Oh, Siena.

Saturday was a great day! Early wake up call so that we could catch our train to the wonderful town of Siena, located just two hours outside of Florence. We had a guided tour for several hours to get oriented into the city. We began at St. Dominico, a cathedral housing relics of St. Catherine, the patron saint of Siena/Italy at large. She is known for receiving the stigmata and writing the Bible in the vernacular. Our guide gave us a brief history of the town of Siena and the background of the power struggles with Florence. Interestingly, Siena was also avidly hospitable to Catholic pilgrims. We walked through several historical districts before arriving at the immaculately decorated Cathedral of Siena. This church is in the Romanesque style, containing a brick interior and a marble exterior. This is considered the "zebra cathedral" because of the black and white striped columns contained throughout the entirety of the Cathedral. After the tour, we had a few free hours inside the city. I had a delicious tuna panini for lunch, before stopping at a side fruit market for our fill of apples and pears. Of course the rain followed us into Siena, so Ricki, Cari, Sarah, and I made a quick detour into a local cafe to purchase the most delicious hot chocolate I've ever tasted. Yes, it was as thick as Hershey's chocolate syrup, if not even thicker, but wow. It was great. We departed for Florence and took the train back in to enjoy our last night in Italy :( The remainder of our hours were spent inside the street markets, where I made my first Italian leather purchases. Cari and I got separated from the rest of the group so we wandered into a few shops, most notably a perfume store where I'm almost positive I smelled at least 50 different brands of women's perfume. We met back up with the entire group for our last family dinner in Italy, which was by far the best I had on the trip. 4 courses:  mixed green salad,  penne pasta, grilled chicken, and a creme pastry. What could be better?  Our waiter was a true Italian who sung to us Opera style every time he distributed food. After a satisfying last supper in Italy, we returned to the hotel for a restful night's sleep.

Sunday=LONG. We had to get up around 7am to depart for the train station to head HOME. We took a 1 1/2 hour train to Venice, then transferred onto a charter bus for four hours which brought us into Austria. Then, another train ride (4 hours) back into Wien. The majority of the long journey back was spent conversing with some of my "family" members and trying to nap on and off. I got a slight case of motion sickness on the train ride back to Vienna, but I survived. We arrived back at the hotel around 8pm and spent the rest of the night unpacking and catching up on my blog which I neglected for 9 days. My 9 days in Italy were some of the best, most memorable times of my life. I saw more history and art than most people dream of in an entire lifetime. Being surrounded by 30+ people for 9 straight days was not always easy or extremely pleasant, but God is teaching me more about patience, long suffering, and perseverance than I thought possible. The beauty and history contained inside Italy is simply astounding. I am so grateful for our opportunity to explore unknown parts of God's marvelous creation. In a few weekends, some of us are going back to Italy to spend time in Venice and Cinque Terre. Can't wait! Hope you've enjoyed your quick trip in Italy by reading my blog. I could talk about it all day, but once again, words and pictures just don't do justice.