Dara in Italy: What a day!

This weekend has been a fantastic weekend, but I feel as though I say this every time. Friday was not the best day however because there was a bus strike and my friends and I were stuck in town until 8 at night. The funny thing is that they planned they would only be on strike until then. I did manage to find some great buys on some really nice clothes. But shopping for 5 hours go boring quick.
On Saturday there was a group of 10 of us that went on a day trip to Abbazia di Monteoliveto Maggiore and San Galgano. Abbazia di Monteoliveto Maggiore is a cloirstered monastery. It has frescos everywhere and the artist that painted them had a feud with the abbot pretty much the whole time and there would be times when the abbot wouldn’t pay him on time. It one of the picture he painted the abbot with a very large nose. In another he painted the monk in charge of finance stealing a roll from the person sitting next to him. And one time when the abbot made him really mad he took one of the painting and had it be Saint Benedict (their patron saint) being tempted by prostitutes. He then put a second layer over that where the prostitutes were completely naked. He did a great unveiling and they chased him out and he went into hiding for 2 months. He then returned to show him that it was only a joke and that it could be removed. If I was a painter I think I would be like him.
After that we just drove around the Tuscany country side and admired it’s beauty. The hills were soft and rolling and looked as if we could bounce off of them like a pillow. It is definitely the most spectacular place I have ever seen. I have never seen anything so peaceful looking before in my life.
We then moved onto San Galgano where there is the church that has the rock with a sword in it, aka the Excalibur rock. It was put there because it looks like a cross and it was were the knight Sir Galgano would go to pray everyday. A short walk down the hill and there was a church that had no roof. It was build in the French Gothic originally but eventually the roof was pillaged and everything inside as well. Now only the walls remain. It was so weird to look up and see only sky. It was very beautiful there so we had lunch and played games. We had so much fun but it was eventually time to go to our wine tasting.
While we were in town waiting to go wine tasting there was two little boys playing soccer. I said, “Hey pass it to me!” They didn’t respond so I asked a friend how to say it in Italian. Then the little boy perks up and says, “We don’t speak Italian!” in a cocky little voice. I just busted out laughing by the way he responded to me. Eventually they let me and a few others joined them and we played with them for awhile. Their parents loved it because they were able to just sit outside and relax without the kids bothering them.
After the wine tasting and dinner we headed home. I was in the van that held 8 of us and the administrator for the program. She is the same person who drove me last weekend too. It was the best car trip ever. We had the radio playing as loud as it would go and we were flying down the highway. Once we got to Florence we just cruised around so we could listen to music longer. We went up to one of the look-outs and if I haven’t said it yet PDA (Public Displays of Affection) are a real problem here. And of course there was a couple making out on the look out balcony. So Jennifer drives up over the curb and parks her self like 1 foot away from them we roll down our windows and we are still blaring music and the guy just turns around and had the best look on his face ever. It was a mix of confusion and laughter. So we are laughing so hard I thought I was going to pee my pants after a bit she backs up turns around and points the car at a couple behind us, sitting on the steps, and turns her brights on, but they just kept going at it though. It was a very creative way to deal with it and I loved it. Then for probably another half hour we just drove around playing catastrophically loud music and singing at the top of our lungs and annoying anyone that got in our way. Just thinking about the night still makes me laugh.