Four cities in two days?

Sorry I did not post this yesterday, as I remembered this morning. I wasn't feeling good and spent most of the day in bed, and of course instead of blogging I watched a movie instead. Not to worry though, I'm definitely feeling much better today. So for my faithful reader, my mother, here is the low down on my weekend adventure!

This weekend I went on a school trip to four towns located in Umbria and Tuscany (Umbria is south of Tuscany, and one of the few landlocked regions of Italy). Basically, these areas are some of the most beautiful terrain of Italy (not that there is ugly terrain, I just am just partial to Tuscany I suppose). After a stressful morning adventure when I found out the bus was leaving at 7, not 6, we hit the road to Assisi.

Assisi is just phenomenal. People make pilgrimages to there from all over the world and I am lucky to have been able to go there by 2 hours on bus! Our time in Assisi was short, but I loved seeing the churches (all 5 of the ones I went in), enjoying the scenic town, soaking in the sunshine and fresh air, and just being in a place with so much history. I could have easily spent all day roaming the streets there.

Basilica of St. Francis

View from the sunny wall we got to sit on.

However, our time was limited and we hit the road to Orvieto, a small hill town in Umbria. Orvieto isn't very notable for anything. It has a pretty Duomo and is pretty charming but we really didn't have enough daylight to explore. However, we were treated to an awesome five course meal which we enjoyed the Italian way, over two and a half hours.

Orvieto's Duomo

My favorite dish from our meal, the pepper risotto

The next morning we went to Siena which was much bigger than I expected. I had no map and no idea what to do while there (not well prepared, I know) but with the group we got to explore the Duomo and Baptistry, and I did get a chance to wander around a little bit. Il campo, the main piazza, was definitely the place to be, and we enjoyed sitting there eating our cheap pizza for lunch.

In il Campo, in front of the town hall

View from above!

Finally, we headed to San Gimignano. We were literally in this town for less than two hours, and I could have easily hung out there all day. The city is known for having the highest concentration of still standing tower houses and we got to climb the highest for some spectacular views of the city and surrounding valley. Of course, we did devote some of our limited time to grab Gelato from a store with gelato made by a Gelato World Cup winner (yep, it exists).

View from the tallest tower.

Actually some of the best Gelato ever. 

I've posted all the pictures from the trip here so you can enjoy them and more details of my trip. I'm definitely glad I chose to study in Italy, why is it so beautiful here?