Cortona Day Trip

This past Tuesday, Saena Iulia (the school where I am studying), took all of us to the village of Cortona. It is about an hour bus ride from Siena. This is where "Under the Tuscan Sun" was filmed...funny though, Cortona is actually in the Umbria region, not Tuscany.

Nevertheless, this was one of my favorite, if not my favorite, days here. It was the first day that I really, 100% loved being here in Italy. We visited one of the churches there, Santa Margherita, where there was an actual mummified nun laid to rest in a small glass display.

Needless to say, the churches in Tuscany are amazing, huge, beautiful...and a bit drafty and cold, but I really prefer the small quaint churches we get to visit too. One of the nuns that works at Santa Margherita, talked to us a bit about the church. I would guess she is 60 something, but I couldn't help but sort of stare at her -- she didn't seem to have a single wrinkle from age, worry, stress or sun. She was so beautiful...very simple and plain, but very bright eyed.

I also loved this trip because of the students. I got to spend more time with them and joke with them. While in Cortona, me, Julia (my housemate), Claire, and Melanie hiked around the town burning off all of pasta we had eaten the night before. We stopped for a cappucino before the hike (of course) and then stopped at the top of a hill to admire the view. Cortona is a town built higher on the hillside; this makes for great hikes and then when the church bells ring (randomly because there is no reason or exact time they ring), it echos....it gave me goosebumps.
Cortona seemed to be an unexpected spiritual experience for many of us....can't quite explain why, but it was lovely.

We wrapped up the late afternoon with a grappa (distilled wine -- so there are as many types of grappa as there are wine). Grappa is good...strong like cough syrup...but a nice swig will cure you of being cold from walking around in the streets of Cortona!