The Places We Call Home

         Okay so it turns out that I’m not very good at this whole blog thing, but I’m still going to stick with it until the end of the semester for my friends and family. (Even if not that many of them are reading it) There is always so much going on that I don’t blog that much and then when I finally sit down to do I forget all the interesting things that occurred.

            I’ll start this blog on Sunday February 12^th when we left for Tuscany that morning. It began as three-hour bus ride to Siena, and for those of you that don’t know Tuscany is a region, not a city. It’s like New England or the Mid West in the States. The most popular cities that people know in Tuscany are probably Florence and Siena. All of our class trips this semester are geared towards what we are studying in our classes. In Christology we have been studying the life of Catherine of Siena so naturally the first place we traveled to was her home. We only looked from the outside because it wasn’t open on Sunday so it wasn’t anything too exciting, just your typical Siena home. Afterwards we went to the duomo in Siena. I have been to so many duomo’s its not even funny. Basically ever city in Italy was a big church that is a duomo or a Cathedral for us Americans. We’ve seen a million churches, but all the duomo’s are pretty cool. We found this great little place to have lunch afterwards. One of the best things about Italy is that there are a million mom and pop restaurants that are amazing. You find them everywhere you go and they never disappoint.

After lunch we met up with the group again to visit a nice museum in the center of the city. For those of you have seen the last James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace the opening scene is filmed in the center of Siena. They have these horse races every summer right in the center piazza, the two times I’ve been to Siena I always think of that opening scene where Daniel Craig chases the bad guy through the crowd. So if you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about, if not look it up on YouTube its pretty cool. The museum was nice, but the best part was you could go to the top of the tower to see a beautiful view of the countryside.

            We finished up Siena with a nice mass at the church where Catherine of Siena’s body was located, then drove to Arezzo where we were staying for the next two nights. Dinner that night was with the entire group in the hotel, nice little four-course meal to end the night. The next morning we got up early and headed to the center of Arezzo for the day. We went to a really old church where Dr. Dawson gave us a nice lecture about the place. Afterwards he took us to see these really cool frescos in petro del Francesca and gave us a little back-story about it. After lunch the entire group headed to this winery about an hour and a half away. I stayed behind because I got a little sick after lunch, which really sucked but everyone said it was really cool to see and a lot of fun. Also, my lovely girlfriend sent my parents a nice bottle of wine, which was very nice of her.

            The next morning we got on the bus and headed to a small little town called Pienza. It was this little quant town on top of this big hilltop that was restored by Pope Pius so they named the town after him. The hilltop was really beautiful to see in the snow.  We only stayed there a short while before getting back on the bus and traveling to our last stop, the town of Orvieto. The first thing we did in Orvieto was eat (Naturally because this what you do in Italy most of time) but the place we went to was really good. After eating and walking around the town Dr. Dawson gave us a tour of the duomo in the center of town. Both Pienza and Orvieto were really quick stops, but overall very quant cities. We headed back to Rome that night and go in at around seven pm.

            The rest of that week was really snooze and cruise. I only had one day of classes that Wednesday then Thursday- Sunday off which was sweet. We were going to take a trip for the long weekend, but all the places we wanted to go to were way too expensive so we just took the time to relax. We went out a lot that weekend and tried a lot of new restaurants and bars that were all very good. Going out here can be really expensive, but there isn’t really any way around it.

            It is now Thursday the 23^rd and were getting ready to go tonight for this girls birthday. This week has been really busy with classes because mid terms are next week so everyone is studying around here. I talked to Dr. Dawson the other day about maybe leaving a week early in April in order to make it down to Mexico for my uncles wedding. He said it was all right with him if I can clear it with all my teachers so hopefully that all works out. This weekend is also the last week we are not traveling for the rest of the time here so after mid terms I’ll try to write as much as I can, but I’m not making any promises. Next week will be mid terms then it’s off the London & Prague for spring break so I will check in in a couple of weeks.