a couple hours. I found out that Pesto (which is basil, pine nuts, garlic, and olive oil) originated in Cinque Terre so I was stoked. Pesto is one if not my favorite Italian food, so I went crazy with the pesto this weekend. The first night I had gnocchi al pesto which was so yummy! It was very rich, but really good.

The first full day in Cinque Terre was consumed by a massive, intense five hour hike that toured all of the five regions. Apparently it is pretty impressive to walk through all five towns in one day so props to us! At first we started off with the big group and the tour guide, but me and my friends Emma and Courtney were a little bored with the speech (not to mention we could barely hear what he was saying) and the pace was as I like to say “glacial”, so we decided to venture off and do the hike at our own speed. This ended up being a great decision, because apparently they took a loonngg leisurely time and they stopped frequently commenting on this rock and that tree, and blah blah. I much rather just take my own pictures and walk steadily. I took some pretty cool pictures which are all on facebook as usual. Free free to check them out! This hike was probably the most gorgeous I have ever been on. It was very challenging though; there were TONS of stairs and 75% of the hike was just straight uphill. It was definitely a work out, but totally worth it in the end. Half-way through we stopped at one of the little towns and had a nice lunch. Among the three of us we split some water, bread, pasta with Bolognese sauce, and of course a pesto pasta dish! After that we had some gelato and got a water bottle and we were on our way for the second half of the hike. Apparently a lot of my fellow peers decided to take the train back after stopping for lunch and being totally exhausted. I am glad we stuck it through even though it was hell for half of it!

Later that afternoon we were all pretty sweaty and exhausted from the hike so we all took cold showers (unintentionally because there was no hot water in our apartment the whole weekend) and then we met up for a big group dinner. It was nice eating with the whole GU group; although being such a large group we were all pretty loud! The menu consisted of bread, white wine, pesto pasta of course, and swordfish. I loved it all except for those that know me, you know I hate seafood. But hey, at least I tried it! It wasn’t bad as far as seafood is concerned—it didn’t taste fishy but it definitely was not something I would order for myself on a regular basis. I ended up getting some vegetarian option that looked green and quiche like. It was alright, but I was just fine filling up on the pesto pasta. After dinner we all went to a local bar and socialized for a few hours.

On Saturday we were all pretty sore from the hike so most of us just chill axed at the beach all day. In the morning me and some of my friends were really craving an “American” Breakfast… ya know, the works: sausage, bacon, eggs, pancakes, French toast, you get the idea. Well, we were happy when we saw a sign that said AMERICAN BREAKFAST HERE! We were soon disappointed though because all they really had was eggs and bacon (which was incorporated IN the actual eggs). We were really craving some hardcore pancakes and syrup but I guess they just really don’t understand what an “all American breakfast” is. The food wasn’t bad—just not what we wanted. After Breakfast we went to the beach by our apartment and then we ran into some other students that let us know of an even cooler beach that was just one train stop away. We decided to go with them and they were definitely right… this beach had crystal clear water and the sand was actually sandy! (At most of the beaches the “sand” has really been just small rocks). A lot of our group had the same idea, as many Gonzaga students were already there by the time we got there. We were there several hours, and me and my friend Jen went into the water and got attacked by the huge waves. It was really fun body surfing and getting dunked into the water!

That night me and some girl friends had dinner at another little Italian restaurant and I had a pesto pizza. It was so good! And after we went to a local festival a couple train stops over. It was pretty fun- there was an open air market and a place that was serving free doughnuts and vino (which is wine). Once it got dark, we walked over to the beach where there were lit candles on small boats all across the water. Around eleven thirty we sat down and got ready to watch a fireworks show. It was spectacular! It was right off the beach where we were, so we got a great view. I had never been so close to a fireworks show!

Today we left pretty early around 9:30 (on the earliest train available) and it stopped in Pisa and then from Pisa we transferred to a train that took us directly to Florence. The whole train experience lasted around 3 hours and then we had to schlep our entire luggage from the train station which was at least a mile and a half. My back really kills- I have quite the gargantuan backpack. I tend to over pack but now I learned the hard way that I need to learn to pack lighter. Anyways… the rest of today has been filled with unpacking, catching up the roomie, and doing loads of hw. Also tonight me and 4 other girlfriends got reservations at this amazing Mexican restaurant by the Duomo. I had a chicken burrito that was to die for and a cranberry mojito. We were all really craving Mexican food so this definitely hit the spot.

Well I best be going—this was quite the entry! I hope you guys didn’t get too bored reading it. I’ll post more later!

*note* the first picture above is taken from the hike that I went on Friday. Pretty huh? :

The second I took during the fireworks show on the beach.