Sienna, San Gimignano, and a Chocolate Festival

So many things have happened since my last post! Sorry bout not keepin it updated frequently. I just got internet in my apartment so I'll be able to catch up and update it weekly hopefully. So 2 weekends ago we went on a day trip to 2 small towns about each an hour away from Florence. Sienna which is a city quite comparable in size to Florence, although a little smaller, and San Gimignano is a much smaller town on a hillside. The latter is quite famous for their 13 medieval towers still standing throughout the town. And I climbed the biggest one, a 56 meter bell tower. Sienna is quite famous for its architecture, museums, and art around the town. Although the most popular event held in Sienna is most likely the horse race around their main piazza. It was shut down for a few years because it was getting quite violent (as there are basically no rules and they race on rough cobblestone and very close buildings). But it has recently been brought back. I also heard (although i have not seen) that the race is highlighted in the beginning of the new Bond film, Quantum of Solace. Both towns were beautiful and despite the drizzle and eventually rain during the day we still had a great time. 

Also that weekend, there was a huge chocolate festival highlighting tons of chocolate companies from around the area of tuscany. It was held in front of the Santa Croce church (where Galileo and Michaelangelo are both buried). There were definetely free samples and chocolate rum drinks to be had. The different companies would try to out do each other with highlighting each of their most famous products and flashy chocolate colors and shapes. Some had more different varieties of truffles I never knew existed. Also for the first time I had a taste of chocolate liquer and saw chocolate beer! I unfortunately did not try any of that because it was kind of out of the price range of a simple student living in Florence. 

I'm including 3 links here to more photos. The first one is Sienna, the second is San Gimignano, and the third is the Chocolate Festival. I just got back from Interlaken Switzerland so hopefully I'll have those up by later this week, and then I'll have all my trips and pictures up to date.

Sienna
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2527151&l=2ddb8&id=1950065

San Gimignano
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2529566&l=89e5a&id=1950065

Chocolate Festival
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2529722&l=f2686&id=1950065