Today included a tour of the Tuscan countryside, including Montalcino, a hill town southeast of Siena. The scenery was amazing…in fact, it made all of the postcards seem silly! There is no way to capture its beauty through words or photos, though we all tried anyway. Our destination was St. Antimo in Montalcino, a Romanesque abbey that dates from 1118 (thought it is purported that the first stone was laid by order of Charlemagne in 781). The church was part of a network of churches that was used by Catholics during pilgrimages to visit various reliquary goods. St. Antimo would have been a place where they would have stopped on their way to another church (though I think it was surely worthy of being a destination itself!) We were able to see Mass on Sunday morning around 11:00. If I wasn't completely overcome by the scenery and history surrounding me, then the incense surely completed the entire experience. I have never been to a high mass (which this one was), so the experience was new and exciting. The chanting and singing were beautiful, and it was interesting for me to get to see the church hierarchy acted out there on what seemed like a stage. The priest seemed intent on us receiving the message that Christ gave us the ultimate gift, the gift of himself. "He did not give us a house, or a trip to Hawaii, etc, etc, (--I translated in my bad Italian!) He gave us his body." The message was fitting, as the day we attended the mass was Corpus Christi. He was very passionate as he delivered the message, the only Italian portion of an entirely-Latin mass!

After visiting St. Antimo, we drove a short distance into town for a picnic lunch of Italian meats, cheeses, bread, fruit, and wine at a medieval fortress that overlooks the entire town. We had several choices after lunch: climb the ramparts for 3 euro, wander around by ourselves, or take a guided tour of the Museo Civico e Diocesano d'Arte Sacra di Montalcino with Christy Stephany, an art history professor at University of Vermont and Bill Stephany's wife.

I opted for the most bang for the buck (or the euro!) here and did the art tour, which I am thankful for! Christy taught us so much about the saints, the life of Mary, early gold-leaf techniques, tempura paint, and early sculpture. It was an incredible introduction to a world of art that I have not studied since my second year of college. I did receive the shock to the system in this museum-the realization that museums are not temperature-controlled at all. That is, they do not have air-conditioning. When you go during siesta time, the heat can be brutal. We did see the highly-glazed sculpture of Robbias here-now I know where all of those Christmas wreaths with green leaves and yellow fruit and ribbons come from -they are Robbias wreaths.

After this great art talk, we wandered the streets and saw several intriguing shops, where I was almost tempted to buy a cutting board made from the trunk of an olive tree. I may have to go back!

We rode the bus home after a full day. Some people slept on the way home, but I couldn't. I simply wanted to see everything I could get my eyes on. After getting dropped off in town, I attempted to walk home. I had regained energy after a long day and wanted to see more of the city, so I started out on what I thought was my route home (I had walked into town the previous day). An hour later I was still within the city walls. I had walked up what is, perhaps, the longest sustained hill in the town of Siena. An hour after that, I was at the train station, where I actually arrived in Siena! What a crazy walk that I will never forget. All told, I walked for 2.5 hours and probably covered close to 8 miles. I hopped on any bus that would take me closer to town and hobbled home the rest of the way. Now, I do know the TRUE route out of the city!


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