This morning was our earliest yet; our alarms went off at 5:30am to get us out of bed and up to see the sunrise. It was quite the hike up the hill, but the beautiful view was well worth it. After breakfast and a quick bus ride, we made it to Cortona, where we were shown around the city by our favorite tour guide Giovanni. He took us to see a couple churches, the Sanctuario di Santa Maria and Chiesa Monementale do San Francesco. Both churches left us in awe of the beautiful art inside as we took in the significance of hundreds of years of religious history before us. Next, we went to visit the Museo del Accedemia Etrusca. There, we observed archeological artifacts from ancient Etruscans, as well as other artifacts that had been traded in from other Florentine museums. We got to see mosaic tiles, clay vases, and even a golden chandelier that took our breath away. After the museum, we had a bit of free time to explore, which we used to stop by a local coffee shop, where Maya was finally able to order a soy milk latte before we got back on the bus to head to Arezzo.
After visiting Cortona, we traveled by bus to Arezzo. In Arezzo we were first given a quick tour of the city center. Then, during free time, we decided to visit a small traditional restaurant. As featured in the picture, pasta was our dish of choice. Both penne pasta with pesto and penne pasta with pomodoro sauce were ordered and we were not disappointed. After our delicious lunch, we toured the shops of the city center. To our excitement, the shops did not disappoint and we left with new clothes in tow. The shopping excursion left us excited to embark on our next guided event of the day, the tour of St. Francis. Through his entertaining explanations, Giovanni described the art of the Church, comparing various painters and time periods and how those influenced the murals and paintings across the church. Once the tour was over, we got the famous Italian dessert of gelato. We ate our gelato in the plaza across the church and then continued our exploration of the city. During this time, we found an item we had been on the lookout for — ground coffee!! As a result, we bought some as a way to bring a little bit of Italy back home. With the little time remaining, in classic American fashion, we attempted to take aesthetic pictures before boarding the bus back to Castiglion Fiorentino.
For dinner today, we ate at Roggi’s Pizza and talked to students from A&M that were here for a semester abroad. It was extremely interesting to get to hear the stories of some architecture students from College Station who are studying abroad here. It was really fun to talk to people who had similar dialects and ideas, and watch how they had integrated into Italian culture.
After dinner we had free time, and the group split into different parts. One of the groups went to get gelato at a shop two minutes from the hotel, and it was a very laid-back bonding experience. The connections between the students have really started to get stronger, and it’s been super incredible to get to talk about the different perspectives. Overall, today was really tiring but really fun, and we got exposed to a lot of culture and had great conversations.
