Climbing the Duomo + Boboli Gardens

With one last thing to do on our Italy checklist we headed to Florence to climb the Duomo. 414 stairs later we arrived at the top to an amazing view over the city. Going down the stairs was a bit dizzying at times with the tight spiral staircases. The Duomo is composed of two separate shells so you have to walk on a small pathway inside the Duomo looking down at the interior to get to the next portion. A little scary if you think too much about how high you are. Afterwards we visited the Boboli Gardens, also in Florence.

pathway inside looking down as we went to the next portion of stairs

at the Boboli Gardens

amphitheatre in the Boboli Gardens

Winery Visit in Castiglion Fiorentino

Wednesday, we went to take a tour of La Pevuccia Winery in Castiglion. It took about 30 minutes to walk there from the study center. We learned about the process of making wine as well as olive oil. After touring the facility and vineyards we were able to participate in a wine tasting of about 5 wines and a dessert liquor.

cheese with something similar to jelly on it--some were spicy, some were pumpkin flavored

brushetta

dipping the biscotti into the liquor

a warm custard for dipping the biscotti

ravioli for dinner at Santa Chiara

the Wizard of Oz play the TAMU Education majors did with a middle school in Castiglion



Cortona

Monday, we went to visit Cortona, the neighboring town of Castiglion Fiorentino. Being so close we had to make time to go there at least once before leaving Italy. Cortona is well known for having beautiful scenery and the filming location of the movie Under the Tuscan Sun. It definitely lived up to our expectations as many students who had taken day trips there had loved Cortona and raved about it. It is a little bit bigger town than Castiglion Fiorentino and also home to a few universities.

main piazza

a lot of interesting doors

view from Cortona

Then back at Santa Chiara our professor had us haul our sticks up the steepest hill in Castiglion (in the rain) to put them together...

trying to show steepness of the hills

we even had visitors...

Field Trip to Tivoli

Wednesday's field trip took us to Tivoli on a 2.5 hour bus ride.Tivoli is south of Rome. First we saw Hadrian's Villa by Palladio. It was mostly in ruins which was sort of a shock because what we saw in history were pictures from its prime. Next, we went to one of my favorite things I learned about--Villa d'Este. Villa d'Este is a beautifully manicured garden space with fountains everywhere.

ruins of Hadrian's Villa

turtle sunbathing at Hadrian's Villa

Villa d'Este

wall of a thousands fountains--spans a large portion of the garden