What a whirlwind of a week! The plans changed a LOT because the weather here is atrocious. Is that how you spell atrocious? Moving on . . . The most momentous event this week was Danielle and I being brave enough to make tomato soup from scratch! We roasted our vegetables and everything! It was delicious and beautiful... and fun! Also, there was grilled cheese!
Rome was the name of the game but with the epic blizzard, we decided to be a little less ambitious. We set our sights on Siena because it was still in Tuscany and a one-and-a-half hour ride by bus. We'd been told, "Don't expect much from Siena. It's boring." Needless to say, we were getting cabin fever so we were looking for any excuse to GET OUT, no matter where we ended up. We left at 8:30am on Friday and were off the bus by 10:30. We checked into our hotel and set out to see what we could see. It was clear by about 2pm that it was only going to get colder and colder. The main thing we wanted to see was the Duomo of Siena. I was shocked when I walked in to see stripes. Everywhere. It honestly looked like Cruella Deville:
Right?
Another interesting fact: These gorgeous buildings don't promote temperature control. I could see my breath the whole time I was there. It was beautiful but the same temperature as it was outside. I bought some rosary beads. Normal. One of the girls is catholic so she was giving us a tutorial on traditional ceremony. I just find it all so fascinating. I got to pray and light and candle, which was all really peaceful. This picture looks really serious but I wasn't upset or anything, I promise:
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking into random chapels and shops. I love looking at leather! It is seriously one of the best smells ever. My family already knows this but for the longest time, I've wanted a brown leather backpack. The size is negotiable but the slightly worn, vintage look is preferable. So when I walked into this leather shop and saw the bag of my dreams on the shelf, it was all I could do to walk calmly over to it and assess the situation without squealing. Here's the problem: As I've already told you, while I was in Cortona, I bought an expensive, pretty green leather messenger. I can't very well explain doing that twice. I had to talk myself out of this bag because it was just too much. Plus, we have Carnivale in Venice next weekend to save for. I had to ask Danielle to take me away. Sometimes you have to physically pull a girl away from a bag. You understand.
We were told to check out the most popular pub in Siena. It wasn't hard to decide to do that with a name like, The Dublin Post. You had me at Dublin. It was so quaint! The walls were green and everything was Irish-themed. Danielle and I felt a little less like freaks with our red hair! We were so excited when we met Brits there, too! English! English! We are literally startled every time an English speaking person comes into the room. We went upstairs to a room that was a little secluded. Two old men came and heard that we were speaking English. One of them proceeds to call his 17-year-old nephew to tell him to come meet us? Uh, okay, old men? I mean, I'm flattered that you want us to meet your family but you could've asked us how we would feel about that... So his nephew brought a herd of friends and they all congregated to stare. We let the poor babies hang out with us; but they were devastated when we left. I think they thought they had found their ticket to 'merica.
We came back to our hotel and had to push two twins together so we could fit in the bed. Danielle got the crack and hasn't stopped complaining about it since.
This morning we visited an old aqueduct and found this giant pool filled with fish! If you're American and see geese or fish, you immediately find bread to feed them. As if nature doesn't offer it's own forms of nourishment.
Finally, we headed to the Basilica Cateriniana di San Domenico. This church's ceilings were blank but five stories tall. The fact that it wasn't as ornamented made its height much more loud. I often wonder how many men died when they made these huge buildings. Maybe it's because I'm imagining rickety wooden scaffolding. But the major shocker of this church was the holy relic of Saint Caterina. This saint's deteriorating head is still being displayed. For those of you who know how expressive I am, imagine my face when I figured out that her head was real. See for yourself:
CRAZY.
This weekend is Venice for Carnivale! It'll be an expensive weekend so I've got to spend meagerly this week. It costs about 50€ to get there one way. Then we have to pay for our hostel for two nights and pay about the same to return home. We wanted to go to Verona on Sunday on our way back in honor of Valentines Day. We also don't know the next time we'll be that North so we want to do what we can while we're up there. We're also taking our first field trip with Renaissance Art to Florence on Wednesday. I expect this week to be super adventurous!
For tomorrow? I'm going to a catholic service at the Duomo with my catholic friends! I can't wait to experience that!
Here are a few pictures from our lovely weekend:
^^ Me hijacking someone's Vespa.
^^The Mighty Ducks take Siena (Don't Ask).
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