Thursday

What an exciting end to my evening to find a message from my class! I asked today whether or not there is the famous statue of St. Francis and the wolf in Assisi, and I learned that the event actually occurred in Gubbio, which is a town nearby.

This morning, we boarded our bus with Salvatore, our bus driver and Elena, our tour guide. We took a two hour bus ride through the region of Tuscany, headed for the town of Siena. Tuscany is known for it's sunflower oil, so we saw empty fields that are apparently filled with sunflowers during the spring.

When we got to Siena, we headed to the cathedral of St. Dominic for Mass. There is a very cool story that goes with this church. When St. Catherine died, she was buried in Rome. The people of Siena wanted her back in their city, so they went and took her head for their church. Today we saw her head - we'll see her body when we get to Rome.

After visiting the church, we had some time in Siena for lunch. Elena told us that Tuscany is know for wild boar, so that's what Tony ordered. It was actually very good - it tasted a little like pot roast. We also had panforte for dessert, which is like fruit cake. It wasn't as good as my gelato yesterday, that's for sure!
The square in the city is gorgeous. We came across several great stores. Look at me here!!!



After Siena, we stopped in a town near Assisi and toured an olive oil plant. It was very neat - we were able to see how olive oil is pressed and also got to sample some. Yum!

Just as we're getting used ordering in Italian and to dodging the traffic in Assisi (Italians are terrible drivers and the all drive little bitty cars. They don't stop for anything!) we're packing up and heading to Montesilvano and Loreto tomorrow. Stay tuned!