The One With the Dante Reciting Man

We had a long weekend this past week. I had from Wednesday to Sunday without school. Most of the girls high tailed it out of Siena, but Anne and I decided to stay and just do day trips. I thought it might be boring, but it was SO wonderful.

On Wednesday and Friday we stayed in Siena and did homework (BOO!). I know that that is sad, but it had to be done. However, on Thursday we went to Florence with Jenessa to get some much needed retail therapy. I bought a few souvenirs for myself and finished up my gift shopping. Despite a brief time of hungry anger we had a great time. 

At the San Lorenzo Market

The highlight of the weekend and one of the highlights of the whole trip was our return to San Gimignano or San G as I like to call it. (I know I'm pretty gangster) We went to San G with our host family a few weeks ago and tasted the amazingness of their gelato, but it was raining when we went and we didn't really get to take in the view. So we decided to go back to explore the city (and eat gelato). It ended up being my perfect day.

After boarding the bus in Siena we left the real world and headed to what could only be fairyland. The bus ride was long, but absolutely gorgeous. When we got to the city my Disneyland face came out. That's how amazing San G is! We headed straight for gelato. After eating our little scoops of heaven (the raspberry-rosemary is literally the best thing I have ever put in my mouth) we headed down to the walls of the city. We walked around them and the view was gorgeous! 

Entering the city.

At the gelato shop.

With the gelato.

Love this city!

In the wall.

The view!

After a little bit of walking we came to the most beautiful and peaceful olive grove. I thought that was pretty awesome until I walked to the other side of it and saw a playground. Life=complete. So Anne and I went on the swings and the teeter totter and laughed like little kids.

Anne on the teeter totter.

At this point we still had about 2.6742 hours until our bus would be there, but we had done everything that we had come to do. So we went back into the city to look around in the shops. They were all so cute, but WAY too touristy. Everything was really expensive so we didn't get anything. 

We decided to go check out some medieval fountains. Honestly, they were more like pools and they were more creepy than pretty, but they were still cool. After that we ended up walking around the walls again. This time we stopped in our cute little olive grove and sat and thought. It was so peaceful. We don't have a lot of time to ourselves we are always doing something so it was nice to have some quiet time. After hearing some shots (still don't know what they were) we decided to go back into the city. That is when the best 30 minutes of my life began...

We rounded the corner into a little enclosed garden where a harpist was playing. What. The. Heck. It was so cool. There was sweet tower that we climbed and when we came back down the harpist had been joined by man in a monk costume (at least it looked like a monk costume). I thought that was pretty awesome, but then we rounded another corner. There was gorgeous view and a man playing folk tunes on the guitar. At this point I was so overwhelmed with awesomeness that I wanted to cry, but the awesomeness wasn't over. We then walked into a piazza where there was a saxophone jazz band. Then we went into ANOTHER piazza, got gelato again (don't judge), and saw a puppet show. Life is so great sometimes sometimes!

It was finally time to head to the bus. When we boarded the bus we didn't think we would have any problems, but after our bus change in Poggibonsi the real adventure of the day began. The bus was standing room only. So I stood for an hour long bus ride... It was actually kind of fun and absolutely hilarious in retrospect so I am glad it happened. I will say that it is a very good thing I had practice balance on the metro in Rome because I don't know what I would have done without it.

When we got back to Siena we made pizza with our host family. That was pretty awesome to begin with and then the news started. The Italian news did a feature on Mormons!! And I saw it! They showed Salt Lake, BYU, and the MTC. It was SO cool! (It made me miss Provo a bit) I was jumping up and down with excitement. Regardless of my political views I am so grateful that Romney's campaign has increased awareness of the church. It really is exciting. 

Then came dinner. The pizzas took a long time to cook so Paola basically fed us everything in her kitchen while we waited. Marco and Paola had been shopping that day and they were excited to show us their spoils. Marco bought new shoes. Turns out the were Prada (I knew they were loaded). Let me just say that that shoe box was beautiful in and of itself. Unfortunately the contents weren't so great. They were Prada tennis shoes. If you're going to buy Prada shoe why would you get plain brown tennis shoes?!?! Non capisco!

After dinner Anne and I headed to Jenessa's to finish watching "North and South." Oh. My. Gosh. That movie seriously has the most romantic/best end scene ever. We may or may not have watched it ten times.... Here it is for you to watch and understand. I dare you to only watch it once.

Gah! Look at his eyes!

So the movie was probably a bad idea for us. We haven't even talked to a boy in three months... Not to mention half of us are going on missions. So basically we sat there and gushed about impossibilities for the next 30 minutes. 

Gotta love Italy.