School Trips to Siena and Assisi

For our final two day-trips with our school program, we travelled to the charming hill towns of Siena and Assisi. 

Siena, a wonderful small town an hour from Florence in the Tuscan countryside, was home to one of Rome's patron saints, St. Catherine of Siena. We loved our return to this city (we came here for a day trip with our parents during Christmas break), and, in addition to the Duomo, we visited the Siena Baptistery, the Duomo Museum, and Palazzo Ducale (the government building sitting on "Il Centro," the main piazza). We also stopped by the Basilica of San Domenico, where we saw St. Catherine's head.

Luckily for us, there was a chocolate festival on Il Centro, so after we broke for lunch and an afternoon of exploration, we visited the stalls filled with various truffles, fudge, and decorated chocolates. We couldn't help but get some fresh strawberries with chocolate! 

The Siena Cathedral

Il Centro

Our final school trip of the semester (and of the year, yikes!) was Assisi, home to the other patron saint of Italy, St. Francis of Assisi. It was fitting that our final trip in Italy was a return to the same city we had first ventured to outside of Rome, way back in October. All of our friends whom we had warned that Assisi was truly a "hill town," quickly realized the validity of our statements. We visited Santa Chiara (where St. Clare is buried), the upper and lower basilicas of San Francesco (including the crypt of St. Francis), and the main piazza of the old town, which was the location of its forum in Roman times. It was a gorgeous spring day, and we loved the views of the grassy hills of "Umbria verde" that surround the city. 

San Francesco

San Rufino

Siena and Assisi will always be two of our favorite small towns, and while both are in the hills (the Tuscan and then the Umbrian), they are completely different and hold independent cultures. They should be a must to anyone who is interested in visiting a different type of Italian town.