I am currently writing this blog post at 11 on a Saturday night.  Why aren't I out enjoying the Florentine nightlife?  Because I'm in bed wearing Underarmor and sweats with two pairs of socks on and I'm STILL cold.  This week has been the coldest Italy has experienced in twenty-seven years.  With feels-likes in the teens during the day and the single digits at night, it is colder here that it is at home or back at 'Cuse.  The weather is so bad that our school trip to Rome was canceled because the city was literally shut down.  So, instead of enduring terrible cold and running the risk of getting sick, I decided, what better to do than to update my family and friends on what has been going on!

Last weekend, the school had a trip planned to go to Assisi- a little mountain town in the region of Umbria.  I had never heard about it until they advertised the trip, and decided to go only because it was free.  I am so unbelievably happy I went, though, because it was honestly one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.  The town is very medieval and all the buildings are made of stone.  It is built into a mountain, and the main street runs up to a beautiful fort that overlooks the rest of the town and the surrounding mountains.  My first impression of the town was actually that it reminded me a lot of Minas Tirith from Lord of the Rings (geeky reference, I know, but anyone who knows me knows that I'm the biggest geek in the world and can't get enough of that series).  We started the day off with the school and a tour of the Basilica di San Francesco.  Assisi's main claim to fame is not its beauty, but, rather, the fact that it is where Saint Francesco (who is the patron saint of Italy) started his religious group.  The church located here is dedicated to him.  It seems like every new church I step into is the most beautiful church I've seen, but this one truly claims the title so far.  It is covered wall to wall with beautiful frescos that document the life of Francesco and scenes from the Old Testament.  I know nothing about art or art history, but I knew I was standing in one of the most important and beautiful art centers of the world.  It was absolutely breathtaking.  The church itself was broken into two levels- the Upper Level (which contains the frescos) and the Lower Level (which contains Mary Magdalene's Chapel and passion scenes done by different Florentine painters).  Unfortunately, there was a strict rule about picture taking (I assume out of fear that a flash could damage the artwork), but I sneakily managed to snap a few without flash.


After we left the church, the rest of the day was ours.  We were all very hungry, so we stopped for lunch in this hole in the wall restaurant called La Lanterna, where I got Caprese con Bufala.  We didn't expect much of this restaurant, but it ended up being some of the best food I've had here.  My Caprese wasn't too big or special because I knew I'd be eating a bigger meal later in the day.  I tried some of my other friends' meals though, and oh...my....god.  Umbria is especially known for its wild pigeon, wild boar, and truffles.  None of us were courageous enough to try the pigeon, but our friend Jeff got boar, and our friend Margi got white pizza with sausage and black truffles.  Both of the meals were absolutely mouth watering and unbelievably delicious.  We also all split some house wine, which was extremely wonderful as well.

After lunch, we split with our group and three of us hiked up the rest of the way to the fort.  On our way up, we passed some other girls on our program who said the hike was tough (which was an understatement- I desperately needed my inhaler by the end of it), but that it was very worth it.  It really, really was.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

After we snapped some photos, we made our way back down to meet the group. Before going, my friend Sam and I decided that instead of going back to Florence with the school, we were going to take a train and spend the night and next day in Perugia.  We were about to head over to the train station when a girl in our program informed us that all buses and trains were on strike (again) and there was no way of getting there.  We were so upset and ultimately decided that we would take a taxi since it wasn't too expensive and we had already booked our hotel.  We had the taxi drop us off in what we thought was the historical center; it was not.  We had to climb ANOTHER hill about 20 minutes to find the historical center and our hotel, the Hotel Umbria.  For being a cheap booking on hostelworld, it wasn't too bad. The toilet did make a weird noise when you flushed it, but that was the only real complaint.  We dropped off our stuff and headed into the center.  Perugia is an absolutely beautiful city, and I wish we had more time to explore and get to know it.  It's another medieval city, part of which is covered by stone.  Friday night we just walked around and went into shops, got "hot chocolate", and took a few pictures here and there, not really knowing what everything was.  We went to dinner at Lunabarferari, which was next to our hotel.  I got a clam dish, and was a very happy girl.  Instead of going out, we decided just to spend a few hours talking at the restaurant over a half liter of house wine (which is currently my favorite out of every type that I've had).


Saturday we woke up, checked out of the hotel, and walked around again.  We perused a market and explored an area called the Rocca Paolino.  Built during the Salt War, this used to be a five level underground city district, complete with piazzas and streets!  It was SO cool.  We had originally planned on staying for the whole day, but we were both so tired and sore from carrying our stuffed backpacks around that we decided to leave a little early.  We amazingly made it to the train station without really asking for directions.  We got our tickets and got on our train.  About a half hour into the ride, the conductor came to punch our tickets and I experienced my first public transportation of the week.  Before getting on the train, you are supposed to validate your ticket in the station; if you do not do so, you are fined a hefty amount.  Not only did we not validate our tickets, but we also sat in first class.  Luckily, the conductor was very understanding, explained the process to us, and let us slide (and asked us to move to second class).  Next time, we know to punch our tickets.  We got home, got some dinner, then went home to drop our stuff off and get ready for a night out.


Sunday afternoon, we had tickets to go to the Fiorentina v. Siena soccer game.  It wasn't a very big game because it wasn't a major team, but Siena and Florence have a rivalry that dates back hundreds of years.  There were eight of us that went, and we ended up meeting up with some of the boys in our program as well.  I had never been to a soccer game before, and it was so much fun!!  The game was made all the more better by the giant tub of popcorn that we got and the fact that Florence won!  After the game, we got gelato at Badiani (I got biscotti and white chocolate) and it was the best gelato I have ever had- I will definitely be returning for more once it warms up!  Later that afternoon, I got a message from Laura saying that SHE WAS FINALLY IN FLORENCE!!  We met up at a cafe to catch up and say hello before classes started.  It's so great knowing that one of my best friends is only 20 minutes away.


This week's classes were pretty uneventful.  We all were hoping that school would be canceled on Wednesday (we were supposed to get 10 inches of snow), but unfortunately, we woke up to absolutely nothing.  Other than that epic fail, Thursday was the only day that was truly eventful.  I woke up late and almost didn't go to class, but decided I really couldn't skip.  I got to the school and found out that one of my classes was canceled, so after Italian, I decided to go shopping with two of my girl friends.  After going into countless stores and trying on dozens of boots over the past three weeks, I FINALLY FOUND A PAIR!  I am the official owner of a beautiful pair of tall, black, Italian leather boots.  After that purchase, we went to San Lorenzo market where I got a big, warm, scarf and a gorgeous leather bound notebook.  It was a very successful shopping day and I was very happy- until I got back on the bus to go home.  Before I got on the bus, I went to several tabacchi (where you go to get bus tickets) to get a new bus pass for the month.  For some reason, none would sell me a ticket and they all told me to buy one on the bus.  I went to the stop, got on the back of the bus, and started making my way to front.  Before I could get to the driver to buy a ticket, however, I was stopped by an official and he asked to see my ticket.  I tried explaining to him that I was on my way to buy one, but he thought I was just using that as an excuse for trying to ride the bus for free.  He asked to see my passport and wrote me a ticket, despite my crying and the fact that I really just didn't have the chance to buy a ticket before he stopped me.  The fine for riding the bus without a ticket is 55 Euro if you can't pay on the spot, but luckily my host mom was able to call the next day, explain what happened, and get me out of it.

Because the Rome trip was canceled, the past two days I have spent walking around Florence and doing some window shopping with Laura and a few of my friends from my program.  It turns out that I had been using a bus pass that wasn't even valid, so Laura brought me to the train station to get an ID card and student pass.  While we were there, we bought our tickets to Venice and Verona for Carnevale!!  That trip is in two weeks, and we are SO excited!  What's in store for the rest of the weekend and next week?  Watching the Superbowl and doing some more school trips!  Stay tuned!

Abbracci e baci!  xoxo

1 Comment

1. Sra. Pelicano on February 10, 2012 at 10:11 AM

   Lauren,
   
   I loved Assisi and we had the best pizza ever in one of the little restaurants there! Your pictures are beautiful and bring back so many memories of my visit to Italy. Too bad it is so cold! I hear it is pretty much that way throughout Europe this year. Take care of yourself.
   xoxo