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Published: March 6th 2008
Hey guys,
So the first few pictures are from a couple weekends ago when we went to Tivoli. It is a pretty small, quiet town with very beautiful gardens. The most famous of which is the Garden of 100 fountains. Most of my pictures of Tivoli are from there.
So this past Friday we took a class trip to Siena. As always, we saw churches and the like taking tours from some of our professors and friends of the college. In art history we each have to give an on-site project, and this trip was the kick-off to all projects. I didn't give one this weekend, instead I give mine this coming week on our trip to Northern Italy. Pray for me, please! My project is on the mosaics in the central nave of Sant'Apollinare Basilica. There's a lot to get through, but I think I've got it covered.
Anyway, in Siena we visited St. Dominick's Basilica, which was very big, very cold, and very beautiful. St. Catherine's head and thumb reside there... kind of creepy, but pretty cool as well. From St. Dominick's we walked through the city, which was very interesting. It is rather small but
seems completely vertical if that makes sense. Every street seems to be either up hill or down hill... very hard on the quads!
So, from St. Dominick's we walked through some of the town and visited the Duomo and the Baptistry. Both were very cool. I could get all art-history on you guys and explain the color schemes and the architecture, but I want you all to keep following this blog, so I will spare you. Either way, I noticed this past weekend that it is way cooler seeing things in person than on a slideshow in class.
AFter our morning tours we were given a break for lunch, which we ate in the square in front of the town hall... pretty cool because a lot of people were around. After our break the rest of the group headed back to Rome, but a few of us picked up our bags and headed to the train station.
After a few hours on the train we all arrived in Florence. Florence is awesome! I highly recommend it to anyone traveling to Italy. It is a interesting city with room to breath. It was a nice break from Rome,
but with more to do than Siena. The hostel we stayed at, the Archi Rosi, was very cool. (Never thought I would say that) It was clean, busy, and decorated with a lot of personal paintings and signed walls. It is a tradition there to write a little something on the walls before you leave, which I think is very cool. It was a cool place though because it was pretty close to the Basilica and the restaurants and stuff. Also, we got free breakfast and a free hour of internet which was very nice... saved us a few euro.
We have gotten into the habit of trying the food specialties of each place we go. Siena has a type of cake (which isn't like our cake at all) that was decent. Florence, however, has a very good specialty: the desert waffle. They put nutella on them, or gelato, or fruit... either way its good! We all made sure we got one before we left.
We got up early on Sunday, got some breakfast and walked across the river to church at one of the many Santa Maria's. From church we headed back to the hostel got our
bags and headed off to the train station. We got tickets for a super-fast train and were back in Rome by 2:30. Exhausted, I showered and chilled out in my room.... I tried to get a start on my art history project but didn't get very far.
For now, that's about it. We leave at 6am tomorrow for Northern Italy. I won't be home until Saturday, which means I won't be able to update anything for another week or so. Hope everyone is well and that things are starting to warm up at home. Let me know how everyone is.
Mom and Dad, I will see you two in a week!!!
Always,
B
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