Today we woke up, had a quick breakfast, and said goodbye to Assisi. We are bussing to Sienna where we will be staying for five days and exploring various places in the area. The bus ride was lame, mostly because I finished my book too quickly (my other one is stored below the bus for now) and because I picked a window seat on the side with a great view of the rising sun. But the lack of a book allowed me to look at the unbelievable landscape! It is unfortunate that pictures do not do it justice and equally as annoying that I cannot describe the views as vividly as I see them. But I believe that if you imagine the most perfectly green patchwork of rolling hills filled with trees and the occasional villa, framed by the bluest sky you have ever seen with no clouds in site, you might get the idea. Anyway, we rode for a while through this wonderland before we came to the city of Pienza. The city was most interesting to us because it was one of the first examples of the “ideal city,” one where large sections of it are designed by a single architect to create consistency and fluidity. The city itself was extremely small, with essentially two major streets and one Piazza. However, it is the vista that bordered the whole edge of the city that really highlighted our trip. We started in the Piazza, talking about the history of the city and how the design of this particular area was heavily influenced by Leon Battista Alberti, one of the most accomplished and influential Italian architects of all time. The public space was a pretty amazing area, and the plan claims to be a geometrically perfect trapezoid. Most impressive was the church that framed the entire long end of the shape. We stopped in there briefly before heading into the bookstore and around the outer walkway that showed us the view. After enjoying the sun and the peaceful space (minus the other tourists who insisted on wearing the shortest shorts ever…) we wandered around looking for some lunch.
We ended up finding a pretty small little restaurant that was mostly hidden behind a construction zone. We sat down and ended up being followed in by a bunch of others from the group, so it was a pretty nice lunch. We first had an adventure with the oil and vinegar for the bread: since they didn’t give us any plate, we had to try to pour them on the bread over the table, which ended in pure disaster (very embarrassing splotches of both on our napkins and the table cloth), but still tasted great. For lunch I ordered tortellini that was filled with some sort of meat and cheese mix and topped with a creamy white sauce with sausage in it. This was probably my favorite pasta dish that I have had so far, and I am sad that the end of lunch essentially signified the end of our stay in Pienza. We hurriedly searched the second major street for a bakery for dessert but came up empty (oh darn, more gelato!) before leaving for the bus.
On the way to Siena we ended up stopping at a pretty amazing monastery for a quick exploration. The walk up (and then down) was awesome, and the approach to the monastery was very interesting since we came at it on an angle, which allowed for views of most of the complex as well as the landscape beyond. We went inside and explored various spaces like the cloister, library, and dining hall that were filled with almost perfectly intact frescoes from the 15th century. My favorite part of the area was how the building worked in relation to the landscape; sitting on multiple levels so that it could be integrated with the beautiful area without intruding on the makeup of the land by flattening it out completely.
After our (too) short time here we got back on the bus and drove to Siena. Upon our arrival we walked through a great park and aside some huge walls before awkwardly stopping traffic as we all crossed the street together…whoops! Our hotel is run by nuns (what a good rhyme and a silly situation!) and sits just below a pretty awesome church and has fantastic views out to the city. But of course, we got shafted again so we have no balcony and our view is of a five-foot alley and a wall…ugh. Even our key is less cool because everyone got skeleton keys and ours in a new one (but easier to use so take that!). Anyway, after settling in briefly we left for our group dinner.
We got a three-course meal again, which was great because I was STARVING! Before the first course we attempted to eat bread with oil and vinegar again (same result though because we are inept at pouring) and got some funny looks from the others. The first dish was a plate with a local type of pasta (the name escapes me but the noodles were like normal spaghetti but four times the size) mixed in two different sauces that were both great. Next came a meat-sampler plate, which was pretty good but nothing special. Dessert was the Italian version of Flan, made of some kind of sweet cheese (it had the appearance of cream cheese and the consistency of marshmallow) covered in chocolate sauce. After another fun and delicious dinner we road home, worked on sorting out rooming assignments for the apartments in Rome (its like we are in middle school again!?!?!?!?!), finally got some internet (a fantastic deal of two euro for one hour!), and went to bed!
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