toscana and umbria

I forgot to tell you, blog world, that last week, my host mom made OCTOPUS for dinner, which I tried. Even more amazing than me trying it, I actually really liked it – even though it was purple and white and had tentacles! This weekend was an adventure of trying new things, though none as adventurous as octopus, and so I’ve decided that in addition to my favorite gelato flavors, I’m going to keep a list of new foods I’ve tried since getting to Italy…you might be impressed.

Now, for today…I am exhausted! Last night we arrived home from a tiring – but awesome – weekend in Tuscany and Umbria!

On Friday, we went to Hard Rock Café after our exams were over for some American food. We had nachos, ribs, cheeseburgers, barbeque chicken, barbeque beef, fries, beans, coleslaw, and free water with ice in it. You do not understand how amazing it is to have free water until you start paying 2 euro a pop for bottles of natural water – which doesn’t even make sense because they have the best tap/fountain water in the world here.

Saturday morning, we left very early for Siena. It was absolutely gorgeous there, we went to the Basilica (Duomo) and the Duomo’s museum – which includes some of the most beautiful paintings in it. We also went to St. Catherine of Siena’s house where she grew up and to San Domenico, where her head is has been conveniently been dried out and put on display.

After spending the day in Siena, we left for Arezzo. We got to Arezzo in time for dinner – pasta with wild boar, pork, and gelato cake (their version of ice cream cake). We all went out as a group (including our teacher J ) to a bar – in the Italian sense, which means it’s a place to get sandwiches and coffee – which turned into a discoteca at night…odd. Our teacher suggested grappa to us – which is brandy made from the leftovers of grapes after they’ve been pressed for wine – which is also disgusting. Anyway, we had fun despite the gross drinks.

The following morning, we did a walking tour of Arezzo. We went to the Piero della Francesca frescoes, which are super famous and wonderful. We attended mass at Pieve di Santa Maria, which has one of the most amazing façades in all of Italy. We had a bit of free time for wandering, and found a great antiques market, with a great selection of things – including some funky earrings J ALSO – probably the coolest thing – we saw the Piazza where La vita è bella was filmed!!! After an exhausting morning in Arezzo, we took a bus up to the Florentine hills to a 900-year-old medieval castle, Castello di Trebbia, for a tour and wine tasting! The castle was the location of a plot by the Pazzi family to kill the two main brothers (Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother – that’s for you, Vince) of the Medici family, which used to be the richest and most powerful family in all of Florence. We got to see where the Pazzi family sat around, conspiring to kill their leaders…pretty fun! We tried four different types of their wine and their extra virgin olive oil, both of which were amazing. We returned home in time for dinner – pasta with pancetta; kebabs of veal, pork stuffed with spinach and cheese, chicken wrapped in prosciutto, and freshly made sausage; for dessert, we had meringue cake with a cream filling and dark chocolate sauce. Our intention then was to stay up and watch the super bowl, but no one made it to 5 am – or whenever it ended – and I went to bed after the first quarter.

Yesterday morning, we were up early to leave for Assisi. We saw the basilica of St. Francis, with his tomb in it, and the basilica of St. Clare (Francesco & Chiara), with her tomb in it. Both basilicas were amazing; with many beautiful frescoes depicting their lives. We had a couple hours to explore Assisi and try its food – we had pasta with truffles for lunch – before we had to head back to Rome. Assisi is up on top of a mountain (as most cities were in medieval times for defense purposes) and provided us with some of the most gorgeous views of Umbria.

Both Tuscany and Umbria are beautiful regions of Italy – full of gorgeous landscapes, delicious food, and amazing sights. Unfortunately, it was a little cold and rainy while we were there, or else it would have been perfect. On Saturday, it was actually very sunny in Siena and we had our lunch outside sitting in the main public square. When we got back to Rome, it was beautiful outside, not cold, and there was a great breeze – I must say, I’m glad to be back to our warm weather (its almost 60 and sunny today) and to class, but our trip was amazing!

My most favorite part of the whole trip were the frescoes depicting St. Francis’ life in his basilica and his tomb. It was so eerie to sit down in the crypt of the church and know that his remains were there with us…

Although both Tuscany and Umbria have amazing landscapes, the most beautiful sight we saw was Lake Trasimeno, which is a glacier lake that is just across the border of Tuscany, in Umbria. It literally stretches on for miles and even has a little island in the middle of it – I think that might be an ideal living spot…

This week will be busy as we are beginning our new Italian classes today. This weekend is empty right now, but might be good for a small weekend trip…I’ll keep you posted. Venice (and with it, Carnivale) are coming up the weekend after – I can’t believe it’s already February!


Pictures will be up soon...