Quattro Giorni in Umbria e Toscana

I made it back from the four day adventure with CIEE into Umbria and a bit of Tuscany with too many pictures and not enough sleep--always signs of a good trip!

The picture above shows the legs of our journey: Ferrara (not shown)--Assisi--Perugia--Siena--Orvieto--Ferrara

Thursday, our group took two vans from Ferrara south to Magione, a small town right next to Lake Trasimeno in Umbria.  There, we found our accommodations for the next two nights at an agriturismo--farm property with accommodations as well as a restaurant.  The restaurant usually uses food grown on the property.
Photos below show views outside the agriturismo as well as two other students inside our shared room. 

After arriving in Magione, we had a big lunch at the restaurant on property and then headed out to Assisi.  There we found a guide who took us through the small town built of white stones.  We visited the cathedrals and tombs of both Santa Chiara and San Francesco, who were both born and started their own orders in Assisi.  I really loved this town.  Not only because of it's aesthetic beauty, but also because of the nature of the town. This I would accredit to the two saints and the religious tradition they started there.  Assisi is home to plenty of tourists, but of a completely different nature than any of the other towns and, because of this, the Italians living and working there were without the jaded nature I found in a lot of other towns.  

 The Cathedral of San Fransisco--A small side street typical to Assisi

(Unfortunately my camera died right before this, so I had to steal these from online.  I will be getting more from other students)

After some free time in Assisi, we returned to Magione for some excellent dinner and some sleep.  Friday we started early and drove to Perugia, a city slightly bigger than Ferrara that is known as a center of art, boasting the home of the famous painter Pietro Vannucci, aka, Perugino.  More importantly (to me at least) it is also the main center of Italian chocolate, hosting the Eurochocolate festival of 150 chocolate artisans from all over Europe (which I may be attending...).  The symbol of Perugia, the griffin, can be seen on the logo of the internationally know chocolate company, Perugina.   I do feel sometimes that the richness of art in Italy is kind of wasted on me, and more so during the visits to these four cities.  I will be starting a Renaissance Art course this week that focuses on the art of  Ferrara, but will hopefully teach me a bit about art in all of Italy.  

 

  More to come on Siena and Orvieto....!