Italy Day 5...i think

Thursday, April 19: We slept late!! That means until 7am. Breakfast was good and it fueled my addiction for the oversized melba toast. We the left the 5 star Park Hotel for Montecini but on the way stopping in Sienna. It was cloudy on this day and I slept a good bit on the bus, but at one point I awoke to Erik yelling, “Look! Two pigs are screwing!” What did I do? Well, I looked of course. My only regret on the trip. Sigh. Everyone laughed and Erik took a picture for his collection. I awoke in Sienna. Sienna is awesome. Its kind of in between Assisi and Rome with development and commercialization. But it is a city unique in itself and it holds a atmosphere like no other. Sienna was home to what was supposed to be the largest cathedral in the world but construction was stopped short due to something called the Bubonic Plague. Excuses, excuses, excuses. It also home of very famous but deadly horse race has been going on for centuries. It is not uncommon for both horses and people to die in the race as the go through the streets and piazzas of Sienna. One of my most vivid memories of Sienna is the wide open squares and piazzas that are scattered through the city. We split into our normal groups and explored the city. We ended up eating at a pretty good fast food pizza restaurant and then we started to make our way towards something I will never forget. We eventually came into the Church of St. Catherine of Sienna. The church was very beautiful, of course, but it had an extra something. The extra something was the head of St. Catherine along with her finger. It looked pretty freaky. The head was in a display case that was built into a side wall of the church. The head was well preserved and you can definitely make out St. Catherine’s physical features such as eye sockets, nostrils, hair, and skin. Very interesting stuff. The Catholic church “cuts up” those who are known to be saints or religious figures, so they can send body parts such as heads, hands, and fingers to all corner of the globe to be placed as relics in churches. All Catholic churches have a of some sort relic under the main altar. Very odd but I think it also adds to the ritualistic history of the Church and of course to holiness of churches. We only spent a few hours at Sienna but it was enough to make me want to go back. We then left on our buses for the town of Montecatini. I slept on the way there. We arrived at our somewhat nice hotel named Hotel Michelangelo. This was my favorite hotel because it was a cliché somewhat nice European hotel. It was nothing more than a Holiday Inn, but nothing less either. It had retro furniture and carpet, 2 beds, and a balcony that looked on the street. It was a very cool hotel. The hotel was located on a street corner so we could look down to our right and see the downtown area. While we could look to our left and see an undeveloped mountainside that had a castle at the top of it. And straight in front of us was the other street. It was a pretty unique view. After unpacking we had some free time, so Mr. Sims took a few of us (Chris, Carolyn, Judy, and one other person [for some reason in my journal I didn‘t state the other person…hmm]) to explore and get some snacks. We found a little flea market, a park, and Chris stole an orange from a tree that was in a courtyard of another hotel. We eventually came up on a little grocery store. I bought some melba toast and a candy bar. A candy bar? Why would I buy that? This was no ordinary candy bar. Earlier in the trip we got a gift bag that had some European candy bars in it. The candy bars were awesome. Everyone loved them. So I bought one. Chris bought a gross of them. We then left the store and returned to our hotel to get ready for dinner. Going to the grocery store was very fun because it was something different from the norm of being rushed around and we didn’t have any sort of sites to see. The dinner was very loud and fun. We all had a great time talking with everyone. At this point of the trip everyone knew everyone else and people were a little more comfortable with being away from home and in a different country. The food was great and the company was better. After dinner we went back to our rooms. Little did we know this night was to be one that none will forget. Chris bought some coffee while at the grocery store. This was no ordinary coffee though. If I remember right, the coffee was in a cuplike container and all you had to do was shake it up. The coffee would then warm its self in the cup (some chemical reaction of some sort) and the mix would kind of brew it or something. All I knew was that there was some sort of devilry or magic involved. And I think that Chris was part of it. I went to bed to the sound of everyone running around. Some people however never made it to their beds.