il dolce far niente: Outside of Florence

I have neglected to fill you in on perhaps the most beautiful places I have been to so far. I promise you, I am trying to write as often as I can, but internet access around here is scarce, as my other 2 roomates and I have been sharing one computer for the past three weeks. Finally, I have found some time to share the details of my travels.

Two weekends ago, we traveled to Assisi, Perugia, Siena and San Giminagno. However, on our way to Assisi, we experienced a major delay. We had only gotten about 10 minutes outside of Florence when all traffic came to a dead stop. After a few minutes of not moving, people began to turn off their cars. Then people began to get out of their cars and walk...down the highway. It was only about 20 minutes later that we had learned that a giant meat truck had completely tipped over and was blocking the entire side of the highway. Amazingly, the truck driver was okay and nobody else got hurt. Yet, the crash created a huge mess. All kinds of salami and prosciutto were strewed about the road, not to mention the truck was completely totaled. So, here we are, all 80 of us on 2 coach buses, simply stuck on an italian highway, anxious to make to Assisi. It was about 10 a.m. when we were told that the mess would not be cleared for another 4 hours. Luckily, there was a huge rest stop about 1/2 a mile down the highway which we able to walk to. Never in my life did I think that I would have the such an opportunity to climb over a crashed Italian meat truck.

Bus boredom & Highway tour

After sitting at a rest stop for 4 hours, we finally were on our way to Assisi! Around 3 o clock we were standing in front of the Basilica di San Francesco d'Assisi. I can't really say anything else except that it was beautiful. We were able to go inside the Basilica and see Giotto's (and many others) famous fresco paintings, as well as the tomb of St. Francis. I think you can imagine how unreal the entire tour felt.

Basilica di San Francesco.

The temple where St. Francis stripped completely naked and vowed a life of poverty.

Giotto's Preaching to the Birds. This was my favorite fresco we saw in the Basilica.

After the Basilica, we walked up through the town center. There, we saw the temple where St. Francis stripped completely naked and gave up all his possessions to follow a life of poverty. At the top of Assisi, there is another Basilica, the Basilica di Santa Chiara, where the body of St. Claire is preserved.

Originally, we were supposed to tour Perugia as well, but because of our delay, we had to skip this and go straight to our hotel for the night.

Sunday morning, we woke up early to travel on to the next city: Siena. Siena is a very unique city. Divided into 17 different "contrade", or provinces, the city looks very Medieval. Each contrada has their own symbol, which is displayed proudly on their flags within their province. You can always tell which part of the city you are in simply by looking at the flags that hang above the street corners. Siena is also home to Il Palio, a horse race that occurs that occurs every summer in the town center. 10 of the 17 contrade compete against each other in this race. Unlike the winner of the Kentucky Derby, the winner of the Palio is the horse, and only the horse. The jockey doesn't receive much credit.

The city center of Siena, which also makes up the track for Il Palio.

The last city we visited that weekend was San Giminagno. I was so toured out by the end of this weekend I honestly don't remember anything too interesting about this city. It was beautiful, of course, with a beautiful view. I will let the pictures do the talking...