"allora"

that's the word of all words in italian
they say it ALL the time
it's basically a transition word
but we've caught on now

on tuesday we went to deruta and assisi

we went to a ceramics factory in deruta
it was actually really cool

working at the wheel
this is the most mechanical that the here process gets

they export to stores in america
you may have heard of them...
williams sanoma, saks, neiman marcus

here's an example:
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/paysage-dinnerware/?pkey=ctblsrvcol

next we headed over to assisi

driving through italy is a treat
miles & miles of beautiful countryside

the main attraction: church of saint francis

dear zac, i saw a lot of slingshots for sale in assisi! it reminded me of you as a 7 year old killing bees with lima beans. and now you're driving a truck. where has the time gone?

meghan and me outside the church

peek & her redhead friend
actually this one was more of an orangehead
war eagle

we got an audio tour
check out our sweet blue one eared headphones

gotta love that rose window out front
no pictures were allowed inside
shoot

http://jssitaly.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/ssf-uccelli-l.jpg

here's st. francis "preaching to the birds"
giotto painted this on the back wall of the church. he's known as "the father of the renaissance"

our awesome, american tour guide
he's in the 3rd order society of st. francis

we usually pack our lunch for field trips
much cheaper than tourist food
we have plenty of time to taste italy elsewhere!

next we went to "civita di bagnoregio"
it used to be surrounded by rivers
so now it looks like this
dad, i think the sides look like the rock in the grand canyon. thanks for that family vacay

this is what surrounds the city now

a view from inside the city
sara, for some reason it reminds of montana
i've never even been there

katherine, aly, ashley, me, kaitlin, jenny, margaret anne

hipsta 10, kaitlin

just a random outbreak of tug of war
notice jenny, kaitlin, & peek joined in

next we went to orvieto

this is a new one
purple hair
to match the shirt

here is the well
you're looking up from inside the well

and here is looking down
from the same point
it got pretty cold down there

we saw one of the few gothic churches in italy
the stripes are made from light and dark marble

some side notes:

the hardest part about learning italian is
"ch" is pronounced like a "k"
and "ci" is pronounced like a "ch"
whyyyyyyyy

that's ok though, italians really struggle with the "th"in english
usually they just don't say that part at all
it doesn't exist in their language

that's all for now!
ciao ciao!