Assissi, Pisa, Cinque Terra, and Rome

Ciao bellas and bellos! Wow it's been a while since I have posted anything and I feel so behind...My apartment in Montepulciano does not get internet anymore so I haven't been on much. Plus Im just tired as hell. Soooo yeah I am going to catch up on Assissi, Pisa, Cinque Terra, Rome, Herculaneum, and Naples. And I just got back from Sorrento for dinner so that too. Ok So Assissi, it was one of the coolest places I have been to yet. I can't really put my finger on why, but it was just really beautiful. The town was built with white and pink stone and was a huge change from what we have seen so far. We went to mostly churches including the one that was built around St. Francis's little chapel that he started. That church is the seventh largest in the world! It was cool, especially since you can see the contrast between the tiny chapel and the church that was built around it in honor of it. We also saw St. Francis's death place and his tomb which was located in another church. One church that we went to was so beautiful because it was so rich in blue and gold colors...then one of the professors pointed out the blood drain where they sacrificed humans lol. There were also a lot of places throughout the city that showed us where the old town used to be. For example, part of the floor is glass and underneath is remnants from the old Assissi during the Middle Ages. It was cool to see how much lower the town was. After a few churches we climbed to the very top of Assissi to a fort! It was one of my favorite parts of my entire Italy trip. The hike up to the top was pretty tough because it was supposedly one of the hottest days of the year but it was so worth it when I got up to the very tip top of it. I'll post a picture on here of me at the very top. So after that intensity we went to the last church and that was where St. Francis was burried. The church was beautiful, it had an upper and lower church and St. Francis was in a lower level in kind of a cave looking area. Also we saw a lot of other holy people's tombs there, and like I knew I would, I forgot the names. This last church had some really pretty stained glass windows and our tour guide guy spoke a lot about it and kind of gave me a better understanding of why they were so important during those times. Oh, there was also this munk guy who came out and yelled in the middle of town "ASSISSI! ASSISSI!" and some other Italian things and it was a tad eerie for some reason lol. So anyway, I never thought I would walk away from Assissi loving it, but I did. Its a must see! It was pretty hilly but the view was spectacular. Moving on to Pisa...It was of course really cool to see the leaning tower up close. Apparently all of the buildings in that general area are slightly leaning as well. Everything to see in Pisa is literally right next to each other so we had a lax day that day. We saw a church that had a Holy Roman Emperor burried there and some really emaculate podium with marble columns and biblical stories carved into the sides. We also saw a huge baptistry and if I recall it was the largest or one of the largest in the world. The accoustics were amazing and a guy came in and shut the door and sang a few notes for us. Lastly, we went to a huge place filled with tombs. A bunch of people from our group climbed the leaning tower but I stayed behind and instead I got shat on by a bird. I did, however, take a good picture of me holding up the tower with my butt. Thats pretty much it for Pisa, its really cool to see the tower but I would never make a whole day of it, although somehow we did haha. Neeeext is Cinque Terra. Ughhh I loved this place so much! I highly advise going to Cinque Terra for a weekend or longer. Its on the west coast of northern Italy and has the most beautiful waters I have ever seen. We left from Pisa (me and a group of like 10 other people) and took the train to Riomaggiore, which is one of the five towns in Cinque Terra. Cinque Terra means five lands if I'm not mistaken. Anyway so we went there and climbed a million steps to our apartment and it had such a great view of the mediterranean! We did the dinner thing and then walked out to the edge of the town on the water and hung out on the rocks...the next day a bunch of people from our group did the hike between the last two towns and me and Rachel and Chelsea just went ahead to the last town Monterosso and waited for them. Monterosso was so big and beautiful and the beach was glorious! The only thing that was hard to get used to was that the beach was all rocks and tiny pebbles so it hurt to walk on and lay on. The waves were HUGE and one got a strong hold on me lol. By the time I came up my bottoms and top were off. But its ok because naked people were walking around all day. Especially little boys, it was so weird they would walk around with a shirt on but no pants. And little girls walked around with pants on but no tops. And then there were some old ladies with no tops. And some people dont believe in shaving. I kind of anticipated some of this but just being around it was very interesting. Later on that night we went back to our town and saw the sunset behind a huge mountain and it too was glorious! Cinque Terra is known for its Pesto so that night I got spaghetti alla pesto and it was the best I've ever had! And I'm not just saying that...it had like mozzarella or some type of white stringy cheese in it and globs of pesto sauce and chunks of potatoes. I will always compare all pesto to that now. So the next day we all got up checked out of our apartment and went down to the rocks again. 8 out of the 11 in our group decided to go cliff diving off of one of the cliffs right there at the edge of the town. I got some good pictures and videos of them. Apparently that place is not very safe and people died there recently by falling off...:/ Ok so Rome. PS this is the third time I have been to Rome now and I finally got to see the Colloseum, Pantheon, Forum, and Trevi Fountain. The Colloseum was so freaking awesome to see on the inside. Just imagining all the Romans gathering together and watching Gladitorial games was so fun. It was crazy to think of all the blood shed that went down in there. Oh I forgot we went to a church, I want to say it was called something about St. Peter...because it had his chains showcased in the center of it. There was also a very famous wall of sculptures by Michelangelo including one of Moses. It was the one that had horns and apparently it was a mistake to put horns on Moses but there was a mistranslation during Michelangelo's time about the Bible and Moses. Next, the Roman Forum. We saw a lot of cool ruins and places where gladiators fought before the colloseum. Also a temple of Romulus was there and the house of the Vestal Virgins. We didn't get to spend as much time as I wanted to there but I hope to go back again some day. After we exited Capitoline hill I saw a big Bronze sculpture of Marcus Aurelius which was awesome because he was one of my favorite Emperors and I love Meditations that he wrote. We went by the Pantheon and it was also cool. It looked different than I pictured it and I just realized thats because I pictured the Greek Parthenon for some odd reason. Anyway, Rafael the famous painter is burried there and that is pretty much all that I remember about the inside. It was ridiculously packed and its honestly prettier on the outside. Before we went to the Trevi Fountain we went to some other fountain and I can't remember the significance of it because by this time the heat was getting to me and I was ready to be done. BTW we start our field trips by meeting at the bus station at 6:45am and go to wherever we are going, and then meet back at the bus at 4...so by this time it was well into the afternoon and I was ready to crack skulls because Rome heat is not really a joke. Its like the opposite of a joke. Like an unjoke. Needless to say that fountain I could have done without because when we got to the Trevi we had five minutes to take a picture and then we had to haul it all the way back across Rome in 30 minutes to catch the bus. The Trevi was really pretty but soooo unbelievably packed so I didn't get to have a moment with it or anything lol. I did throw in a coin though. So that was Rome in a nutshell...Rome was Tuesday, and Wednesday me and my History of Rome class all left for Pompeii. I am here right now on the last of the three nights and it has been a great weekend of a TON of ancient ruins. I am going to cut it off here tonight because I have to get up early to go back to Montepulciano but I will post about Herculaneum, Naples, Sorrento, and Pompeii when I get back. It makes me tired just thinking about what I did this weekend. G'night. :)