Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa, Lucca, Soccer!

Our whole group left the villa Friday at 9 am for a full day trip to Siena and San Gimignano. I was excited to visit Siena because my brother, Craig, told me of their famous horse race they have twice a year in the main square. It will be held July 2nd, the last day of our Pepperdine program, so I plan to attend the race by myself!! It is called the Palio di Siena, and it is held in the Piazza del Campo. After viewing a few spectacular churches, walking around the city, and having pizza & wine for lunch, I knew I had to come back for the race. Then we visited San Gimignano, a small walled medieval town known for its many towers. We hiked up to a look out point to take pictures and view the surrounding landscape. For the rest of the time, we walked all over the city and sat down for some cappuccino.

At the Piazza del Campo with Krista, Kim, and Kristina:


The next day we had no mandatory trips with the group and could travel anywhere we wanted. Without having our eurail passes yet, we decided to make a cheap train ride to Pisa and Lucca. Pisa was very boring, we only stayed for an hour to take some pictures. Then we took the train to Lucca, another very small city with Renaissance-era city walls. We had lunch in a secluded peaceful alley and rented bikes to circle the outer edges of the entire city. We rode on a path that sat on top of the walls so that we could look outside the city and within the city.

Our best Pisa shot:


Green everywhere you looked:


Then on Sunday, we went to the local soccer game, Fiorentina vs. Siena. Fiorentina controlled the whole game having many shots on goal, which made it a very exciting game to watch. The crowd chanted and yelled throughout almost the whole game, which made it more suspenseful at the end when it was tied 1 to 1. Although, the home team couldn't capitalize on opportunities late, so it ended in a tie. After the game, we had dinner at our director's house. She has been director at this program for 14 years, as well as attending this same program when she went to Pepperdine. Her house is away from the city and is simply beautiful. The Pepperdine basketball team joined us for dinner because they had a game the day before in Florence. After dinner, Parker, Matt, and I played an intense game of bocce ball on her bocce court.

Game time:


With Parker, Matt and Dave, who was not happy about the tie: