Arezzo, Cortona, Pienza, and Montepulciano

I can't believe that we had our very last weekend trip abroad! Time has gone by way too fast. I am happy that we saved the Tuscany countryside for the end though, because it was very relaxing.

We went with our school again for this trip. When we arrived in Arezzo Saturday morning (it's only about and hour or so outside of Florence) and we took a walking tour. We went into about 4 historical churches and many of them had famous artworks inside that I have learned about in my art history class, so it was pretty cool seeing them in person. After our tour we had market made pannini's (my favorite) and then we got to shop around the antique street market, which I loved! It was like a city wide garage sale and there were so many things that I wish I could have taken home with me.

After leaving Arezzo we drove to Cortona, where we stayed the night. We had to walk up very steep streets to get to our hotel and to also see a great view of the country side, but it was worth it. A Renaissance fair was going on while we were there and we got to watch some performances. We also had an amazing dinner provided for us, starting with champagne and appertivi (happy hour) outside on a terrace. Then we moved inside the restaurant and had a 4 course meal.

The next morning we had breakfast on our hotels terrace and then headed to Pienza where we walked around the town and saw the various shops and then we saw how Pecorino and Ricotta cheese is made on a family owned farm. We had lunch there too, which consisted of 5 different types of cheese, different meats, honey and jam, bread and olive oil, and wine...I wish I could bring the cheese back because it was amazing! We bought some to eat while we're still in Italy.

After Pienza we drove to Montepulciano, which is where part of the second Twilight movie "New Moon" was filmed. We got to go on a wine cellar tour,which was very cool because it was underground and it looked like a dungeon. Then had a wine tasting with more cheese! It was very good and the wine there is only sold in Montepulciano.

We will be staying in Florence for the rest of our time abroad. We plan on doing as much as we can with the time that we have left before heading back to America!

Pictures:

1-3: These are pictures from the first few churches we went to...the second picture of the dome is interesting because when you are far away it looks like there are levels within the dome but when you get closer you realize that the dome is actually just painted on the inside. The cross is by Cimabue, a very well known artist in Italy and we took a picture by it to show our art teacher.

4-13: More churches throughout the town...the picture of the circle is actually a tomb of a priest that you can see.

14-21: Pictures of the town square and market...a lot of the tents had a wide variety of antiques so it took us awhile to go through it all but it was really cool! And much different than the leather market in Florence.

22-25: Our hotel in Cortona..it had a great view and location!

23-32: The Renaissance fair going on and some of the best gelato I've had yet! It was cookies, pistachio, and carmel cream.

33-40: Our climb to the top of the town for the best view of the country side!

41-52: Our 5 course meal...we had fried mozzarella for appertivi, some kind of zucchini covered thing (I think it was Ricotta? I'm not sure but it was good), then we had risotto and ravioli stuffed with cheese, then Florentine Steak and salad, and then chocolate soufflé! The view of the country side at night is from the lookout point by our hotel.

53-57: The center of Pienza. The church there is actually cracking in half because of the foundation it was built on.

58-64: The lookout point behind the church. Pienza is the epitome of an Italian town...there was clothes hanging to dry outside the windows and bikes and flowers were everywhere.We also stopped by a leather shop and the owner made me a bracelet!

65-70: This is the farm we went to outside of Pienza where we learned how cheese is made. It was very interesting and you can tell how proud the Italian farmers are... They really love cheese. The tasting lunch afterwards was so good!

71-74: The center of Montopoluchiano.

75-82: The wine cellar we got to visit.
The stairs down to the cellar are the original ones from the 1500's! I wouldn't like to work underground in a dungeon like that but it was very cool to see. We got to taste the wine afterwards and had more cheese.

83-84: A Twilight collage on the wall since the movie was filmed there... I could recognize where some of the sense were filmed. The last picture is of the town as we were leaving.