Another great week

This past week has been wonderful. All of us on the program are really starting to get to know each other and so we are rotating have dinner at each other's apartment. So on Monday night we had everyone over for dinner for my roomate Stephanie's birthday and then later in the week I went to to other apartments for dinner and it was so fun. I am an awful cook, and the boys are putting me to shame. Everyone on the trip has been great, we all get along so well and I feel so lucky to be with such great people.

The weeks seem to fly by and before you know it, it is the weekend again! We had a class field trip to San Giminiagno and Sienna on Friday, which are two medival towns right outside Florence. Siena is much bigger and is actually considered one of Florence's rivals on many different levels, so it was funny to hear the persepective of our tour guide in Sienna on Florence.
San Giminiagno was my favorite of the two. It was this cute small mideval village that was a walled city. I felt like I was literally transported back in time. We went in a tortue museum that was really interesting and very disturbing at the same time, and we just explored the little town. Within the walled cities, no cars, bikes, or mopeds are allowed on the streets, so it was so refreshing to just walk around without having to dodge cars or bikes! In Florence, there are so many people, so it was refreshing to just see a different towns. Siena was also a mideval town with beautiful old brick buildings, and in the same way no cars, bikes, or transportation is allowed in the central part of the city, so it was a lot of fun to just wander around. They have the cuttest shops there. We also got to go inside of Siena's Duomo, which was unbelievable. The outside of Florence's Duomo is more impressive, but the inside of Siena's was just so beautiful. Every inch of it was covered in mosiacs, painting or marble. I felt to honored just to be in there and it was just neat to see how much effort was put into the churches back then, it really was meant to be a sanctuary. I had such a great day visiting both of those places and I would love to go back and spend more time there.

The rest of the weekend I just enjoyed being in Florence for the first time. It is def busier there on the weekends. I painted for my watercolor class in the Boboli Garderns and on Sunday we went to church at the Duomo. That was such a cool experience, to be in one of the oldest Duomos in the world, attending a mass that has literally not changed at all since then. I am not catholic, but it was neat to see the tradition on the church. It was all in Italian, but very interesting none the less.

It was great to just be in Florence this weekend!