Ciao Italia: Are there churches in Italy?

View of Tuscany from the Hotel

All the ISU Students in Cortona

Jordan, Eric, and I at the
top of Cortona

This weekend I went on a school field trip to southern Tuscany with most of ISU students here. To sum up a hefty majority of the trip: I swear if I walk into one more church I'm going to go crazy. I have been to more churches in the past two days then I have in the past 10 years. Sad fact that is probably true... But they all really start to blur together.

One the first day we went to Arezzo and Cortona in Tuscany. Cortona is where we stayed the night, and it is beautiful. The weather was gorgeous so on our down time we just lounged around outside. Afterwards we hiked up the mountainous town to the top where the Medici Fortress was. There were amazing views of the farm fields and mountains all around and even a volcano! Inactive, but still I've never seen one before. The hike up there was a bit much to handle but well worth it. Especially since Eric brought my new best friend Reggie Redbird with him! I had quite the little photo shoot with my favorite little mascot. He got to fly over Italy, drink a margarita, sunbathe outside, and so much more (displayed at the end).

That night we had an authentic Italian dinner with about 7 courses. I even tried some weird spinach thing and Florentine steak! They were both nasty but I at least tried them. After, we all hung out at the hotel together and since ISU has a group of about 20-30 students here it was a lot of fun! Definitley one of the most memorable nights I've had so far in Italy.

Henry!!!

The next day we sadly left Cortona for Pienza and Montepulciano for a cheese tasting and wine tasting. We were allowed to wander around Pienza on our own for a little bit after stopping at, shockingly, a church! Pienza was amazing mainly for its lack of tourism. It was much mroe quaint than Florence and the view people I talked with truly didn't speak English. Needless to say, it wasn't a lengthy conversation and a lot of hand gestures were needed. My favorite part was sadly this dog that was left in a bike basket!! He was so cute! I named him Henry =] .

After that we sat waiting to head to a cheese tasting and attempted to play Down By The Banks... but Ellie and I couldn't remember the lyrics so we had to give up hope on reliving this childhood game for the time being.
(by the way I looked up the lyrics:
‎"Down by the banks of the hanky panky
Where the bullfrogs jump from bank to banky
With an eep, op,
Ee-sock-a-diddly and KERPLOP!
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10" )
Next we were walking around the rooms where they make Italy's famous Pienza Pecorino cheese... but Ellie, Alysa, and I found the tour a little boring so we made our own fun. We played some stupid jokes on an unsuspecting Eddie. We couldn't help but laugh as we put a bar of soap in Eddie's hood and pocket while Eric put a spoon in there too. It was childish but hey, it was April Fools Day. We were just being festive? After sampling some delicious cheese we left for Montepulciano.

For all the Twilight Fans out there (wait... people like Twilight?) This is the town where they filmed New Moon where Bella comes to Edward's rescue. But it is also where they allowed a group of 50 college students to attend a wine tasting! It was all red wine though, which was slightly disappointing but I tried them all. The first one was surprisingly good. The rest I just drank solely because it was expensive wine that I was getting for free. Didn't really enjoy them much. Whoops.

I'm so excited for next weekend! I get to be reunited with Sara and Kristi who I haven't seen in nearly 3 weeks! It's going to be a girls weekend in Greece!! I'm so excited for warm weather and beaches and everything! It's going to be sad being away from home on Easter but I think I may manage to tough it out. I'll miss you guys though! (really)

Reggie the Redbird takes on Tuscany: