Roughin' it in Cortona

After class on a Tuesday afternoon, Caroline and I decided to go on an adventure. We had watched under the Tuscan Sun with Diana Lane a few nights before, and some of our other friends went to Cortona when we went to Slovenia, so we decided it was going to be a great afternoon to go to Cortona! Another little Tuscan town nested up on a GIANT hill with lots of vineyards everywhere, we took a 2 hour train ride to get to the precious little Italian town. One of the guys who lives downstairs, Jay, joined us on the trip, too!

We hopped off the train, and instead of walking the 7 KM (about 4 miles) straight uphill, we took a bus because we got there around 3 and had to catch the last train at 9. Once we got to the top, I couldn't believe the view! It was also perfect weather and not so smoggy so we could see really far. We quickly realized that Cortona wasn't a huge tourist town, and thank goodness Jay came with us because everyone only spoke Italian. No way would Caroline and I have survived since we only had taken about 8 level 1 Italian classes.












Cortona felt like the San Francisco of Italy: every street was straight up, or straight down, the curbs sometimes had special cement stoppers for the cars, and everyone drove an SUV. Much different from the inner city smart car! We walked around for a few hours, through the main park, down every single street, and even sat in the park and split a bottle of wine, looking at the amazing view. There were also a lot of outdoor cats, grandparents walking with their grandchildren, and stumbled upon an indoor tennis club, too! Through the park is a very wide trail with perfectly lined trees and took us to places I didn't think were legal... we hopped the fence to see their outdoor amphitheatre (again, amazing view). We soon realize there is a castle in the distance, so of course we wanted to go to that, too!





From the amphitheatre, there was a trail that went through thick grasses and by a deserted pool. We were walking over rocks, burrs attached to our pants, and eventually reached the castle. Of course on the wrong side of the wall, which was 20 feet high... we walked along it and found a tini little doorway in the wall, and since we didn't want to trek back, we opened it and found there was a big tunnel under the castle! Walked through it, and found a small opening in the wall that brought us back outside. Crawled on hands and knees (thank goodness I did not wear my boots on this trip) and found ourselves on the right side of the wall! We went up a flight of staircases, walked along the castle to the front door and realized it was closed.

We weren't bummed out for too long because we were at the highest point in Cortona, so it was quite an accomplishment in the end. Climbed on some rocks, took pictures of the setting sun, and walked along the actual pedestrian trail to get back into the main part of the city.



On our way down, there was very large Greek Church, luckily still opened, and was it beautiful! Saint Margarets was nothing short of the Duomo in Florence: Murals on every inch of ceiling, sculptured pillars, detailed and colorful stain glass windows, an organ the size of my house, and an alter that was over 400 years old, yet still in perfect condition. There was something new to this church that I had never seen before though, and it still creeps me out a little thinking about it today, but they had THE REAL Saint Margaret mummified, in a glass casket, on the alter in the middle of the church. She was very dead, nicely dressed, but still very dead. That was my que to leave, and as we walked out we saw the sunset through the trees and all of the way into town. On our way back, Jay translated a monument that said that Pope John Paul II had been to that church in 1993, and it was "a very cordial, rich, and beautiful church". Luckily for Jay and his translation skills, I would have had no clue what it said.

By now it was 7:30, and we still had to grab some dinner. Found a little bar/restaurant with two Italian brothers, and they made some amazing chicken and spinach tortellini, with the side of olive oil and bread. While we were leaving at 8:30, we found out that the buses stopped running at 8, and there was no way that we were going to be able to walk the 7 KM in half an hour to catch the last train. Jay spoke with the wife of one of the Italian men, and she drove us to the train station! There are so many great people in Italy, and we caught our train with 5 minutes to spare. Made it back safely to Florence, finished my homework, and headed straight to bed. Funny how hiking up giant hills makes people tired. Good night! Much love, AF

Romulus and Remus in Siena!

Here we go again on another Italian adventure! On Saturday, February 25th, along with my roommates Emma, Caroline, and friends from Gustavus Katie and Nicole, we went to Siena! Such a BEAUTIFUL little Italian town with a much more humbling and appreciative culture/people, it had the feel of Florence but not so touristy. The city of Siena is still surrounded by a tall guard wall, and placed high up on a very steep hill and surrounded by houses and apartment complexes. We had to take a bus from the train station to get up the hill (or else it would have been a long 5 mile walk) and quickly found ourselves in the middle of the town!

All of the streets in the main part of Siena surround the main piazza, but before we got there we passed the world's first bank! Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena was stablished in 1492, and still is used for banking today. A wonderful volunteer guide helped lead us to the Piazza del Campo where the first cathedral of Siena was built, and there was also a very cute fountain that was surrounded by worried parents and kids trying to climb into it to swim! Whats cool about the Piazza del Campo (built in 13th century) is that it is shaped and the bricks are laid so its like a seashell divided into 9 parts, symbolizing fish and water, and each section represents an important ruler during the time of construction. The fountain was also a main source of water for the people who lived inside the wall. Of course we took pictures!


Throughout the city of Siena, there are MANY statues up on single pillars that depict the brothers Romulus and Remus suckling on a she-wolf. According to legend, the wolf raised the two boys as her own, and then Remus died later in life, Romulus found Rome, and Romulus' son Senius found Siena. Theres a lot of Greek god stuff thrown in there, like the brothers being conceived by Mars or Hercules with a virgin. Left to die, that's where the wolf came in and they grew up to be leaders and conquerers. Great story, right? At least that's my version.



We were able to go inside the atrium of the cathedral, but that was about the furthest we could go. Since Italy has so many churches, we quickly found ourselves discovering other little hidden churches around the town (one that was very similar to the Duomo in Florence). We stopped for pizza first though. And it was the best I've had so far, the slices were the size of my face and I don't even think my brothers could finish off an entire pizza if their lives depended on it. There were so many more small, family owned shops around Siena- bakeries, gelaterias, oil/cheese shops, ceramics/pottery- and many more!

The other great thing about Siena is that it is much more child-friendly, and we even found a playground to burn some steam off and the swing set overlooked a large chunk of Tuscany. It may have been my favorite part because you could swing for hours and see for miles, a great view of the city, mountains, vineyards, houses with real yards (those don't exist in Florence), and it was peaceful. Brought out my inner child for about 10 minutes! haha (Side note: Tuscany is the state/region that Florence, Siena, Lucca, and Pisa are in... There are 20ish states in all of Italy. so when people refer to Tuscany, it's like saying "the midwest" comparably to the USA, but theres much more culture, cheese and wine here than in the midwest).







Siena is very different because of the streets: they go up and down, and swerve and lead you to dead ends and secret alley ways like I've never seen before. It also made for a great work out and plenty of fresh air! We also snuck into a university that had stain glass doors with a huge open terrace on the other side with a basketball court that overlooked many more vineyards. I could definitely go to school here with a view like that! Some students looked at us funny, so we snuck out and then came across a huge gated garden next to it. We couldn't figure out how to sneak in there, but it was really cool to look through the gates and gaze up at the palm trees/flowers.

After exploring Siena for about 5 hours, of course we wanted to go to another city nearby, so we went to the bus station to get tickets to go to San Gimignano (Jim-in-yan-o). Of course we can not do a trip without goofing something up or something funny happening, so if you want to hear about it, read on! First off, we had to get special bus tickets because it was to another city. We get to the ticket office down at the bottom of the city (at the train station) and we do our best to talk to the bus ticket man. He sells us bus tickets and gives us the schedule. Assuming there were still buses running at 4PM, we checked the schedule and the next bus was at 4:15. Waited out by the other buses, and waited some more, then 4:25 comes along and no bus to San Gimignano shows up! So we go inside and after trying to understand each other for 10 minutes, we soon realize we had to go back up to the bus station in the city center to catch our bus. But the 4:15 bus was the last one of the day. So now I have bus tickets to Sanny (thats what Emma calls it because its hard to pronounce), which will be another adventure another day! So we trained it back to Florence, and got dinner at a wonderful Florentine restaurant across the river ran by 3 old men that were brothers, and their sons. Best pasta I had yet, and can't wait to go back. We also walked around until 11PM, then called it a night. What a wonderful day again in Italy. Next stop: Cortona (seen the movie Under the Tuscan Sun??) Much love, AF