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Published: November 18th 2007
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Siena
main piazza Ciao tutti!
Sorry for the hiatus, I've been out and about being a world traveler, you know how it is. haha. But now you get to hear about my amazing weekend in Tuscany!
Saturday morning we left for a program-wide field trip to Tuscany, starting in Siena. After a 4.5 hour bus ride, we got a full tour of Siena and saw all the sights of the very medieval town. The highlight was the sunset over the Tuscan hills, because Siena is on a hill. That was just the beginning of the many beautiful landscapes we would see that weekend.
After an afternoon in Siena we went to the hotel to settle in and have dinner. Since they were cooking for 85 people it was not a fabulous meal, but it IS Italy so it was at least relatively good.
The next day we were up bright and early to go to Montalcino, a small-ish town in Tuscany, known for its wine Brunello di Montalcino, which is considered one of the best wines in the world. We got to climb to the top of this medieval castle, where we could look out on the miles and miles
of endless Tuscan countryside. It was so breathtakingly beautiful! There was also a soccer field next to the castle, so from the top of the castle we all lined up and watched a little-league soccer game. Cheering for these little Italian kids while standing on a medieval castle wall set against the backdrop of Tuscany, it really struck me just how lucky I was! I said to my friend Andy, "you know what's great? These kids will finish their game, go home, shower, have their big Sunday dinner..." and he finished the sentence by adding, "...and continue to have a pretty damn awesome life because they are Italian and live in the most beautiful town in the world?" Exactly.
Also in Montalcino, Michelle, Katie, Alex and I found this cute little restaurant where we had the most amazing lunch of our entire lives, including wine-tasting (of the famous Brunello di Montalcino) and cheese tasting. Undescribably unbelievable. Then we headed off to a monastery in Montalcino to watch monks do their daily Gregorian chants. Also pretty incredible. After that we went to Pienza, another small Tuscan town, to explore and see the beautiful views (and to try the pecorino cheese,
for which they are famous). After a long day of seeing all the beautiful things Tuscany had to offer, we headed back to the hotel.
For our last day, we stopped in Arrezzo for the afternoon. We saw some famous frescoes in the church of San Francisco, depicting the story of the True Cross (the cross on which Jesus was crucified). I had no idea about that story - it was so interesting! Here's a summary:
The wood of the True Cross came from a seed of the Tree of Life which grew in the Garden of Eden. When Adam lay dying, he begged his son Seth to go to the Archangel Michael and beg for a seed from the Tree of Life. As he died, the seed was placed in Adam's mouth and was buried. The seed grew into a tree and emerged from his mouth. After many centuries the tree was cut and the wood used to build a bridge over which the Queen of Sheba passed, on her journey to meet King Solomon. As she was about to cross the bridge, she was struck by a premonition that this would be the wood on which
Tuscan life
This picture epitomizes the Tuscan life - two old men just sitting and chatting, on a lazy Sunday afternoon in the most beautiful town ever. the savior would die, and she fell to her knees and worshipped it. On her visit to Solomon she told him that a piece of wood from the bridge would bring about the replacement of God's Covenant with the Jewish people, by a new order. Solomon, fearing the eventual destruction of his people, had the timber buried. But after fourteen generations, the wood taken from the bridge became the Cross of the Crucifixion. When the cross was eventually unearthed, it could not be distinguished from the other two crosses of the criminals that had died next to Jesus. Therefore, a dead body was placed next to each of the crosses in turn, and when placed next to the True Cross the body came back to life.
Also in Arrezzo we saw many of the piazzas and buildings that were used in the filming of La Vita è Bella (Life is Beautiful, the movie with Roberto Benini, about the Holocaust), which is where the family is supposed to have lived. That was really cool and interesting.
It is important to note that I actually lost my digital camera :-( So while I have made sure to steal some pictures
from friends to include for you guys, I spent that entire weekend without a camera. While frustrating at times, it has also been kind of nice, because I'm able to just enjoy the moment instead of worrying about getting the right picture to capture what I see - consequently, I've realized that often it's not just what you see but what you feel as well, and no picture can capture that. It's just like the John Mayer song, 3x5:
_________________
Im writing you to catch you up on places I've been
You held this letter, probably got excited, but theres nothing else inside it
Didn't have a camera by my side this time, hoping I would see the world with both my eyes
Maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm in the mood to lose my way with words
Today skies are painted colors of a cowboys clichè
And strange how clouds that look like mountains in the sky are next to mountains anyway
You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes - it brought me back to life
Youll be with me next time I go outside, just no more
3x5s
Guess you had to be there
Guess you had to be with me
Today I finally overcame trying to fit the world inside a picture frame.
_________________
Pretty accurate I'd say!
Also this week I got to see the Leonardo DaVinci's "Last Supper." Let me tell you, I know we've all seen the pictures and copies of that picture a million times, but seeing it up close and in person was as if I was seeing it for the first time. It is so powerful when you are seeing it live. Each character just emanates this humanity, these powerful emotions, just through their eyes and the way they are painted. It is unreal. Also just knowing that it is such a meaningful, important and famous piece made me just awe-struck to be standing in front of it. But there is one amazing thing that not many people know, that you see only in person and not in a picture - the fresco is takes up an entire wall of the dining room of a monastery, and Leonardo designed it to look like Jesus and the apostles were dining with the monks right in that very
room. Therefore he calculated and painted the perspective in the painting so that it looked like the room in the painting was an extension of the real dining room. It is unbelievable.
This week was certainly a culturally-enriching week, because I also got to go to La Scala, Milan's famous opera house! I was on the waiting list for tickets that my program purchased for us. Luckily for me, my friend Rocco, in a very Joey-from-Friends-esque moment, decided to stay home with a mortadella sandwich. I wish I was joking, but I'm not. So I got to take his ticket at the last minute! We saw a ballet called Le Parc, with music from Mozart. La Scala is the most famous opera house for a reason - it was breathtakingly beautiful. I'm glad I got to see it once before I left Milan, because it is definitely the experience of a lifetime.
Okay so I am going to save the details of this weekend in Bologna for later, for after I steal some pictures from my friends, so I can include the pictures in the post. So that's all for now, expect the Bologna (and Thanksgiving!) stories later
in the week.
Love you all, miss you all so much! I'll be home before you know it!
Bacci a tutti,
Jenna
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