San Gamignano

Last Saturday, we decided to take a mini adventure to San Gamignano, a little town about an hour away from Siena. Not surprisingly, this town looked remarkably similar to Siena. There are, of course, distinct differences in important pieces of architecture that make the two cities unique, but the overall look was very similar. 

We did find a gem though, when we went walking down a little path in search of a view...and a view was what we found. It was so refreshing to be walking on an actual dirt path next to the wall of the city, looking out over the Tuscan countryside. It sounds like a dream right? Nope. It's real. Y'all should do that someday too.

Pretty eh? It was a pretty gray and rainy day, but even without the sunshine, it was still beautiful.

When I run in Siena, I usually run on the fortress, but today I went outside the city. It looks like that right outside of Siena too. It's just kinda hard to tell what is private property and what isn't, and there aren't sidewalks on the roads so it's not super safe, but hey, it's an adventure right?

I wish I had brought my camera today too. I went a little bit farther than I had before and I found some pretty cool stuff I would like to go back to photograph. On the list was a sign saying there was a McDonalds 10 minutes away. I don't know about you, but I think that's pretty funny. I do love living in a place where there isn't McDonalds though. You can't get that most places in the world.

Also, I don't remember if I already talked about how I made Friday night dinner for a few friends, but I wanted to show you the picture of the challah. I think it came out a bit dry, but the flavor was good so I was happy.

There was another one too. that one is long and skinny because it would be boring to have two challot that look the same...

---

Today's walking tour for my Presence of the Past class, was to the Town Hall of Siena, right in Piazza del Campo.

This is the building:

I'm sure I've posted pictures of it before...I only kind of live right next to it, but just so you know what I'm talking about.

The Town Hall is an important building to Siena for all sorts of reasons. It holds political and religious importance and also is the home to a lot of truly amazing art. We viewed a cycle of frescoes that depict the contrast between Good and Bad Government. While it may be hard to understand just by looking what the significance of the pieces are, once you start to analyze the details, it becomes clear that every part of it holds symbolic importance.

Also, bonus, this picture features a hilarious candid of my teacher at the bottom. That's Silvia. She's hilarious.

So I think that's it for today. I went a little crazy with the tweets today so for additional ramblings...you can check that out I guess...

Tomorrow I'm headed to Pompeii! I'm so excited to see the place I heard about for 5 years in Latin class. A weekend adventure awaits!