Hellooo everyone!
I have been here a week now!
It has been a couple days since my last post. I will do my best to sum everything up.
Wednesday we had classes and the weather was cold/ raining (still). I wasn't feeling that great so I slept all day after class and skipped dinner (which is a big deal for me). I think it has something to do with the cold weather and our apartments not having heat. Yep, that'll do it. Everyone in the group is starting to get sick.
Yesterday was our field trip to Florence. Our first stop was the Uffizi Museum. We had a guided tour and got to see a number of paintings that we've been studying in Art History, which is a little bit surreal. So much to see, and so much history. Once again, words really don't do it justice.
After our tour at the Uffizi we had planned on going to the Academia to see Michelangelo's David, but we couldn't get enough tickets for the whole group. Dr. Keene (Gandalf), says we will definitely get to see it on our next trip to Florence next week. We had some free time to walk around, and go see Brunelleschi's Dome and Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise. Both sites that have been drilled into my head as an art student. It's nice to be able to really appreciate these things.
At the end of the day we all walk back to the bus and we are free to either come back to Montepulciano, or stay in Florence for the weekend. About half the group stayed in Florence, and a few were going to take a train to Venice for the weekend. I had planned on going to Venice but the forecast said rain and just the roundtrip train ticket price was just shy of 100 Euro. Not including hostels or food. Plus, it's apparently 100E for a Gondola ride??? No thank you.
So a good number of us came back on the bus and decided to stay in Montepulciano for the weekend. Last night we went over to some friend's apartment and played cards while watching 'Jackass' on someone's laptop. How cultured are we?
This morning I slept until 11 and woke up to sunshine. SUNSHINE!! Finally. I did laundry in the sink, which took a while. We have a washer, but it is tiny tiny and takes about 4 hours to finish a load. Which is only like 2 pairs of pants because that's all you can shove in there. So anyways, I hand washed everything. We don't have a dryer so I hung my clothes on a close line off of our balcony. How Italian.
We met up with some friends around 1 to try and figure out the closest route to get to the nearby lake. The tourist station was closed, so we decided to strike out on our own. Mistake. We headed literally straight down the mountain side. I'm talking hopping over barbed wire fences, running alongside herds of sheep. Look at my album on facebook and find the pictures of the landscape with the church in the left corner. That is somewhat what we were trekking through. Except there were no nearby houses. Or road. We somehow found a way to avoid every road. We could sometimes see one in the distance, but have no way of getting to it. It looks so easy and Sound of Music-esque from a distance, but when you actually get there you are walking through fields of wheat taller than you are.
Needless to say we got lost.
And if it had been an all girls trip we would have used our good sense and turned around long before hopping fences and running from killer sheep. Of course all the boys INSISTED they knew where they were going and they could pick up the trail "just around this turn". HA.
To make a long story short after 3 hours of wandering through wheat fields, vinyards, sheep, sheep poop, and mud, we came to the main road. The girls headed back to town and the boys kept on.
We followed the uphill winding road back to town and made it back in about an hour. Around that same time we got a call from the boys saying they made it to a nearby town but missed the last bus to Montepulciano, and they weren't sure what they were going to do to get back. Ha! we TRIED to tell them they were dumb. But I guess now they know.
Now that I'm back I made a quick trip to the marketplace (had a different lady and she didn't hate me). And went to a street side cafe with some girls and ate some pasta. And now here I am! Exhausted, dirty, thorns stuck all in my clothes. But so happy. This place is wonderful and full of magic and adventure. As stupid as that sounds. I don't even care because it's true.
Tomorrow Dr. Keene is leading a hiking trip for anyone that wants to go. I was all for it last night but after today, I think I might pass. I still feel like there is so much of the town I haven't seen. So if the weather is nice I might do some more exploring that doesn't involve herds of wild animals and desecrating the local farmers' crops.
If you want a postcard, send me your address on facebook and I will do my best to send one!