May 28-30, 2010 Florence, Italy

I apologize for not updating this in a few days but I have been super busy!! I will attempt to catch everyone up on what I have been doing. First I will start with friday the 28th.

Friday May 28:
The day started with classes that were not very fun, but the information I am learning is very interesting. Then after classes I had lunch at the hotel which consisted of a tomato risotto, chicken with red and orange peppers, some string beets, and then ice cream for dessert. Then Sarah and I headed for the train station and took a train to Assisi with out any problems once we figured out what train we were looking for! :)
The ride to Assisi was not bad at all I think it took about 2.5 hours, when we got to Assisi we started walking to our hostel, the only problem was we had very little idea where we were going since we had directions but no map and the streets are not very well labeled in many areas. We finally did make it to the hostel just in time to check in and have dinner. We shared a room with two lovely other women that were traveling, the first was from Toronto and it was her birthday, the other was from South Korea originally but is studying for a year in England. Dinner at the hostel started with a very very yummy zucchini and cheese pasta dish, followed by a not as yummy pork chop and salad. We did have a birthday cake for Lizet after dinner which is hard to describe so that I will do in person. Since it was Lizet's birthday; her, Sarah, and I went out wandering into Assisi to see if we could celebrate. I did get some very nice night photos of Assisi.
Saturday May 29:
After breakfast at the hostel the four of us girls headed out to Assisi to start looking at the sites, since I was on a limited time frame. The first church we went to was Basilica of San Pietro which is located right by the bottom of the city walls. That church was beautiful, after that we headed to the west to reach the Basilica of San Francesco which is one of the most popular churches in Assisi since St. Francis is buried there among some of his early followers. Also this is the church that has many frescoes on the walls that are done by many famous artists including Giotto and Simone Martini. A picture of the outside of the church is below.
After the tour of San Francesco, we went to Chiesa of Santa Maria sopre Minerva, this was the first church built in Assisi and is the location of where St. Francis renounced his father and all of his wealth to follow in God's path for him. The next place we visited was San Damiano which is a little bit out of the city walls, but that was the church that St. Francis was in when he heard the cross tell him to rebuild his church as it was crumbling around him. We then went back into the city walls to see the Basilica of Santa Chiara (St. Claire). This is the church where St. Claire is buried and where the original cross that spoke to St. Francis is located. After this church we were running low on time so we took a bus down to the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli where St. Francis died and his miracles took place. The pictures below are some of the views to be seen while walking around Assisi.
So after the last church I had to get on a train back to Florence, since I had a winery tour the next day, Sarah decided to stay another day in Assisi so this was where we split off. I did make it back home ok and so did Sarah.

Sunday May 30:
Today was my winery tour and we left the train station on a bus at around 8:30am and got home around 9:00pm, so it was an all day affair. We drove out into the hills of Tuscany for all three wineries. The first was a pretty cool looking place and we tried a rossa and a brunello wine there that were pretty tasty but I did not buy any. We didn't have all that much time here to stay since we had to move on to the next winery. The next winery we stopped at was called Prima Donna which is run entirely by females and we got a really good tour of how they make the wine and the history of the location, but we were supposed to be able to try about 10 wines but they made us leave after I only tried 4 of them, so that was disappointing for all involved. It was around 1pm at this point so we drove to a small town called Pienza and had lunch.

My lunch at Pienza was a ravioli in a cream and walnut sauce, not the best but not terrible at all. We were able to wander the town for a bit and see some pretty good views, but then it was back to the bus for the last winery. The last winery was so much fun because the man person that took us around, Mario, can speak no English at all and he is an 80 year old man that was too adorable about his story telling and explanation of the wine making process. We had a semi-formal(ish) wine tasting here where we tried a rossa, brunello, and another brunello (different year I believe) then finished with biscotti and grapa(?) a high proof dessert wine that is really expensive and very strong. The trip back to Florence was long and tiring, and I have to be up super early tomorrow to go to Rome with the entire group plus teachers so Ciao!!!