Ciao a Tutti ,
Today we left the beautiful city of Assisi and our very much loved swimming pool to venture onto Prato, our home for the next 5 nights. On our way we saw more of the ever ending valleys and green fields amongst small country towns of Umbria until we reached a more industrial part of Italy in the region of Tuscany. We entered Siena, a medieval town slightly more populated than Assisi and with us came the unwanted Tassie weather, that’s right after days of scorching sun the rain had begun to fall.
The bus stopped at the bottom of medieval Siena, which lies above the more modern part of the town. Upon arrival we met with our tour guide, Rita who took us into la chiesa di San Domenico e Santa Caterina (the church of St. Dominic and St Catherine), which unlike other churches we have been in so far has only one nave, minimal sculptural detail, more simplicity in the artwork and is made of out bricks, with no extravagant outside detail resulting in a hall like exterior. We were told this was deliberately implemented to maintain focus on the altar of the church. However, since the construction of this church many significant artefacts of early Christianity have been introduced into the building, especially in recognition of St. Catherine of Siena, patron saint of Italy. In a very small chapel inside the church dedicated to St. Catherine lies her head, which is covered in a special type of plaster for preservation.
Our tour continued up the streets of Siena, which are located on a hill underneath the Duomo of Santa Maria. All the buildings are tall and in extremely close proximity to each other, described as a New York City of medieval times. This structure of the city was used as a defence mechanism as Florence and Siena have long history of rivalry consisting of many battles and invasions. The streets are quite narrow and everything is made of small red bricks except for the Romanesque/Gothic marble Duomo.
At the rear of the Duomo lies the Baptistry, which is a separate building, as it is believed that Catholics needed to be purified through baptism before entering the main church. Our tour guide discussed the various sculptures and fresco artwork covering the inside of the building, especially those of Donatello that depicted the life of John the Baptist.
We made our way up to the main section of the Duomo, which was spectacular from the outside. It had huge pink and white marble columns, giant sculptures, three triangular portraits of the nativity, Assumption of Mary and the crowning of Mary as Queen of Heaven. As we entered I think everyone stopped in awe, there was just soooooo much to see!!! The walls, ceiling and floor were all absolutely covered. Rita told us that of everything inside of the Duomo the most important thing to remember was the tiling detail on the floors where several different prophesies were encrypted into the marble floor through a process called graffiti (no not the spray paint kind). The main theme of the Duomo was black and white, which are the colours of Siena as the two opposites came together to produce something magnificent, much like the Collingwood football team back at home.
After leaving the historic masterpiece behind we travelled into the museum, which held most of the original statues, stained glass windows and paintings of the Duomo. Our tour guide insisted that we climb to the top of the tower and view Siena from its second highest point…little did we realise that to get there we had to travel up two, somewhat never ending, flights of extremely narrow spiral stairs AHHHH!!! But it was worth it even through the rain, it was possibly one of the most amazing experiences to be standing in the middle of a medieval town, when home only dates to colonial time.
Finally we reached the main Piazza of Siena, in the pouring rain, and hunted around for a bite to eat before heading back to the bus. We travelled through more countryside until we found ourselves in the small town of Prato. Our hotel has big bathrooms YAY! Dinner was at our new favourite restaurant where we all filled up on delicious pizza and pasta with salad for the bloated teachers. We finished the day with some more glorious gelati and called it a night…all desperately excited for school tomorrow… cough cough!!
Salve Love Sally + Ella Mac
After our first night at the Hotel Flora we began one of two days of language lessons at Monash University. It was raining, and the idea of over six hours of Italian was not too appealing, however, once we started the lessons it become clear that it would be enjoyable and beneficial to out Italian studies. From the street, the university looked more like a small apartment, however, inside it was very modern and spacious. After a short tour, we were divided into two groups for the day depending on which level we of Italian we are studying. One of the first activities assigned 
involved venturing out to interrogate the Prato public with some questions that our professors had helped us create. We met some interesting people, some were co-operative, the majority were not. Two of our victims were Angelo, a nineteen year old photographer who enjoys McDonalds and Luca a 22 year old man studying, working and living in Prato.
lunch and go home. We continued with some language activities after lunch, one of which involved Victoria stating the day’s headliner, much to our amusement, and then also watching an Italian film, about which we answered some questions. 5.30 came along more quickly than we expected and after receiving information about day 8 we said our goodbyes and thank yous.
hotel the teachers allowed us some time to check out the shops before freshening up for dinner. By then it was raining heavily and the umbrella street sellers seemed to be doing a roaring trade. We decided to return to have dinner at the same place as day 6 and were delighted with our meals yet again. Pizza, pasta, risotto and salad were some of the meals we enjoyed along with drinks such as coke, sprite, frappes and our old favourite water. Back at the hotel after dinner everyone was feeing pretty tired and most retired to their rooms to watch the free movies offered for the VCRs (yes they still do exist).
