heart of italy

10/10-14-10
Heart of Italy!
This weekend was our longest weekend here, and only because they cancelled classes on Monday and Tuesday, for the sole reason of our optional trip! Either way, it was exciting, and we started off early Friday morning with a trip to Cortona. Cortona is where the majority of the movie Under the Tuscan Sun takes place. Our culture teacher said we would probably be able to see the house, Bramasole, as we drove by, but we didn’t. We just watched the movie in culture class too, so it was pretty exciting to get to go here. It was walled, like Viterbo, nestled among the rolling hills of Tuscany, right out of a postcard. We recognized lots of places in the movie, and after seeing the church together, had a few hours to walk around on our own. We looked through the shops which sold leather bags and goods.
After a half day in Cortona, it was back to the bus to drive to Florence. We got there surprisingly fast (speed limits = optional here) though didn’t get to rest much on the bus because the bus driver was super loud and talked the entire ride to Frankie. Somehow our huge charter bus manages to fit down the tiny street that our hotel is on and stop long enough for us to get our bags out. Right away we notice markets in a pedestrian street directly next door to our hotel and we all stopped and stared! The markets were full of scarves, leather goods, jewelry, and shoes. And while they line the streets all the way to the Duomo, there was a lack of variety among what the stands sold. It was seriously like scarves, shoes, purses, scarves, shoes purse, etc, etc. but I guess that was good because we walked around looking for the cheapest ones and then bought all the things we wanted there. So this day we just walked around and saw the markets and made our way to the Duomo, which was amazing. All the colored marble and its just smack dab there in the middle of Florence, with cars driving by it and everything. We walked along some streets with shops and then had dinner outside in a piazza. The next day we got to go inside the Uffizi. Beforehand we walked around a little, saw the Ponte Vecchio and looked in some book shops for Under the Tuscan Sun, which we all needed for our Culture class. Then it was back to the Uffizi where we saw tons of famous artwork, mostly involving the Madonna and child. As Chase pointed out, maybe they should rename the museum to “JC’s House of Love”. Our tour guide for the Uffizi was crazy though. He spent like 20 minutes talking about one painting in every room and then would make us leave and we couldn’t see the rest. Then after about 5 paintings the tour was over! Well at least we had some time to look around on our own. Then we went out on the rooftop terrace with some good views of Florence. At that point it was getting late in the day and I think we just walked around (of course) went back to the hotel and then got some Chinese food (to go!) for dinner. Also, we got all ready to go out since we didn’t the night before (and apparently missed out), but no one called us/picked up there phones so we ended up just watching the only English language television channels (cnn, bbc world).
The next day we took a little side half-day trip to a town called Fiesole, up on the Tuscan hills overlooking Florence. It was an amazing little town, mainly visited for its great views. It was really old (as is everything in Italy) and even had remnants of a roman amphitheater. We went into the town cathedral and then started our hike up to the monastery, where the best views are located. It was a really steep hill; I don’t know how the nuns/monks do it! Italians are used to these hills, as well as stairs, and no escalators/elevators though. The uphill hike was well worth hit, however, when you look out onto the rolling hills and can even see the Duomo in Florence. Then we walked around the monastery grounds, got to go inside the church and see some older bedrooms. After all that, we just walked a little around the town of Fiesole then took the bus back to Florence for the rest of the day. In Florence we walked around the markets some more on our way to the Duomo so we could go inside. The inside was nice, but the dome was very impressive and I wish we would have had time to go up into it. Or even go up in the campanile. Later that day a bunch of us went to the Accademia to see the David statue together. We didn’t make the optional (more expensive, but recommended) reservations beforehand, but lucked out with getting a short line. There really isn’t much other art in the Accademia, there are a couple rooms with paintings and then a big room with sculptures, but David is the real sight. Some people don’t think it’s worth paying the 14 euro (or something like that) entrance fee (and you can’t even take pictures) but I thought it definitely was; the statue was so much cooler, more impressive and more powerful in real life. We just sat on the benches for awhile and stared, then took a couple of walks around, then walked around the museum and came back to it one more time. It was pretty cool. After dinner, we walked around the Ponte Vecchio and that area making our way to some castle to see the parks (which we closed seeing as it was 11pm on a Sunday). But we had some fun just doing nothing, even though it was a bit chilly. Also we saw an American singer street performer right outside the Uffizi, he was there every night and actually plays every night all year, so that was cool.
The next day we got up early for our trip to Pisa. Pisa is so touristy, which made me not like it too much. There are gypsy people that try and sell your stuff everywhere in Italy (and Europe) but it was like 10 times worse in Pisa than in anywhere else I had ever been. Anyways, we saw the baptistery and the cathedral and got to go inside both, but had to pay if we wanted to go up the leaning tower (which we didn’t). Mostly we all took a massive amount of incredibly stupid pictures of us holding up the tower and jumping in front of it. But everyone else there was doing it so it was really fun. The architecture there was pretty as well, not so Etruscan as we are used too (yay)! After about a half day in Pisa we got on the bus again to go to a town called Lucca. Lucca has a wall like Viterbo does, but this one has grass on top and you can walk around it, however it is quite high, so you can’t really walk on top of the wall but rather on the path beside it now because someone had just jumped off it the week before. We had a nice walking tour of the town. Lucca is where the composer Puccini is from. Our tour guide talked about the importance of the piazza in Italy and how the main church (beautiful by the way) and piazza surrounding it are the main meeting points for people in Lucca. Lucca was getting ready or a comic book convention that was going to take place so there were tents everywhere. Also in Lucca is a cool square type place where there are apartments and shops actually in a circle, because they were built on top of an old stadium. The aerial view is actually quite cool because there is a random empty circle in the middle of town and apparently this is the most expensive place to live in Lucca. Then we walked around during our free time, mostly around the wall, which was really pretty, before heading back to Florence. That night in Florence we decided to go to Piazzale Michelangelo because a bunch of people had went the night before and said it was amazing and had great views. It was amazing and did have great views.. however it was a pretty long, and then uphill, walk. Still I think it was worth it. The city at night was beautiful! We went to go meet some people near the Duomo that night so really we got to see a bunch of Florence at night, and then walked and walked and walked so more, I think in search of Peter, another usacer in Florence (not on the trip) for the weekend, ending up at a different famous church in Florence but eventually becoming so sick of walking that we gave up and went home.
The next morning we drove to Piazzale Michelangelo before heading out to Siena and then back home to Viterbo that night. It was funny to be there again, less than 12 hours after the first time we went, but it was nice to see it in the daytime. Then we got back on the bus and headed to Siena. In Siena we also did a walking tour and got to walk down the cute streets lined with flags, see the Piazza del Campo where the Palio is held, and go into the amazing Byzantine cathedral in Siena. The inside (as well as outside) of this cathedral was amazing. Such different architecture than we were used too, so much color! And lots of gold. Even the ceilings were painted and the floors were impressive mosaics! It was just too cool to even describe and the pictures don’t do it justice. After that we went to the campo and walked around and then had free time, and we ended up eating in a (Rick Steves recommended) restaurant right on the edge of the Piazza del Campo. It’s apparently really crazy when the horse races actually take place, and places to sit have been booked years in advance. It sounds cool, but I don’t know that I would actually want to be there for that! After we walked around Siena, looked in some shops, and then it was time to go back to Viterbo and back to school.