Because its been a while since my last blog, let me try to give you a run down of all the cities we've visited and throw in a couple of the best pictures we've taken
Cortona
Cortona was our first group travel. It was really cool walking throughout the streets surrounded by high high buildings. we actually stumbled upon a wedding party that was just coming out of the church building. Suprsingly the traditions of american/italian weddings were not much different for the little i saw. (expect for the fact all the guys had sweet italian suits on). I got to eat bruschetta, tried some increeibly pizza and enjoyed the twon square. Every town we visit has a unique piazza(town square)
Florence(Firenza)
Florence, the center of the italian renaissance. We walked into the square and immediately i was hit with the most amazing buildings i have ever seen. And we also went through the Uffizi art gallery. Heres some of the things i saw
The duomo, ghiberti's gates of paradise(below), the birth of the venus, venus of urbino, a couple of da vinci's paintings, a micheangelo piece, florence cathedral(below), the wrestlers. The florence cathedral wa easily the most impressive. Besides being several hundreds of years old, the detailing was amazing(notice all the disciples are around Jesus at the top of the building) And were going to see the statue of david in another museum in florence saturday
Siena
Most of the few hours i spent in siena was standing in line to climb the tower. But it was defintely worth it. In siena the town hall has the largest tower not related to a church in italy. And for a small fee you can climb it, if your up the to the challenge. Of course i was. The view from the top was incredible. I tried to take some picuters(the tower and some pics from it are below) but it really does not do it justice. After we climbed it we ate some lunch and headed to another town
San Gimignano
Back in the 14th centruy(i beleive) san gimignano was known as the town with the towers, because it had 40 towers built by noble families. But once the city lost its prestige and power via the black death it was taken over by the jurisdiction of florence and many of its towers were removed. About a dozen or so remain. But now, which is better for me, it has the italian gelatto world champions from 2006 and 2008. and it was easily the best gelatto(ice cream) i ever had.
Its really hard to beleive i've done all this in such a shorh time. Each day we wake up and honeslty it only gets better. Free travel is coming up and some of us(including me) are going to spain. Pamplona, Barcelona and Madrid better watch out!
Heres another pic of me..my knees from playing soccer!
I love EVERYONE of yall and miss yall. Hope everything is going good in the states
