Nicole and others have been sick for pretty much the entire trip, and Nicole's got so bad late Monday night that she had to go to the hospital. She was having trouble breathing due to bronchitis and an asthma attack brought on by allergies! Crazy stuff. Allergies seem to be the culprit of most of the illnesses around here though. Another girl has been running a 100 degree fever for a couple of days and is going to see an American doctor here tomorrow. But don't fear; I feel fine and have had no problems – I'm perfect in every way. Naturally. Ha.
Last weekend, we had a free day so we just slept in and chilled around Orvieto. That night we had a great dinner with a big group of us at this little place called Cocco and had 3.50 EUR bottle house wine that was PHENOMENAL. (To put that into perspective, a "cheap" bottle is about 10 EUR.) We've started naming the places we go to here in Orvieto after places in Dallas because NOTHING here comes with a name. (I can't tell you how many restaurants we eat at that are simply called "Ristorante," "Pizzeria," "Trattoria," or, my fave, "Bar.") So we went to this place that we call "Across the Street" Bar because a) it's across the street, and b) they had live music! 2 guys on acoustic guitars singing (poorly attempted) American music…but it was great! Then we went to the discoteca (club), "Ghost Bar"…because it's really swanky...not. Still fun.
Monday, we went to Siena which is about 2 hours northwest of here. It's a nice little town, more sophisticated and touristy than Orvieto. It rained all day though so that wasn't so great.
We toured the Duomo there, as well as the museum that houses this amazing work of art called the Maestá. It's of the Virgin Mother and Child on one side, and then on the other are all these little panels depicting scenes from Christ's life. They've been separated now and are just on different walls behind glass, but a freestanding piece of art back in the day was BIGTIME. Then we went to see my favorite work of art so far, the Allegory of Good and Bad Government in the Piazza Pubblico which is basically like Siena's city hall from back in the day where these 9 leaders would meet to discuss the governing of the town. The Allegory is the mural all around the walls in the main room. It's so cool because it's so detailed with all these different civic virtues – Peace, Justice, etc – surrounding the Commune which represented the city's well being. 
I wrote my first paper on it so if you wanna know more about it, I can tell you! Then we ate lunch and walked around the town for a little while…and Clay got pooped on by a pigeon. It was AMAZING. Like legit just walking down the street and SMACK – right on the back of the neck. So funny. 
Then we went to this bar for some drinks and they had the CRAZIEST bathroom I'd ever seen: mosaic mirror pieces on the walls, a neon green black light lining the INSIDE of the toilet, purple door and ceiling…it was trippy. But that was Siena. That night we ate at the Chinese restaurant at the bottom of the hill when we got back haha! We were just a little tired of Italian so egg rolls and fried rice was a nice change of pace. And CHEAP. My favorite kind of food. Tuesday was just a long day in Orvieto with 2 cinema classes (gag) and lots of eating (naturally). That night was a blast though. We went to this bar last night, dubbed Corner Bar because it's on the corner (duh), and it turned into this great night mostly thanks to ME who decided to bring the iPod and got the bartender to plug it in to the speakers (American music is deeply cherished when you don't hear it 24/7). One of our program leaders even came out and had a good time with us. It was fun.
Yesterday, we went to Assisi which is near Siena but more to the east.
I think this is my favorite town so far. Maybe it was just sunny so I liked it better. Who knows. We went to the San Francesco Basilica which was cool – but mostly because the story of St. Francis is really cool. Hillary LOVES this guy and is doing her final paper over him so ask her for more details, but basically he's this guy who was born into a well-off family, but didn't find that life fulfilling so he opened up the Bible and did the random read thing (close your eyes, point and read…you know you've done it) and found that God was telling him to give up his possessions and rebuild the church. So he does that and yada yada yada he starts a Franciscan way of living which is a simple, in-touch-with-nature, Christ-focused life. Cool stuff. Oh, and a few of us went to this fortress at the top of the hill and took some AMAZING pictures. Clay nearly fell off the cliff—good times. 
Thanks for all the prayers—Kylie's bag showed up when we got back from Assisi! Now she has real clothes (Thank Jesus for J.Crew). Now if you could throw in a few prayers for all the plague-ridden sicklings and their hypochondriac counterparts, that'd be PERF. Still having a great time. I see amazing landscapes or great city views almost HOURLY and that is something I've really started to like. I have a ton of non-people pictures for those of you who like that sort of thing, don't worry.
My Miss list:
1. The Fam
2. Sunday night BBQs
3. Hursey (and KWypes of course!)
4. TiVo
5. Bike riding on the Katy Trail
6. Zoe's Kitch and Sugarbaker's
7. A washer/dryer (we're without one in all of Orvieto. We do our laundry in our hotel sink. That's right – I'm doing it Mimi-style, circa 1910.)
Love and miss you all – please send me emails, texts, facebook comments, calls, anything! I love getting them. And tell everyone I said hey. Oh yeah, and come visit. Italy is amazing.
Peace,
Regs
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