Wild Boar, Duomo climbing, Hill Towns, and What Even Is Chef Fantasy?

We are back in Rome after the field trip to Tuscany. It was a ton of fun though we were very pressed for time in some cities. Consequently, most of us have decided to go back at least to Florence when and if possible. I may have taken too many pictures but who cares. Somehow I juggled photos, sketching, and note taking while walking everywhere.

Day One: Pienza, Montepulciano, Siena
Day one of the field trip we stopped in the town of Pienza. There I fell in love with a little medieval church and had a glorious but lengthy lunch with friends and one of the grad students. We pretty much followed our professors to a place they decided to eat at in a charming tiny Tuscan piazza. The food was very pricey but very good. We made the mistake of ordering three courses but sharing them amongst all six of us. The portions thus were tiny but the bigger problem was the service was super slow. Our professors (sitting back to back with the ex-marine grad student and myself) finished earlier than us. We ate goose, wild boar, amazingly tender beef, and guinea fowl. Sounds like a feast though, right? It wasn't since it was the portions for one person split among six but the experience and conversations made up for the slight hunger we still felt when we were done with the meal. In the end we rushed because everyone was waiting for us by the bus. The table became a chaotic scene as we scrapped lettuce out of bowls, chugged mineral water, and quickly poured the last of the wine down our throats. It was a bad time to start laughing but I did as I wolfed down the last of the salad and people joked "We'll be walking to Siena in a minute!". So we didn't really get to walk around Pienza nearly as much as we wanted but that lunch was maybe even more memorable and fun.

The main church in Pienza.

Lunch and then Tuscany from the bus.

All the bus rides on this trip consisted of driving past hilly fields full of grapes or sunflowers, mountains, scraggly houses, cyprus trees, and livestock. Most people fell asleep but no matter how tired I was I couldn't bring myself to miss the scenery. The conversations on the bus between myself and my friend sitting next to me consisted almost entirely of cars and Top Gear. That was fine with me.

The next stop was Montepulciano where we obviously got another tour and wound our way through hilly, old streets. Some things we found there included a tiny blue truck, a cat blind in one eye, a would-be-astoundingly-good sledding hill, cyprus tree lined drives, and medieval city walls. It's a fun town.

San Biagio in Montepulciano.

We pulled into Siena that night and my roommates and I lucked out and got a huge terrace with a stunning view of the whole city. One of our professors mentioned something about "committing acts of gluttony" upon arrival but that didn't happen until breakfast the next morning when we took as much food with us as we could possibly fit into our bags (this was mostly prepackaged toast, nutella, and bread wrapped in napkins). For dinner the first night, however, some friends and I went to a grocery store and got some slices of pizza. I decided to try a random slice with mystery toppings (at least I didn't know what they were) and it turns out it had potato. We ate on the steps in front of the statue in this piazza:

The next day our professor told us that someone centuries ago died by jumping from one of the balconies in that piazza. Gaah.

Day Two: Siena
I must have always really liked Siena because I remembered a surprising amount of the town from when I had visited as a child. I still like it. Siena is so much quieter than Rome and Florence and is built on three hills so it's by no means a flat city. We saw several palazzi and the Duomo which is FANTASTIC. I was interiorly jumping up and down like a little kid the whole field trip because I was so excited but often much too exhausted to show it. My special connection to Siena is St. Catherine who is my namesake so it was even more exciting to get to see her hometown again. We had a drawing assignment that was highly frustrating for a number of reasons so at one point I threw in the proverbial towel and set off by myself to San Domenico where St. Catherine of Siena's head and finger are kept. San Domenico as a church is pretty...lame. For those who think displaying the head of a saint is creepy I say the stained glass windows in that church are far creepier. Yikes. They didn't allow photos though so you'll have to google the church.

Siena's Duomo

I stopped along the way at St. Catherine's house and walked inside. Last time I was in Siena I had gotten a rose shaped locket containing a picture of her and a third class relic inside the rose but some how I lost it in August 2012.  That has been a big cause of grief for me because it meant so much, however, they still sold them so I bought another medal. They have since changed it so it has a different picture of her inside but it still is shaped like a rose and thus still works as a reference to my two other patron saints: Rose of Lima and Therese of Lisieux.

That night in Siena a very large group of the studio played a game called psychiatrist on our chilly but beautiful terrace. It was so much fun and the best possible way we could have spent our last night in Siena. We laughed a lot and clapped at a few fabulous puns.

The view of Siena from the terrace at night. 

Day Three: San Gimignano, Florence
We had another delicious breakfast in Siena and then left for San Gimignano which has always sort of been a tourist point because of its location. Dante went there to persuade the town to support the Pope (Guelph support) because they were on the side of the Ghibelines (non-papal support) back in the day. The town is also protected by the state in the same way that Assisi is today. Anyways, three of us ate lunch (aka a piece of bread from the breakfast in Siena and an apple) in a loggia by the main piazza. I scoffed at a place that had a sign "The World's Best Gelato" but as it turns it the world's best gelato was in San Gimignano...but it was at the place with the sign "Gelato World Champion" across the way from the other store. Oops, I missed out on that one.

San Gimignano

After the lunch break we left for Florence which was as fun as it sounds. I honestly can't even remember what we did this night. Florence seemed like one really, really long day. I think we started our "classes" if you can call it that. Our one professor had to leave for his sister-in-law's wedding so he parted ways after talking about the Duomo. Later that night I walked around the Palazzo Vecchio with friends. I believe we bought gelato that night...I know I had grapefruit gelato at some point during the stay in Florence and that it was delicious. I also know that some of us ate dinner at a place where a dish of pasta had the description "chef fantasy". Some friends present said they ate at another place in Siena where the description for "chef calzones" was simply "Fantasy.". This became sort of a joke especially since that calzone apparently was so huge and fantastic that it appeared to be levitating (hey, I didn't actually see a floating pillow of a calzone so don't laugh at me for that description).

Day Four: Florence
This day was crazy. We trekked around the city all day, had to do our sketching assignment at night, climbed the Duomo, and went leather shopping. But before all of that we saw Palazzo Vecchio, San Lorenzo, Michelangelo's Laurentian Library, Cappelle Medici, the Medici chapel, the outside of Santa Maria Novella, Palazzo Strozzi, Palazzo Rucellai, and a few other places where I was much too tired to even take notes any more. The annoying thing was that any where you went you would get yelled at for doing something whether that was sitting on the floor, eating outdoors (yes, you can't eat outside Palazzo Vecchio), taking pictures, or drawing. That's right, we were not allowed to draw in Michelangelo's chapel for the Medicis. Our fearless Portguese leader (who also read a poem in the space...he's such a cool guy) got seriously offended by this (as did all of us) because it makes no sense to prohibit students from drawing such a famous interior space. A lot of us including myself already had a few quick sketches down in our sketchbooks so yeah, I'm not erasing that.

I've been to Florence twice now and sadly haven't been inside the Baptistery but I can now say that I have climbed the Duomo twice. I don't care if you are deathly afraid of heights or closed spaces, I was feeling extremely claustrophobic* as we wound our way through and up the tight, slanting, M.C. Escher-esque passageways and stairs that smelled like sweat and metal, however, the sheer excitement and the promise of the view got me to the outside and top smiling, laughing, and pretty breathless. There is a momentary realization when you get to the top that there is only a metal rail (that has been leaned on thousands of times) separating you from certain death but it's just too beautiful to be scary. On the way down when we passed through the inner dome we heard the final bits of "Immaculate Mary" being sung within the church.

Just one view from the Duomo.

After the Duomo climb we went leather shopping. I planned on getting something leather in Florence but didn't expect that to be a jacket. Anyways, my friend and I bought matching jackets (hers is black and mine is a dark chocolate brown) for less than half the original price. It was actually a really, really good deal for authentic Italian leather and for the rest of the night we joked "Hey, I like your jacket. Where'd you get it?" and are still surprised by its softness. Plus our classmates complimented us a lot on them and some of them bought jackets or bags as well. We have yet to take a picture together but we will take one.

A view of the Arno. 

Day Five: Monte San Savino
We left Florence in the morning and only made one stop on the way back to Rome: Monte San Savino. It's a cute, non-touristy town and the mayor herself opened up the city hall to us and showed us around...even into her office! It was great and the gardens outside were so peaceful and pretty and would have made a great place for a picnic. We broke for lunch and wandered around into some churches and down a few streets and a friend and I ate lunch with a large group of the grad students. That was fun, the gnocchi was very filling, and we were again pressed for time on the way back to the bus. As we neared the meeting point we passed a playground on our right where, to my delight, I saw all the rest of my classmates playing. I mean swinging on swings, spinning on playground merry-go-rounds, going down slides - the whole nine yards. I was pretty jealous I missed out on the fun because I was eating with the grads but that's fine.

Just part of the "backyard" of the city hall in Monte San Savino.

I will update more about the Michael Graves project tomorrow maybe. We started today but this post has been long enough.

*Italy in general is basically a nightmare for claustrophobic introverts but so far I am dealing.