Yesterday @ San Giminano and Siena

We woke up pretty early (I had a rough night, bummer) and then got on a bus to go to San Giminano. It's a little medieval town that shows us what Florence was like before it got bulked up and the flood of 1966, etc. It still had multiple towers and we climbed one to get a better look over the city. We went to a church and on one side there were many frescos of Old Testament scenes and on the other side of the church there were New Testament scenes. I found it very interesting that our guide (Donnatella who was sooo precious!) mentioned that the majority of people were illiterate up until quite recently so the preacher would be in the pulpit and would say I'm talking about that picture over there, this is what's happening and these are who the people are, etc. So that was very insightful. There we had 2 writing assignments: we had to choose one NT/OT scene to write about and respond to - I chose the betrayal of Jesus scene. There was a ton of emotion and Judas was kissing his cheek, Jesus was peaceful and looking heavenward as if asking God for strength, Peter was tackling the guy and cutting off his ear, some of the other disciples were fleeing, and the mob of soldiers were out for blood. It was just so full of everything. Then I had to choose from writing about the Last Judgement scene (either Heaven or Hell) at the front of the church or about the little chapel dedicated to this saint girl. It wasn't all that pretty and I thought her story about sainthood was stupid so I wrote about Hell. Heaven was very bland and angelic and happy. Hell was super scary - the demons were all grinning maliciously as they tortured people. They separated it into the 7 deadly sins and they were getting punished accordingly. It was super creepy... Gluttons were being forced to eat poop, people were getting stabbed in horrible places, I noticed that a couple of people were just in the middle of all the pain and chaos and were curled up in a ball with their head in their hands because of the anguish... It was all just very sad. Then we wandered around the town some more and it was pretty, but there wasn't really anything to do.

Then a short bus ride over to Siena (where they have the horse races on the 2nd!!! I'm going :D). There we went to another church, the world's oldest still operating bank, and then the square. Then we got some drinks and chilled in the square for a little bit and then walked around and looked in the shops. I finally found a bookstore that had English books, but they didn't have anything worthwhile :(. Then we chilled in the square some more and then more people met up with us and then finally we had dinner - which was the best food I've had yet... and it'll be hard to top. First there were appetizers with bread and different stuff on top. I had some bread lol. Then the pasta - homemade spaghetti-ish noodles that were super thick and awesome covered in tomato based sauce with epic spices. We got another helping at my table lol! Then they brought out a platter of meat and potatoes that were to die for. Then we had a traditional Sienese dessert- some kind of chocolate cake with white mousse stuff at the top and yellow cream stuff all over it. I tried it, but I was pretty full and was not too fond of the cream stuff. Then they brought out biscotti and coffee for those that wanted it. Then we got back on the bus and drove back. This was the most ghetto bus yet, sooo rickety. But we made it back in one piece! Then we crashed basically.