Spring Break Part 3 (Days 7,8,9,10)

Day 7: We left the wonderful city of Rome with the Umbrian hilltown of Orvieto in sight. After a scare thinking we lost my credit card, we arrived in Orvieto cash in hand. The lodging was surely the highlight of the trip, putting all other rooms to shame. Placed atop a lush countryside hill, our room was equipped with a private bathroom and private terrace. It was a luxurious bed and breakfast with all the amenities we had forgotten about staying in hostels. If only the owners spoke a word of English.

Thankfully for us, it was market day in Orvieto. We quickly bought pastries and postcards and set off to explore the town. After catching our breath from the stunning views, we hopped a bus to nearby Chivita. We had debated whether or not to spend the money for bus fare, but were quickly thankful of our decision as we approached the town on a cliff. Requiring a 10 minute hike up a bridge simply to reach the town, Chivita was its own separate world. Cut off from all of civilization, the town had no more than 4 restaurants and what appeared to be fewer residents. There seemed to be more cats than residents, a fact we greatly enjoyed.

After basking in the sun and eating pastries, we were approached by some curious kitties. Numerous came and went, but only one, a Buddy clone that we named Chivvy, stayed with us the entire time. Content to sleep in our arms, the cat enjoyed our company and would not leave our side. After convincing Steph we couldnt take him with us, it was time to head back to reality.

Day 8: It was unfortunate that we only booked one night in Orvieto, for the stay was beyond pleasant. The breakfast of cake, toast, and juice fueled our travels towards hill town number 3: Cortona. The basis of the book/movie Under the Tuscan Sun, Cortona was a beautiful place perfectly content to just sit atop a dramatic mountain. We would not complain. For this day had nothing planned other than roam the city. Which we did. All day. With gelato in hand of course.

Dinner was a treat of tortellini and ravioli, but disaster soon struck as the desired gelateria was closed. After bountiful pouting, I discovered that nothing beats gelato for breakfast. And so I knew as we headed back to the convent/hotel for a quick nights sleep.

Day 9/10: The gelato did not dissapoint as I awoke from a cold nights sleep. Bundled up under sweatshirts, we ate our morning gelato in the face of cold weather and strong winds. Unfortunately for us, it turns out, towns perched atop hills do little little to block the already cold weather. The bus driver must have seen our forlorn faces as he allowed us the ride the bus down to the train station for free.

Hopping a train to Siena, we were more than excited. Some slow days in lazy hill towns had rejuvenated us and made us ready for the excellence of Siena. Siena kept with the theme of the past few cities, and allowed us 2 days full of nothing. Shopping, eating, and gelato filled the agenda as we made Il Campo our second home.

Travelers luck was on our side as we were somehow upgraded from a shared bathroom double into a luxury suite, complete with a bathroom, kitchen, and terrace. There was enough room to run laps in the room! What a great surprise. This simply added to the joy that we experienced in Siena.

It is pointless to separate each day and explain our itineraries, for each was equally empty and enjoyable. Imagine wandering a quaint town, eating gelato that magically seemed to reappear every 2 hours, and enjoying the peacfull bliss of doing nothing. It was vacationing at its finest as we forgot about life and slowed things down to a level never reached by us before. 2 days originally seemed much too long is this uneventful town, but in hindsight, it was nowehere near long enough.

These days were quickly explained and did not recieve the justice they deserved. This can be contributed to both the inexplicable nature of this leg of our trip and the lack of time available for my explanations (as the clock in the right hand corner of my screen ticks below 4 minutes, indicating the amount of internet time left in this dingy internet cafe). Also, I apologize for any grammatical errors and typos, but the Italian keybards are much differen (I cant find an apostrophe), I cant figure how to turn on spell check on this computer, and I have no time to proof read. Oh well. Italy rocks. I got gelato 4 times yesterday. We will catch you all up to speed soon. So much to see!