Update

Sorry we haven't updated in a while...here's what's been going on

Friday was the field trip to a looted archaeological site and wine tour. The day was moderately interesting, but poorly planned. We woke up and rushed to school to be on the bus by 6:45am. What should have been a 3 hour bus ride was a 5 hour bus ride to a looted necropolis (tomb site). It was the site of old Etruscan (basically, ancient Italians) tombs which have been looted for the ancient Greek vases and other pottery work that was included in them. It really was cool to see them but we only had about 45 minutes to explore. So needless to say, a 5 hour drive for a 45 minute rush through a really cool archaeological site was not the best thing ever.

Afterwards, we had about a 3 hour drive to a winery, which was cool. It was nestled in the Tuscan hills just outside of Montalcino. The winery makes rosso (table red), Cabernet Sauvignon and Brunello. Brunello is a wine specific to the Montalcino region and is made of special grapes. The guy was telling us that they don't make Brunello wine; instead they make wine that they hope becomes Brunello. They have to go through the entire process and a local official has to come out to sample the wine, to make sure it is worthy of carrying the name Brunello. Pretty cool.

Sad part is that the wine was just..okay. Now I understand that we tried reds and they are supposed to get better with time...I get that. But couldn't the school have picked a winery that was at least a little more affordable? The Brunello was 45 Euros - a little out of my price range.

After another hour on the bus, we were finally back in Siena. We were exhausted from being on a bus all day and starving because we had not eaten since about 11:30 (and it was about 7/8pm).

Yesterday, on Saturday, we woke to stormy skies. It drizzled heavily in the morning but by the afternoon, we had a full out thunderstorm on our hands. We stayed inside most of the day, trying to book hotels in Venice and Rome, as well as attempting to do some sort of studying. We were finally able to Skype with our families because we have internet. We chatted with my family for about an hour, and after much technical support via Gmail and the international calling card, we were linked up with Matt's mom as well.

Last night we met up with some friends from the program and had dinner at a little trattoria (family restaurant) down the street. Afterwards, we went to the Piazza and had a drink at one of the tables overlooking the entire square. It was great. The guys had some cigars, ladies enjoyed limoncello, which is a lemon liquer made in Italy - very good - except I got a Baileys, because I needed a taste of home.

Today is rather overcast and cloudy. We made reservations for the wine tour, but I'm really hoping the sky clears up. The pictures won't be nearly as pretty if it's not the clear blue sky in the background.

Until next time...