Siena

This may sound harsh but Siena wasn't all that. On the bus ride there one of the girls told us she had a friend in Italy and they told her the number 1 place you must go in Italy is Siena. We were all thinking oh, wow, great! We're going to the number 1 place! Our hopes were high and we were bright eyed and bushy-tailed. I was thinking it would be similar to the movie, Under the Tuscan Sun, considering Siena is in Tuscany. This was a very wrong assumption. Now Siena wasn't like the pit of hell or anything it was just different than we had assumed. It was a really cute city but it was similar to cities we have seen already. When we first got there we climbed a million steps and then got to the top of the city. We first went to this aquaduct museum. I know that sounds really weird, but it was a lot more interesting in real life. They took us on a tour of the aqueducts and told us how Siena started their water system and how they used their water efficiently. They had rooms with information about the aqueducts that were very high-tech, there was even a 3D informational movie. After that we walked to the center of town and split for lunch. We found a really cheap, but good, pizza place and then walked around and tried to find some good shopping. Then before we had to meet everyone back at school we grabbed a little gelato. :) After our break, we had a guided tour with Alessia, the same woman who took us around Florence. She took us to their Duomo, which looks similar to ours in Orvieto. Afterward we went to San Domenico church that contains St. Catharine's head and thumb and apparently people used to and still do to this day, pray or touch these relics to try to give themselves protection. I could literally see the flesh and bone of this woman's face and thumb. This is not a joke. Apparently it is really common in Italy to have relics at churches but most of us were pretty stunned. I think we all had a good time in Siena, it was just a lot different than what we had imagined!