This weekend I travelled through Tuscany to several small Tuscan villages that I never would have had the opportunity to visit if it hadn’t been through our Art and Architecture class. The places we went are not readily accessible by public transportation, so the program rented a bus for us. We left Friday afternoon at 2pm, after a leisurely morning with Stella. Our first destination was Pienza, and we arrived around 3:30pm. We checked into our B&B, a quaint accommodation with air-conditioning in the rooms and huge showers! Then we explored the town for the remainder of the afternoon. Pienza is small but has a lot of history (which I’ll explain later on). It is a Renaissance town as opposed to the medieval architecture we have been seeing. But its best feature is definitely its views! I know in every blog post I mention the incredible views of Tuscany, but these just might take the cake. First of all, on the ride to Pienza, we passed fields of sunflowers – right out of a Tuscany postcard. As we drove through the hills, the sunflowers made the valleys below look like they were sprinkled with bright, yellow pollen. In Pienza, you could see the mountains and fields for miles – the perfect backdrop for the colorful doors, awnings, and brilliant flowers. Everything was in bloom! Pienza is not a tourist destination, so we wandered its streets, observing local life and looking in some of their shops, including hand-painted ceramics and handmade jewelry. We stopped for gelato (of course!) in its main piazza, enjoying some shade. The entire weekend the temperatures were in the upper 90s, so it was quite hot. According to Stella, Italy is having unseasonably hot weather after an unseasonably cold winter. Ana Rose and I ended the afternoon by sitting in a beautiful park amongst flowers of every shade. It was the perfect spot to journal and write postcards and letters before heading to dinner. Our CET group had dinner together at a restaurant called Trattoria la Ciochiocciola near our B&B. We sat outside in a courtyard with a white awning and greenery and purple flowers crawling up trees. We had a very nice meal, starting first with a mixed assortment for our antipasta course, consisting of grilled eggplant and peppers, different types of carpaccio, as well as crustinis with mushroom, tomato, and pâté toppings. For my main course, I had a spicy tomato sauce over penne pasta. Yum! We had a leisurely dinner, and on the walk back to the B&B, we saw hundreds of stars – such a beautiful sight over the Tuscan countryside!
In the morning, PG met us at our B&B to give us tour of Pienza/our class for the day. Here comes the history lesson: Pienza was a town built by Pope Pius II, who was a member of the Piccolomini family, one of the most aristocratic families in Siena during the 15th-16th centuries. Pius II wanted to build a quintessential Renaissance town, so he had everything torn down and rebuilt in the Renaissance fashion – and it’s stayed that way ever since. We toured the cathedral as well, which was interesting because it has only a few Christian symbols or paintings and the majority of the decorations are of the Piccolomini family crest. Pius II was much more concerned about his political status than his religious one.
I will continue writing about our weekend travels, including our tour of the monastery in Monteoliveto and our cheese tasting at the Pecorino factory tomorrow! Right now, I need to go to sleep because unfortunately with the winding Tuscan roads, a travel bus, and hot weather, I returned home today not feeling very well; a combination of carsickness and dehydration, is my guess. I’m hoping after a good night’s rest, I’ll be fully recovered tomorrow. Songi d’oro! (How Italians say “sweet dreams,” literally “dreams of gold.”)
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