Siena

      On our way down to Florence from Rome we stopped in Siena, a hilltop town home to some important late Medieval painting including Maestas (Virgin and Child enthroned) by Duccio and Simone Martini and the Allegories of Good and Bad Government by Ambrogio Lorenzetti. The town is oriented around a large polygonal square and it really beautiful. It also has an amazing cathedral, originially designed to be larger than St Peter's but unfinished because of the devastating effect of the plague on Siena, which never quite bounced back. In between visiting the town hall and the cathedral, we had lunch at one of the pizza places where they weigh your slice and it ends up costing very little--yum!

      Upon reaching Florence we checked in to our very, very fancy hotel called the Tornabuoni Beacci, where Alex and I are sharing a quad with Emily and Olivia!

Our room is really nice, but that night the window kept blowing open because of a deluge going on outside, and about a million mosquitoes came in! I now have over 50 mosquito bites :(
     That night we had dinner as a group! I ended up right at the end of the table in a corner which was a bummer, but the food was really good! We had a pasta appetizer, then a choice of eggplant parmesan or pork, and finally a choice was like 5 desserts. I got the panacotta which is sort of like cheesecake with no crust--delicious!