Italy & Switzerland

Day two has been an absolute blast so far. After the best sleep I've ever had, we all gathered for breakfast and a short orientation session with the professors. We ventured out into the city again following behind our wonderful tour guides, Jana and Katie. They showed us all around and pointed out all the places we'd need to know of. The local grocery store, or the equivalent to our Walmart, is called the Pam. Since today is Saturday, it's also a market day, so we ended our little city tour by weaving our way through the crowded market scoping out all the fresh fruit, flowers and interesting clothing. After that we headed back to the palazzo where Margarita was busy cooking lunch. When we ate our first family meal together yesterday Jana and Katie told us that Margarita's cooking was the best cooking we'd find in Italy and not to judge it by our cold spread that she had prepared upon our arrival. Today, we found out they couldn't be more right. She had pesto pasta, personal pizzas, salad, turkey, peas and yet another chocolate torte made for us. I was in heaven!! I could have eaten everything on the table - it was that good!

After lunch a group of us decided to go on a hike to Eremo di Montecastello - a local monastery. Coach - you'll be proud of this one - it was no short hike, it was 10 miles! About half way up the mountain some of us began to wonder if we'd ever make it to the top, but when we finally got there it was so worth it. The view was just breath taking and you could see the entire city down below. Needless to say we took tons of pictures. We also saw some monks who smiled and waved, but we didn't go into talk to them because we weren't dressed in the appropriate clothing. We had on our shorts and t-shirts since the weather was so warm, but the sign out front clearly stated that they request you wear appropriate clothing that covers your body, as do most all of the churches here. We did drink some holy water out of the fountain outside though!

We took some personal time to rest and recooperate at the top of the mountain and then started the long journey back down in the rain. After the 3 and a half hour adventure, we're finally back at the palazzo and resting before going out for dinner and celebratory gelato. Restaurants here close for ciesta and don't reopen til 7:30, so that makes meal time a little tricky. Hopefully by tomorrow our bodies will be fully adjusted to Italian time. It will be our first day of classes and the start to a full week of new adventures. We're going to the civic museum on Monday, Florence on Wednesday and Arezzo on Saturday!