Day 31: Field Tripping

Thursday -- another field trip day! I'm excited about this one because 1) we have a long bus ride so I can sleep and type my blogs 2) we are going to this cool ceramics place 3) I remembered my rain coat and umbrella -- just in case!

Our bus left at 6:30, so I fell asleep for the first hour and half. When we got to our bathroom break stop, I got a cappucino (So good, I hadn't had one in a while. But it was no Starbucks) and some snacks -- prepping me for the other 2 hours we had on the bus!

We made it to our first stop in less time than expected--love that! We were in this little town of Deruta and it is known for it's ceramics--it's all anyone does or sells here. So we visited one ceramics factory where they make, paint and sell their own pottery. We got to watch a guy make a vase on a pottery wheel and then watch someone paint a bowl (very tedious task). It was interesting to see somewhere that does all of their work in one building. From there we went up to the main part of the town where there are all these shops that sell ceramics. We walked around here for an hour and then got on the bus to our next stop -- Assisi.

{The Deruta Ceramic Factory we visited}

{Their showroom filled with beautiful ceramic pottery. I would have loved to purchased some but I didn't trust myself to travel with that fragile of items}

{The table setting I LOVED}

{One of the first steps... making the actual item from a slab of clay. Harder than it looks people!}

{Than after the item is cooked in the kiln, these patient ladies design and paint them. I don't see how they do it -- every piece looks incredibly identical and perfect!}

{When we visited some of the stores in the town, we saw this for sell: a ceramic, electric guitar. Now isn't that what everyone needs? Not for 12,000 Euro...}

We had only a 30 minute bus ride to Assisi -- a time in which I restarted Emily Giffin's The Heart of the Matter. I'm going to give it another try -- maybe I'll get more than 20 pages into it this time. When we arrived in Assisi, Lindsey gave her Expert of the Day and we broke for lunch. A few of us found a little cafe and I ordered a sandwich with chicken (finally), cheese and tomato. It wasn't too shabby! Then we slowly made our way down to the main attraction in Assisi - the Church of Saint Frances. Here we had a guided tour by a Friar. When he first spoke we were all shocked because he spoke perfect English. Well, turns out he is from Bessamer, Alabama. Small world! So he cracked some Auburn jokes and began our tour. This particular Basillica was all about Saint Frances and his life. It was all very interesting. And there were some beautiful frescos by Giotto. There was even Saint Frances' real cloak from the 1200s! Crazy how things last so long... The tour took about an hour and then we loaded up onto the big blue bus for our long ride home!

{The Church of Saint Frances}

{A random picture of a pretty building along the street leading to the Church}

{Me, Becca, Meg and Lindsey}

{So for our tour we got these sweet headsets so we could listen to the Friar talk. Don't we just look like the ultimate tourists?}

{The Friar from Bessamer, Alabama. Quite the character!}

{I don't know if I have told you but in order to visit inside a church we must have our shoulders and knees covered. This always poses a dilemma for us when we are getting dressed in the morning because it is blazing hot and we don't want to wear jeans. So today Becca opted for the shorts and in this picture she is a little worried about the length of them...}

{But you see my shorts, were obviously short and showed a little too much leg than is allowed in Saint Frances' Church, so I get to wear this styling scarf-sarong to cover me up. That and my headset made for one good-looking outfit}

The ride home took another 3 hours -- I read some more of my book (I'm going to force myself to keep reading it) and listened to my iPod... the songs of choice today were: John Mayer - Vultures (Live), Joss Stone - 4 and 20, The entire NeedToBreathe CD and Steel Magnolias - Keep On Lovin' You. Random mix for today! We arrived back at the Palace around 7 and we cooked dinner and watched some TV on our computers. Not much going on tonight.. we were taking full advantage of our downtime. That's about it for today. Tomorrow we have class and... USA plays in the World Cup! Let's go USA! Watch the game :) OK that's it for now. Ciao!