Assunta in Siena, Italy

With the exception of the school trip to Siena, and San Gimignano (two small hilltop towns outside of Firenze) this weekend was pretty uneventful. This trip packed some serious sights into a short amount of time. This structure was at one point an interior partition of a church which never reached its completed state. It is now part of a museum which is home to countless stone sculptures and priceless historic paintings. It can be climbed from an entry point within the museum which leads to the sketchiest sprial staircase i have ever braved. From there one can take in views of the city and the countryside which seems to never end.. that is, if you are comfortable standing a hundred feet in the air on a six foot wide platform. An extra sense of fright can be obtained by realizing the structure you have mounted could just as easily have the same fate as the rest which clearly no longer exists. Oh, the Baptistry of the existing church contained work of Ghiberti and Donatello and it is rumored that Michelangelo had a hand in the creation of works in the main part of the church.. just figured id give a quick name-drop for those who might appreciate these artists.

San Gimignano started got off to a great start as my camera died after i took my first picture. This town can be characterized as a small medieval development atop a large hill whose primary architecture is based around light brown stone and tower construction. This all made sense to me when our guide, Stefano, to us to punto panoramico which is exactly what it sounds like. From this point our group attained an infinite view of the countryside and quickly rationalized the tendency for vertical buildings (this town used to be home to 77 family owned towers, 15 of which still exist today).

I finally found an enjoyable beer in this country. Not that i havent enjoyed beer since my arrival but for the most part beer that costs 79 euro cents for 2/3 of a liter will at best taste like beer. On Thursday, my roommate Dave introduced me to Erdinger Weissbrau, a tastier wheat beer similar to a Blue Moon.

On October 30th i will be boarding a plane in Pisa ( yeah i might stop by the leaning tower) heading to Barcelona, Spain. I would have gone a day earlier except for the fact that i will be spending the day prior in Rome.. how unfortunate. My stay in spain will be start on Saturday in Barcelona and conclude Monday in Valencia. Im hoping for some type of crazy Dia Del Muerto festival but we ll see what we can do. If nothing else i will be visiting work by Mies Van Der Rohe and of course testing out my middle school Spanish language skills.

San Gimigano view of the rest of the world.