Cortona and Siena

Cortona
So last weekend the gang and I decided to venture to Castiglion Fiorentino's rival town- Cortona. It's a short bus ride away and located pretty much on top of a mountain. After nearly hurling (Cara was on the brink) as our bus twisted and turned up the narrow winding road to the top-ish, we realized why Italy doesn't have theme parks and rollar coasters...this is their equivilant. The bus stop was a like a balcony that jutted out over the valley and the scenery was astounding. Unfortunately, it was really overcast the day we went so the pictures I took didn't really turn out. As if landscape photos ever do. We ventured to the central piazza, had a piece of pizza, and then set about on our main task for the day...to climb all the way to the top of the hill.

We thought Castig F.no had steep hills...nope. I swear it was like a 60 degree slope in some parts. That might be an exaggeration, but my legs and glutes agree with the first analysis. The whole way up was "paved" with irregular moss covered stones that we tripped on a lot, till we reached the Church of St. Margherita which was almost the top. We saw glimpses of the beautiful 800 year old church on our way up and when we got there we were greeted with a huge black-top that the church rested on. Exit rustic charm. Best part of this cute little church- if someone in a wheelchair manages to wheel themself up the relatively unpaved, steep mountain that is Cortona, there's a ramp that bridges 3 stairs leading you to the church entrance. I'm sure it gets a lot of use. After this we finished our trip to the top and what was there? We think they were graves, but it was four large white stones that had some language carved into it- it kind of looked like Greek but I have no clue. After satiating our appetite for taking pictures and pushing each other off the stones, we made our much more leisurely trip back down the hill.

Things I learned this trip-
do NOT go anywhere near a bus till the doors are open. It might decide to tango with another bus in a space that's not really big enough for one...or so we found out from nearly getting run over when making our return to Castig F.no.

That thing I mentioned about the wheelchair ramp- it's the same all over Tuscany. If you can make your way through mountains, streams, and pissed off vehicular traffic to a door with a slight step up, their MAY be a ramp there...but probably not.


Siena
For our trip today we travelled to the beautiful Siena!... But sadly it was cold and pouring all day. Our tour guide was the same one we had in Arezzo, Giovanni (not to be confused with our history teacher, Giovanni Pasquali). He was as entertaining as before and has the attention span of a gnat like the rest of us. I mean come on people, I can only look at frescoes all day for so long before I zone out! First we went to the Church of St. Catherine. It looked like a medieval church but on the inside it had pretty good sized windows (medieval to romanesque churches have tiny windows that really don't do anything due to the technology at the time they were constructed) so I'm not actually sure what it is. There we some really beautiful frescoes inside of St Catherine and her finger was in a jar on display. Take note kids; if you're a holy enough person and become a saint, you too can have random body parts on display in different churches .  Next we went to the place where she lived. There was a lovely loggia that recently was covered with yellow glass so the semi-enclosed room glowed beautifully. One room had frescoes of her childhood and life that where pretty cool. According to the frescoes, you have to cut off your pretty hair and make yourself ugly to be holy. I'm learning lots.

After the frescoes we went to the city hall museum to see more frescoes. Again, they were lovely and Giovanni actually made the experience pretty entertaing. A few teachers with us from one of the other schools, did not. They stepped on Giovanni's toes a lot (figuratively of course) and tried to steer his spiels towards things that they had read in a book about what we were seeing. Needless to say, he was visably not pleased. Finally we went to the Duomo! This one was high gothic basically meaning it's suuuuuuuper decorative; probably the most of the gothic duomos we've seen. As always, the interior was insane and there were so many things to look at you had no idea what to do. My favorite part of the church- amazing scenes done in white, green, yellow, and pink marble on the floor inside and on the steps of the cathedral. They were by far the most intricate and elegant that we've seen. I'm adding that to the list of things to put in my house when I'm super rich; aka the house in my dreams which is where it will stay.

After our tours, we continued to brave the rain and cold making our way back to the bus area and huddling in a cafe with cappiccino till we could get the bus back on. Sadly, we barely took any pictures because of the weather and constant rushing, but luckly for me I have been to Siena before so I don't think I'll forget it.

This weekend- Milan! and then- ROME!!! For the next week and a half I will only be in Castig F.no for 2 days so no posts for awhile. Take care everyone and I can't wait to share more with you!!!