Weekend Getaway: Assisi, Perugia, Siena & San Gimingnano

This weekend we had our longest and last pre-scheduled "orientation" trip. Oddly, enough this trip was planned on my official second weekend in Florence which means I have yet to spend a full weekend IN my city! It's okay though, I saw some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen. 

countryside in Assisi

On Saturday morning, my roommates and I woke up at the crack of dawn (630 AM) and got to the bus at 745 AM. We traveled for about two hours and finally arrived in the beautiful Italian country town, Assisi. (Unfortunately, I slept for most of the ride over so I couldn't report on the countryside views from the bus). Assisi was stunning. The weather was gorgeous and the small town was just the tourist-escape I had been craving. We saw the tomb of St. Clara and wandered around the town for about an hour. We also saw one of the simplest, yet absolutely breathtaking churches I have ever seen; The Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi. It is actually three churches combined into one massive, beautiful masterpiece. After looking through all my photos, I have decided that the photo I took of the Basilica (aside from the tourists) is probably the best photo I've taken thus far. 

We then, jumped back on the bus and went to Perugia. We had lunch at our hotel and got a very short walking tour of the city center. Unfortunately, we didn't get much free time or much of an extended tour of Perugia, which I was very disappointed about. Our program didn't want us going out during the night so they chose a "four-star" hotel practically off the freeway- thus preventing us from attempting to venture into the city center (which was twenty minutes away). We did get a semi-decent meal for dinner at the hotel (lasagna, chicken, salad!) but Rachel and I were so exhausted that we could hardly shower before passing out in bed. 

SIENA! Bella Citta!

On Sunday, we had another early wakeup at 7 am at the hotel. We ate a quick breakfast and jumped back on the bus for about an hour or so to Siena. I was very excited for Siena because there's a really delicious restaurant on Federal Hill named Siena. I figured if a restaurant that delicious is named after this town, it much be absolutely inspiring. And it was. After our hour-long walking tour with a great tour guide, we had about two hours free time to get lunch and wander. Before I run off into a tangent one WILD thing we saw on our tour was this ridiculous set of relics- the HEAD and the THUMB of St. Catherine. They were preserved in wax, but it was a teeeeny bit gross looking at her actual body parts from the 14th century. In fact, her head was unusually small but the tour guide informed us that it was preserved in its actual size, people were just much smaller then than they are today. 


After the tour, Rachel and I decided to have lunch on the ancient town square, which also doubles as a racetrack (it still does today!) twice a year. Since Sienna has 17 districts, all with a particular animal and coat of arms, horse racing is a perfect way for them to revive the ancient rivalries and compete! I couldn't believe the square doubled as a track. It was completely made from stone and surrounded by ancient buildings. According to the tour guide, thousands of people pack into the center of the square to watch each race and the balcony seats sell for over 700 euros. Since the square is so small, the turns are pretty sharp and dangerous. Our tour guide mentioned that one particular corner is especially risky and the jockeys often fall off their horses. Since the jockeys aren't natives of Siena, the spectators don't really care if they fall off- the horses usually continue on and some even win without their jockey. I couldn't believe how alive this rivalry was. Apparently when a district wins, the have a celebration that goes on for two months in their own district. It was absolutely hilarious and insane! Anyway, as I was saying, Rachel and I had lunch at an outdoor restaurant literally ON the racetrack. I finally had my first pasta dish in Italy! It was tortellini with proscuitto, cream sauce and pinoli nuts. IT WAS DELICIOUS!


After lunch we wandered some more. I bought a purple scarf from a small shop and then Rachel and I splurged (3 euro) to go inside the ornate and towering Duomo of Siena. 

We then retreated back to our wonderful bus and rode another hour to San Gimingnano, the "Manhattan" of Italy (according to our tour guide, because of the skyscrapers but it was the smallest town we visited all trip). It was beautiful though with some amazing countryside views. When we were on the bus we actually passed the town Cortona, where Under the Tuscan Sun (the movie, not my blog!) was filmed in. We also came veryyyy close to passing Volterra, where the movie New Moon was filmed, but we couldn't actually see it from the freeway. 

San Giminignano was beautiful and after our short tour Rachel and I decided to try some of their infamous gelato. We found a small shop with cute tables outside and decided to try theirs! I went out on a limb and ordered chocolate and "panno" which was a creamy, almost pastry-filling taste, but mouthwatering and better than any I've tried in Florence!

View of San Gimingnano from the medieval fortress.

Rachel, Shira, Steph and myself on an overlook in San Gimingnano.