MONT’OLIVIETO & PIENZA

This past Friday, the entire program went on an excursion deeper into Tuscany, to Mont’Olivieto & nearby Pienza.

Mont’Olivieto was home to the first order of Benedictine Monks. Now they have orders all over the world to this day. Also, the Monastery still active. Saw a couple monks walking around in fact! We also saw their dining room. Two long tables along the side of the room. On the table were waterbottles, plates and an orange for every one. Obviously they hadn’t had lunch yet. The tour guide said that during lunch they are not allowed to speak. During this time monks pray silently or if they feel moved they can go up to a podium in the back of the room and read holy scripture aloud during lunch to everyone.

We went to the Library. Which was sweet. It was super old with these faded browned books all locked behind thin wired doors. If you touched the books I am sure they would fall apart.

After our tour we boarded the bus to Pienza. Pienza is a charming Tuscan town of 1,300 people. Our tour guide Andrea was great. Very comical! He is from Pienza and in the middle of the tour her would see someone he knew walking by and shout out “Caio!” The time it takes to get from the city gates to the end is 5 minutes. Ya, pretty small. Pienza was planned by some architect named Rosselini for Pope Pious. I don’t know which Pious though…lol. One of them. The Pope who ordered Pienza to be rebuilt to be “the perfect city” only visited the city 3 times in his lifetime.

While on the tour, Andrea pointed out the cinematic sets Pienza has offered to Hollywood. The two main things Pienza is famous for are 1. Tourism & 2. Piccolomini Cheese. Of course, before tourists found this little village, they really only made money from farming and cheese. Now they really benefit from all the tourism and movies that are shot there.

Some of the movies shot in Pienza were, the Romeo & Juliet from the 1960s, parts of Gladiator and the English Patient. Ok, so I should’ve written that “Tuscany movie” section after I visited Pienza. After the tour we went to a nice local restaurant and had another four course meal. On the walls were pictures of some of the actors that had eaten there in the past, while there for shooting. There was cast members of the English Patient pictured w/ the owners.

Then we had some free time. I wandered around the city taking some very nice pictures. It is so easy to feel like a skilled photographer in Tuscany, because every shot you take looks like a painting. You can’t screw it up! The hillside shots are so beautiful. Before I came here I thought paintings or pictures had probably been idealized or messed with because they looked to enchanting to believe. But really, they truly are that awe-inspiring in reality.

Early evening we headed off to the Piccolomini Cheese Factory Tour. We had to wear some super dorky garb into the factory. Ricardo, our tour guide showed us the entire process and all the different ways to make cheese. The whole experience was interesting but phew! Damn, did some of that cheese assault my senses! Strong smell fo sho. We had a cheese sampling at the end of the tour. The cheeses at their different aging processes, and a bunch of different flavors – chili, walnut, truffles.

At night I went out w/ my roommates for a couple drinks. In the bar they played European MTV. The videos were all circa ‘90s. I particularly enjoyed watching “Get in Jiggy w/ It” by Will Smith, while sipping my Corona.