Volterra & San Gimignano field trip

We are basically settled in our apartment now...except for internet! They finally brought the third bed and mattress for Sara (she was sleeping on a futon bed) and we got to rearrange all our rooms. There is a free bus to IKEA which we made a trip to two weeks ago. It's just like the IKEAs in California - but instead of Swedish and English, it's Swedish and Italian. And they have cool little gelato dispenser machines:

On Friday 12 September, we went on a CSU group field trip to Volterra and San Gimignano. Both are beautiful medieval towns - in Volterra we went to the Pinoteco museum (where they have the Deposition by Fiorentino - I wish we could have stayed longer!) and the Etruscan museum.

A view from Volterra
San Gimignano was beautiful! It's famous for it's many towers (I think it's 13, and there used to be more). We went into the Basilica, which was covered on the inside with frescoes from the New Testament on one side and scenes from Christ's life on the other side. Then we climbed up to one of the small towers, had some gelato from an award winning gelateria, and browsed the shops.

Then we went to Machiavelli's house
Machiavelli's wine cellar...
We had a 5 course dinner at the restaurant there:

Crostini with liver pate, cheese and chicken(?) bruschetta, cheese and walnut, green olives, black olives.

The wine

Creamy spinach soup with dumplings(?)

They had a salad before this, which was the 3rd course...4th course meat and potatoes - it was ok

Biscotti and vin santo for dessert.

...a long, fun day!