Goodbye Cortona, Hello Rome

We left Cortona early on Monday morning for Rome. The view was completely cloud covered. It was sad we couldn't see it one more time, but it looked pretty awesome.

We ran all over Rome and saw so many things! I saw the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain and lots and lots of other buildings. (these are pictures of the Trevi)

For the last two hours of our tour we went to the Vatican. It was incredible! I wish we had more time, we practically had to run through it and didnt even see it all. But, we did get to see the Sistine Chapel! This is a picture of the ceiling of one of the many rooms in the Vatican.

After dinner, a group of us went out to see the Trevi Fountain again and the Colosseum and get some gelato one last time.

Now, after 18 hours in route, I am back home in America. Italy was awesome!

Firenze

This weekend we went to Florence! It was great, we went to the Uffizi and walked around the city.

This is a picture of the Duomo, unfortunately it is closed to the public on Sundays so we could not go inside, but the outside is still beautiful.

On Saturday night there was a guy playing a guitar and singing outside the Uffizi. He was amazing! We sat around and listened to him and looked out over the piazza for a couple of hours. It was wonderful.

Sunday morning we got breakfast at a local cafe and went to the market. Great weekend!

Montepulciano and Failed Sunrises

We went on a fieldtrip to Montepulciano and got to tour around the city. This is the clocktower in one of the main piazzas. (It is where New Moon was shot).

We also went into Cantina del Redi. It was so neat, we went down into the cellar and there were huge oak wine barrels in awesome stone rooms. (Also in New Moon)

Then, we went to a vineyard/winery called Polizaino and toured around and ate lunch.

There are still a lot of medieval type festivals going on in Cortona. The other night we watched a flag throwing competition.

We have been told one thing we have to do before we leave Cortona is watch the sunrise. So, about 5 of us woke up at 5:30 one morning, only to discover that you cannot see the sunrise from where we are, it is hidden behind a mountain. The valley still looked gorgeous, though.

On Saturday in Cortona there was the Santa Margherita Patronal Festival. Some of us got to dress up and be a part of everything. We paraded through the city in medieval costumes, watched a ceremony in one of the piazzas then climbed up to St. Margherita Church and attended a Catholic mass in Italian.

Sunday was nice, we had a picnic and went exploring.

We found Frances Mayes' house from Under the Tuscan Sun.

Then we just wandered Cortona some more, there are always more sidestreets to explore here.

Fieldtrips and Swords

We have been learning a lot out in the Vineyard lately about different parts of the vine. It is pretty interesting. We went on a fieldtrip to an agricultural high school here that grows grapes and makes their own wine. The first picture is us with one of our professors, Fritz, looking at some vines on our campus. The next is the vineyard at the high school.

After the high school, we went to this awesome resort that grows grapes and makes wine. We toured around and then did a wine tasting. I got to open a 35 euro bottle of sparkling wine with a sword! How awesome is that?

Good Food and Antinori

Everyone has been talking about this restaurant called Bar 500, so we went for lunch on Monday. It was delicious! I got a proscuitto tomato mozzarella focaccia with a salad and potato chips.

Tuesday we went on a field to the Antinori Vineyard in Cortona. We got a tour and had lunch and tasted 4 of their wines.

On the way to get gelato Tuesday night we saw this beautiful sunset :)

Pisa!

Yesterday a group of 9 of us took a day trip to Pisa. We visited the Leaning Tower of Pisa and took a million uber touristy pictures, it was great! Watching all of the tourists attempting to take the 'holding up the tower' picture was one of the most entertaining things I have ever seen

I ran into my high school friend, Alisa, in the McDonalds in the train station of Pisa. What a small world!