Abroad in Italy: _beauty

In the midst of all the work for school, we manage to make time for day trips such as Siena on Wednesday, and Florence, again, today.

Siena is where the color "burnt siena" derives its name, for obvious reasons. Most buildings are constructed of brick, since it was available and cheap, and shutters are painted gray, brown, or green for the sake of uniformity.

Fun fact_ Siena is the first town in Italy that had cable tv.

This is the back side of Saint Catherine's Cathedral. Her head and thumb reside inside, but her body is in Rome.

Campo Square and Palazzo Pubblico. During the summer months, they have horse races.

The original plan for the Duomo of Siena was to exceed the size of Florence, however, the Black Plage wiped our 3/4 of the population, so they were only able to finish the transept.

The stonework is like nothing I have ever seen before in my life. There is an older gentleman that his sole job is to restore the floor, which has 56 different scenes created of marble.

A view from what I believe is an old part of a wall. It was supposed to rain, but instead we were able to get fantastic pictures and views, despite the wind and frigid cold (which is probably nothing compared to what it is back home).

Our very passionate tour guide, Chiara. Who says you have to wear black in Italy??

I should also add that I ate at the most amazing restaurant ever... If anyone is ever able to make it to Siena, you have to go to Osteria Boccon Del Prete... So good!!!

Today, our group made it back up to Florence for a morning of Medici's.

The courtyard of Palazzo Medici Riccardi. The Midici's lived here until they "outgrew" it, then the Riccardi's purchased it form them.

San Lorenzo.

The cloister of San Lorenzo. Yes, that is an orange tree with oranges on it, and no I didn't pick one even though I wanted to.

The group from Orvieto was in Florence as well, so I was once again able to enjoy an afternoon of climbing 464 steps to the top of the dome of the Duomo with Mitch and try to not to die.

I thought the frescoes were magnificent from the ground, but at essentially eye level, the amount of detail and graphical depiction of events was unbelievable.