Antico Borgo di Tignano + Casole d'Elsa

Trip Start Jan 14, 2007

Trip End Jul 05, 2007

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Flag of Italy Casole d'Elsa, Italy
Tuesday, January 23, 2007

After tasting wine and a long bus ride during which many people felt sick, our bus took a 200 degree turn and went down a bumpy dirt road for ten minutes before finally arriving at the place we would be spending the night. There were no streetlights and the sky was already dark so it was an interesting ride.

We were split into groups and six of us ended up with the suite on the second floor of one of the buildings that make up the hotel.

Hotel

Isn't it pretty? The kitchen window is the one on the right side of the second floor. The kitchen made me want to cook a huge dinner for everyone. It was stocked with pretty plates and had a table and chairs and a fireplace. Then there were three bedrooms, each with a bathroom. Here's my bedroom.

My Bed

I shared it with Kate, wtih whom I had also shared a room at the hotel in Rome.

We had some time to relax and a group of us talked for over half an hour about such varied topics as Stonehenge, women painters, religion, circumcision, and Chi. It was great. At 8:30pm we all met in this building,

Hotel and Bus

for dinner.

Dinner

It was buffet-style and wasn't very filling, but we had had the meet and cheese before, so it was fine.

The next morning we woke up, and I walked outside to see what it looked like in daylight. It was gorgeous. We were in the middle of nowhere, which would have become boring after a few days, but was great for a night. I took some pictures before going to breakfast.

View From Hotel Room 1

View From Hotel Room 2

View From Hotel Room 3

After breakfast, we had a quick orientation, played a funny game called Mingle, which Anne has pictures of, and then set off again in the bus.

Road back to Siena

PS: The hotel's website is www.anticoborgotignano.com if anyone is interested.

We stopped for about 40 minutes in a tiny town called Casole d'Elsa about 20 minutes from the hotel in which we spent the night.

Sign

Veronica, one of the IES Siena employees, is from the outskirts of this village. We drove by her house and it looked very nice. It even had a pool!

We were given some time to just walk around the little streets of the town and take pictures. It was the least touristy place I've been in so far. I felt very conspicuous because we arrived in a large bus and all the locals were looking at is. It was a great place though and I took a bunch of pictures. We needed to walk up many flights of stairs to get from the parking lot to the main part of the town.

View 2 from Casole d'Elsa

and more Casole d'Elsa

The girl in the picture on the right, in the spiffy gray coat is Kate. There was a amazing view from the edges of the town and I took a lot of pictures.

View from Casole d'Elsa

Medieval towns are absolutely gorgeous.

Casole d'Elsa 2

Casole d'Elsa again

Casole d'Elsa 1

There was a church we went in to for a bit, which I didn't take pictures of. It was amazing though, with stained glass windows and a garden next to it.

Then, there were some quirkier aspects of the town.

Funny Statue

When we saw this statue ("Funny Statue"), we weren't sure at first if it was a person or not. But, no, it's made out of ceramic or something, I don't know. And, I don't know if you can tell from the picture, because it's small, but he's peeing.

There were also some strange scupltures around the town, of people inclined at weird angles. Anne took a picture sitting next to one of them.