“You have five minutes to harvest all the organs.”  I couldn’t have said it better, Dwight.  But actually…

 

Welcome, one and all to what very well could be the last major installment of your favorite blog abroad!  Or at least I assume it’s your favorite.  It’s your favorite, right?  You know it is, don’t lie.  So let’s get down to business to summarize this trip.  Did we spend it moving or just in Florence?  It’s been busy days full of good stuff, but you can bet before we’re through, somehow I’ll make an Italian out of you.  If any of you realized what I just did and managed to sing that last bit, you’re probably qualified to write this blog from now on.

Yesterday we took a trip to Sienna in the morning and then headed up to San Giomignano.  Lucky for us the time of departure was taking a turn for the best since each day was starting progressively later.  As you could have guessed, we drove a ways down to Sienna for what would be about 3 hours of touring and roaming.  We met our guide by the entrance to St Dominic’s, the smaller of the churches of the city. By this point we were burnt out with all the tours we’ve been going on, so we weren’t too pleased to be given yet another headset to pin to our ear for the day.  Nonetheless, we set forth for a relatively short trek.  Our guide led us through the small, populated street which we discovered was the main road that led to Rome back in the day.  Actually, Sienna is divided into 17 districts that all had their own horse racing teams.  Each street had that district’s insignia above the street’s name so as to signify which zone people were in.  The only zone that was completely neutral was the center of the city, otherwise referred to as the Campo.  It’s in that square where the horse races are held, which really only lasts 75 seconds.  All their rivalries depend on the outcome of that yearly race.  A fun fact on top, for any of you who have seen Quantum of Solace (the James Bond movie), the horse race at the beginning is the one that occurs in the very same Campo.

Anyways, we passed by the Campo to get straight to the Duomo.  Duomo is the term Italians use for the main (and largest) church in the region.  In the case of Sienna, it was positioned at the top of the hill so its dome was visible from everywhere in the city and from up there one could see practically everything.  While it was a massive cathedral, it wasn’t quite St Peters massive.  Still, it was pretty impressive.  To save you time, I won’t go into detail about it, but rather you can admire the picture I took.

After perusing the cathedral, we took a route around the back to get a view of the valley.  On the other side of the valley was St Dominic’s, so it was interesting to see where we had come from.  Continuing around the back we came upon the baptistry of the cathedral.  I’ve got to say, it seemed like a weird place to be, but oh well.  That’s Italy summed up for you.  Further down the hill we came back to the Campo.  It was at that point the guide released us and as fast as hounds on the hunt, we ran off to find suitable meals and stores.  You know how I mentioned the districts earlier?  Well most of the stores in the area sold the flags of the teams and most of us bought one.  The teams have flags with very strange animals on them, going from giraffes to porcupines and even to snails.

 

Once our time was up, we got back in the bus and journeyed north to San Giomignano (pronounced Gym – an – yano, referred to as San Jimmy John’s).  It’s a terribly small city on the top of a well placed hill overlooking vast rolling fields and vineyards.  As I was informed, the city used to have two powerful families that fought for dominance by building towers taller than the other’s.  In its prime, it had 72 towers, but currently it has 14.  Not only that, but it used to be an unknown city, but one day some guy put up an article on the internet and then tourists arrived in droves.  Because of that, most of the shops lining the streets catered to tourists.  Lucky for us, it was pretty much empty since this is low season, but during the summer it’s supposedly hard to move due to the packs of tourists.

Well we spent 2 hours exploring on our own.  Some people climbed the tower, others went off shopping, and others just enjoyed the view.  It was a realllllllly nice view.

Two hours passed by and we travelled to our nearby destination; a local vineyard where we would have a wine tasting.  Our bus arrived at what looked like a gated villa, but inside the gate were vineyards and barrels upon barrels of what we could only assume was wine.  We were led into the nearby house that was outfitted with a huge kitchen and large tables.  I would guess they do this moderately often.  But anyways we were greeted by our host, Luigi’s nephew.  He explained the wines to us and instructed us in proper sniffing and drinking techniques that were quite effective.  As we drank the wines they brought plate after plate of food that progressively got more amazing as time went on (not sure if because of the wine or just because it was good).  Next to our plates they had a convenient note sheet where we could write down our thoughts.  Even more conveniently, the other side of the note sheet was an order sheet for their wines.  After that amazing tasting and meal, that order sheet was put to good use by everybody.

That wraps up yesterday, so let’s continue on to today.  On this lovely Saturday we went through the Academia museum and then Florence’s Duomo.  Like any other day, we met our guide in the morning and put on the headsets.  We promptly set off for the Academia museum, which is the museum that houses Michelangelo’s famous David statue.  There was a lot within the museum, but it was clear that the entire place revolved around that statue.  David was completed when Michelangelo was 31 and it stands 17 feet tall.  It’s fairly disproportionate since it was intended to be placed at the top of the building.  You know how people make it out to be so super impressive?  They’re right.  It is.

We spent a while admiring the statue and listening to our guide ramble, but then we got tired and left the museum.  Proceeding down the street we came up to the Duomo.  Like Sienna’s cathedral, Florence’s has a zebra striped pattern.

Unlike Sienna’s, Florence’s has a supermassive, double dome made of brick.  Until fairly recently, the secrets of its construction was unknown since the man behind it, Brunelleschi, was very secretive about his work.  It was this very dome that we would ascend for the next hour.  Its corridors and stairs were very narrow and, once at the dome’s actual bottom, forced people to share them with people traveling back down.  It was a bit cramped to say the least.

From the top, there was a spectacular view.  We were lucky that the weather had cleared up after the last couple of rainy and downcast days, so we had a bright and sunny view of all of Florence.  The top was fairly cramped with all sorts of people, but every now and then there was a clearing so we were able to snag some pics.  All in all, we spent about 1.25 hours going up and down the dome at what seemed like a snail’s pace.  It was fun but some people weren’t feeling good about those heights.

Well, that’s all folks!  Tomorrow we head to the Galileo museum and then back to Rome for our flight.  I might have a chance to update you all, but don’t hold your breath in case.  We’re all pretty nervous about coming back because we’ll miss Italy but we’ll also be happy to return to the norm.  I think most people’s list of “things to do” includes Chipotle, actually.  In case this is the actual end, thank you all for following the blog!  It’s been really fun all along the way.  I also have to thank our professors Barbara Zell and John Walker for doing an excellent job, as well as the school and our coordinator Claudio.  This trip has been an excellent time from every perspective.  We’ll see you on the other side, folks!

 

– Chris Apfeld