Toscana...What A Beautiful Place!

So it finally comes time to write about my weekend in Toscana! What a truly beautiful place!! It reminded me a lot of home! Or at least as close to what home can look like this far away!

We started out early morning meeting the bus at the Archi Bar (which is just up the road from campus and a frequented place by students). It was somewhat of a cloudy day but that could have been because I wasn't quite awake that early yet! At any rate we loaded the coach bus and were off and running! Two coach buses took 120 of us students flying through the country side!

As we left the city we got a unique view of St. Peter's where an optical illusion makes the basilica seem as if it is getting bigger the further you get away from it! I am still amazed at how many unique things like this there are throughout the city. All of the locals each have their facts they love to share with you about what to do and what not to do. It's great! It wasn't long before the amount of buildings gets less and less and we were getting to the country side. The trip went relatively well since I slept most of the way! I tried hard to stay awake but it just wasn't working out for me! Every now and then I would just wake up and see the country side! No matter where it was that I woke up it was gorgeous.

After a quick pit stop at a rest stop it was onward for another couple of hours until we reached the town of Pisa. I tried to capture some pictures of the country side as we were zooming past them but they didn't quite work out as planned! I must add that seeing hay bails in the fields was a good taste of home!

We arrived in Pisa at the parking lot for the buses at which point the guides for our tours met up with our group. When we got to the parking lots there were lots of men trying to sell us goodies. Everything from fake purses to watches, sunglasses and hats. Just in case anyone forgot anything they had it covered and I must say they were quite ambitious salesmen! Finally after everyone's bathroom break we got organized and walked on into the city of Pisa. Along the way we saw more vendors! They are around pretty much any tourist site there is but it was still surprising to see them all.

Pisa was a neat little spot and our tour guide was a very proud Tuscan. Her name was Simona and she gave us all sorts of fun facts about the monuments. Did you know that all three of them are actually leaning in some direction. To the naked eye only the tower can be seen because the other structures are so big.

Once we were officially done with the tour we had time to wander around. And like good Italians we took the opportunity to grab a bite to eat at a small restaurant that our tour guide recommended. There was six of us so we were seated near the back in a beautiful garden area. It was nice and cool! Not too mention they had plenty of umbrellas for us for when it started to rain. By the time lunch was over we were ready to head out exploring. We walked down to the river, did some site seeing and soon it was time to meet up for the ride back to the hotel.

Our hotel was gorgeous! Don't know that I have ever been more excited for a hot shower! Once we got checked in all of us girls took a nap and headed downstairs for dinner! We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into that's for dang sure! It started out with a giant plate of pasta, followed by ham and french fries, and tiramisu for dessert. The portions were huge and enough for two or three people to eat. Our table was last for the salad so we missed out on it! We got impatient while waiting for the dessert so Kate, Lexi and I hoped up to the buffet dessert table. Somehow we managed not to get caught doing this because we had no clue there was more dessert coming! I will fully admit that eating the fruit torte and tiramisu was not a problem for me! :)

The men that served us were all in tuxes and very generous! Definitely the typical Italian men! Ha After dinner we went exploring down to the pool! It was gorgeous!! The lights were off but that didn't stop us and soon after that someone came down to light it up! All the mosaic at the bottom was gorgeous! Then it was off to showers and bed for a long day in Florence Saturday!!

To make it easier I will write another post about Florence and one more about the winery! That way you can all enjoy the pictures from each day!

The beauty of an open field on a bus ride!

Crossing over the river!

A happy little Tuscan town. 

Our first view of Pisa! 

The baptistry.  (Not sure how to spell that one but you get the point!)

Standing outside the church! We toured inside of there!

The tower...

From this angle it looks straight up and down!

A street down somewhere in Pisa!

The bucket is from long ago when beheadings were more common!

My muscles are going to push it over! Ha ha

The ceiling inside the church!

Looking at the river!

Peter, me, Lexi, Kate and Maura!

Walking back to meet the group! Every view is different! 

Mom this one is for you!

The view from our hotel!! 

So Much To Catch Up On!

Wow! Time seriously flies over here!! I can't believe how fast every day goes! I am not even sure what the best way to do this is! Ha So I will just start with a more detailed version of last Thursday's adventure to the Vatican then do another post on the weekend in Toscana (Tuscany)! How does that sound? Works for me so I sure hope it does for all of you!!

Thursday morning started off later than planned as I mentioned but we rescheduled things and ended up getting to spend some time exploring around the Vatican City. It's a neat little place. There are walls around the entire thing that show the borders. However, you wouldn't even know that's what they were because everything around it seems so elegant.

After getting everything figured out Kate and I decided it would be good to eat because we knew we wouldn't make it until after 4:00 when the tour was scheduled to be over! A quick snack and some juice at a local caffe where we sat outside was just what we needed. Then we did some wandering and ended up back at the meeting point to begin our journey.

Once our group was assembled it was off with Jannette our tour guide who has an art history degree and studied at AUR where I am at. She came over to study here for a semester and ended up staying for 6 years! Who knows where this trip may take me!

Anyways more about the tour! The museums are amazing! They say that walking through them is over 7 km long by the time you reach the Sistine Chapel! Walking in Rome is great exercise that's for dang sure! Also another fun fact that I may have mentioned before is they say if a person were to look at every piece of artwork in the Vatican museums for 60 seconds it would take them roughly 12 years to view them all! To say we did the quick tour in just about 3 hours is definitely an understatement! I hope to go back there at some point on my trip and just walk through myself to enjoy some of the rooms a little more! There is so much artwork it is mind blowing!

By the time we got to the Sistine Chapel which doesn't allow any photography we were so overwhelmed by all the other artwork it took a minute to settle in at the chapel. They also say that the most harmful thing on to the Fresco's is human breath and the carbon monoxide we breathe. Too bad they can't figure out how to prevent that! The chapel is gorgeous!

After we stood in the chapel and took it all in, we ventured through to the front of the Basilica. This was where our tour ended. Jannette gave us plenty of options to continue on with our own activities which for Kate and I included climbing St. Peter's dome, and also attending mass at 5:00. What a beautiful ceremony!

Enjoy the pictures from Thursday! There is more to come about the weekend!

Street headed to the Vatican

Our first tour of the dome on our tour!

The newest addition to the art of the museums! 

Lots of my pictures are of ceilings! All of the artwork on the ceilings is flat, but made to look three dimensional with the curved ceiling! 

This was built after the Pantheon's architecture. 

They aren't sure how this was even made as it is the hardest type of material to carve out of! 

Walking into another corridor! 

The tapestries are beautiful! Supposedly with this one if you walk up close to it and walk away from it looking into Jesus' eyes they follow you if you have sinned. It's kind of crazy all the myths that come along with this! 

Another ceiling! The gold seen here is real gold! 

Looking into the parking lot behind the scenes out one of the few windows through out the museum. 

Sorry this one is blurry it was mid walking with lots of people behind me! 

Looking down the steps after leaving the museum!

Holy water anyone?

This was the steps we climbed all the way to the top! 

Inside the Basilica! Anyone know the difference between a chiesa, duomo and basilica? 

Walking around the top level before going outside! And believe it or not I am learning a few things here! A chiesa is a church. A duomo is shaped more like an egg and a basilica is laid out with a cross like pattern. 

Kate and I at the top after our hike! 

Looking into St. Peter's square from the very top!

I know we weren't supposed to take pictures during mass but it hadn't begun yet! This alter is beautiful! 

About as close as I will ever be to standing near the Pope's alter that he only uses at Christmas and Easter. 

Ciao St. Peter's! See you next time! 

Of the almost 300 pictures I took I tried to pick the best! I am going to go back to the basilica and take more as we were worn out after our day! Its so much information to take in all at once! But definitely a must do on a trip to Rome!

I Haven't Forgotten

What a day it was today! Woke up and went down to the Vatican for our tour! Because of the holiday the bus system was running a different schedule...aka...much slower! So we missed our 9 am meeting time at the Vatican to get on the tour! Good thing though because I honestly don't think that we could have handled doing both the Vatican museum and the Ancient Rome tour like we had planned!

But at any rate here is a quick run down of today! I am heading to Toscana for the weekend on a school trip! It shall be lots of fun! I can't wait! And to see another city will be great!

There is so much information from the museums! I will write more after this weekend! I have about 300 pictures from today to choose from and go through! It's so hard to pick! Little fun fact that we learned on the tour today...If a person were to stop and look at every single piece of work in the Vatican museum for approximately 60 seconds, it would take them 12 years to get through everything in the museum! It's so overwhelming and by the time you get the Sistine Chapel, which is at the end, you are so ready to see some walls that don't have every single inch decorated in some way! Don't get me wrong! It was beautiful!! They don't allow anyone to take pictures inside the Chapel in order to preserve the artwork! So don't be getting your hopes up for pictures from that!

After the tour officially ended we decided that we wanted to go walk around St. Peter's Basilica. This took us to waiting in line to climb just over 500 stairs up to the top! What a breathtaking view over the entire city!! We hurried to get our pictures and make it back down the spiral staircase to mass in the basilica.

That was a neat experience! Hearing it all in Italian was music to my ears! By the time we got to mass and sat down we realized what a long day it had been! Ha ha We headed back home after taking a few pictures and going to mass. Made a quick dinner of shrimp, bowtie pasta, and a garlic white wine olive oil sautee mix! It was delicious!

The entrance to where Pope Ben (Yes we are on a first name basis here!)  lives today!!

Ciao for now! There will be more after the weekend! I promise!