What do you think of when you think of Italy? Probably what you have seen in the movies--the Trevi Fountain or the Colosseum. When I think of Italy, I think of the hill towns. Beautiful untouched landscapes. Thats Tuscany! Last weekend was another major adventure here in Italia! We took one of our mandatory class trips to Tuscany. This trip may have been "mandatory," but it was an amazing trip and well worth the long bus rides on winding roads!
Saturday morning was an early wake up to be on the bus ready to leave promptly at 8:00. We left around 8:15 and were off to the Toscana region of Italy. Here's a little confession: before coming to Italy I thought Tuscany was a town in Italy, but in reality it's a region! Good to know! Our first stop in Tuscany was Siena. Siena was such an amazing town. We got off the bus and headed into the center of the town. Our first stop was St. Dominic's Church. The coolest part about St. Dominic's was that it was the home parish to St. Catherine of Siena and the relic of her head is there! it was an amazing faithful experience! After St. Dominic's we went to a museum and than had some free time to explore. Rylee and I headed out to find some lunch and stumbled upon a pizzeria/bakery. We ate pizza and had some incredible cookies! After lunch we went shopping! Tuscany is known for their ceramics and their sunflowers, so during our shopping we went into so many beautiful ceramics stores. In many of them there were people painting the ceramics. In honor of the trip to Tuscany I bought a beautiful ceramic wine topper with a sunflower painted on top! Also, during our free time we were walking around and saw Guy Fieri from the Food Network! Awesome!! 
After shopping we went over to the Duomo to meet Dr. Dawson. Duomo may not be exactly what it sounds like. You probably think it sounds like dome, but a duomo is actually a cathedral. Most cathedrals have domes, so that is where the name came from. We went into the duomo of Siena and like all of the churches in Italy it was beautiful. After the duomo we walked to the home of St. Catherine. It was so amazing to see her home and the place where many of her miracles happened! This concluded out trip to Siena, so we got back on the bus and headed to Arezzo! Arezzo is another small hill town in Tuscany about an hour away from Siena. There we checked into our hotel and went to dinner. Dinner was a combo of Rigatoni Bolognese and Pork. Anytime we can get meat at dinner it makes for a great meal! The bread in Tuscany is different than any other bread I have had before, they don't put any salt in their bread, so it was really sweet--not my favorite. After dinner Dr. Dawson took us to the center of town in Arezzo where we had grapa--a strong liquor made from raisins. It was interesting to say the least!
On Sunday we spent the day in Arezzo. Ever seen the movie La Vita e Bella (Life is Beautiful)? Well it was filmed in Arezzo. We went to many churches and saw some of the oldest fresco paintings in Italy. My favorite part of Arezzo was the view. Rylee, Maggie, Danielle, Caroline, and I went up to a park to see this amazing view. It was so breathtaking. If you have been keeping up with my blog I also said this about Cinque Terre, but Tuscany is a different kind of breathtaking beauty. I don't know how to describe it, but it was amazing! Later we had some delicious pizza and gelato and went to meet the bus for our next activity!
This was definitely the best part of the whole trip! We went to Castello del Trebbio, (http://www.vinoturismo.it/) a winery near Florence for a wine tasting! We took a tour of the castle and saw where they house the wine and the olive oil they make. After we went for our wine tasting. We had four different types of wine. We learned the tricks to the color of wine, how to properly hold a glass, the swirling and "legs" to tell the alcohol content, and smelled it for its flavor. Then we got to do the tasting! We had a light white wine, a sweeter red wine, a dry red wine (my favorite), and a dessert wine. The dessert wine was paired with biscotto and we dipped our cookies into the wine. It was good until I accidentally spilled it on me. Whoops! The castle had an amazing view as well! It was so beautiful! After the tasting we had a traditional Tuscan meal with risotto, pork, and of course some of the wine we tasted! Delicious! After dinner we took the long winding roads back to the hotel for the night.
On Monday, our last day we went to two other towns. First we went to Pienza. Pienza was possibly my favorite of all the towns we visited. It was so simple in its beauty. The shops were precious, the cheese smelled amazing (they are know for their Pecorino), and the view was incredible! Unfortunately we only had about 45 minutes there. I would have loved to had some more time to explore. Our last stop of the trip was Orvieto in the Umbria region of Italy to take a tour of the duomo and have some free time to explore! A long bus ride later we were finally in Orvieto! The town was so neat. It is literally on top of a hill! We had to take a tram to get up there! We first went to the duomo. This duomo is home to the Corpus Christi, the corporal that the Eucharist bled on. Amazing!!! After the duomo we had the next 2 hours to ourselves. Rylee, Danielle, Caroline, and I explored and found a cute little place for lunch. I had gnocchi with truffles and porcini mushrooms and local dish! It was so good! We shared wine and had such a great time together! After lunch scoped out the town and found the church where St. Thomas Aquinas studied. Another awesome experience! After that we went to the bus and were headed back to Rome! It was great to have a weekend out of the city and it was truly an amazing time!!
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