Orvieto and Assisi

Well, we finally left Rome today. Shame, because I was just starting to feel like I was at home there. I was getting able to navigate the whole city without even using a map. :P Anyhow, so I got up at 6:45, showered, then raced down for a quick breakfast and we all left on the bus at 8. We headed over to a small town called Orvieto. It was a town that was way up on a mountain and we had to get up to it on a cog car train. The town was really pretty. We went up first to a huge well and climbed down it. It was cool because the stairs were designed so that you go down and come up on different circular staircases and you can see the people through the windows that are going the other direction, but you never actually pass them. Outside the well there was also some other nice overlook views of the land all around us. It was pretty. :) We then saw a huge cathedral/church that seemed really out of place. The town was so quaint and tiny, then all of a sudden this huge church was looming over top of everything. The inside was nice, but not quite as cool as the outside of it. After the church, we had a couple hours to run about the town. Liz and I went off and just walked around the place. We went and checked out a few shops and had a quick lunch at a small pizzeria. It wasn't extremely good, but it was food. We all met back and left around 1:15 and headed back on the bus towards Assisi. The ride there was great. We took a small mountain road there and it was just gorgeous. I felt like I was back in Virginia in the Blue Ridge mountains, because the mountains here look a lot like them. They are a little smaller, greener and more comprehendable than the Alps. :P So, we finally got to Assisi and it was another really nice, small town. I loved the style of the buildings here. They are all faced with a pretty type of light colored stone and the roads are cobblestone and narrow. It just feels like a really cozy, gentle town. I like it. :) We got into the hotel at like 3:30, then a little after 4, went off with the big group and Schuetz took us around to a couple nice churches that were fun to see. Then, we were supposed to go to a fortress there, but Liz, Dr. Taylor and I got behind and then got lost and had no clue where to go. We did find a really pretty area in some woods off a hiking trail and we chilled there a bit and chatted. The sun was going down and it got really bitter cold out, so we headed back to the hotel and got there about 6:30. I worked on organizing the hundreds of pictures that I've taken the past 4 days and then went down for dinner at 7:30. Dinner was amazing! We had a bunch of bread to begin with, then 2 plates of the best stinkin raviolli I think I've ever had as an appetizer. It put Chef-Boyardee to shame. :P Then, we had great cauliflower, turkey, some sort of other meat, peas, meatballs, zucchini, and garlic bread. I had at least two helpings of everything and it was wonderful. They just kept bringing more and more and more food. :) Then dessert was inredible. They turned out the lights, then brought in this plate of dessert that was on fire. It was so cool! It was like cake on bottom, with a layer of apple slices in the middle, then ice cream on top and then a chunk of sugar dowsed in alcohol and lit on fire on top of the ice cream to melt it and give a great effect. Once the fire died down, I dug in and it was just incredible. I think it was one of the tastiest desserts I've ever had and certainly the most unique. :D The food at this restraunt is definitley the highlight of it. :) Dinner was finally over a little after 9 and then Liz and I went over to a sofa to vedge out and digest. I was so stuffed and tired! We chatted a little then headed up to bed just before 10. I'm going to pass out within the next 5 minutes because I'm dead exhausted and stuffed and I can't wait to sleep!