Monday, February 23, 2009

Tuscany: Pienza & Siena

This weekend I had another field trip for my gardens class to Pienza, which is north of Viterbo in Tuscany. We left at 9 am on Friday morning and this time there were 2 other classes that came with us so it was pretty much the entire USAC group, but I got lucky and got 2 seats to myself on the bus so I could sleep on the 2 hour drive! When we got there we took a tour of the Palace, which is more impressive then the garden, but was FREEZING inside so when we got to the garden it felt really nice! The garden in Pienza is tiny and was mainly built for the amazing view of the entire countryside. The Palace however was really amazing, all the furniture in it is the original furniture that was used by the owners, in I think it was the 1500's, and it was all still in the same position the rooms haven't been moved around at all! After the tour we had an hour before the bus came back so Bethany, Rachal and I went and bought our bus tickets to Siena, and we took an hour bus ride from Pienza to Siena where we stayed for the night and all day Saturday. Friday night we walked about 45 min. from our hostel to the city center to get some dinner. We found a nice restaurant in the main square and I got some Four Cheese Ravioli with Pesto Sauce, it was delicious. Then there was a stand in the square where they were making something that looked really good so we got some for dessert, they were just deep fried balls of dough with sugar on top, I thought they were really good but Rachal and Bethany didn't love them! Then we decided to take a bus back to our hostel, but all the buses were done running for the night, it was only a little after 9, so we had to walk back. Then we got an early start on Saturday and took the bus to town and walked around, looked at all the shops and saw the sights. There isn't much to do in Siena, we hoped to rent bikes and ride around and see some good views but it isn't the season for that so there was no where to rent bikes. Instead we just walked around the town, we got done earlier than we planned so we took an earlier train home to Viterbo. We got home around 7:30 and I went to the grocery store because I was completely out of food and I needed some dinner :) 

On Sunday I didn't do anything really just had a relaxing day. I did my laundry which took pretty much all day, I caught up on some homework and talked to Mom and Dad!!!! That is pretty much it! 

Here are more pictures: 

PIENZA

Me, Jenny, Amy and Rachal in Pienza

Archway in the Garden looking out over the country

View from the top of the Palace

Another view of the countryside from the garden



SIENA



Views From the Train

A view we saw when we were walking around town

Another one

Cute window

Painting at the top of the Duomo 

Front of the Duomo

Side view with the bell tower

Inside the Town Hall

The main square

The Town hall and clock tower

On the walk to the Centro (city center)

Beautiful Sunset!




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