Certaldo-Day 4

After our first quick Italian lesson, we had a nice free day to chill out, relax and just enjoy the country side after all the hub bub of Venice. We hiked up behind Fattoria Bassetto, part way to Certaldo Alto, seen in the above photo. It was hot, but the scenery was just beautiful, looking just like something out of an Italian movie.
The olive trees were just starting to bloom.

And these red poppies were everywhere!

We took the lift up into Certaldo Alto, where we toured the little place there and a couple small churches. We saw some more modern art on display in palace, and the body of a Saint Julia.
We also saw this spectacular view of Certaldo, from Certaldo Alto.
That evening we visited La Meridiana, a cermics school and had a pizza party there with some students from another North Carolina university, of all places.

Certaldo- Day 3

We took the train to Certaldo, a sleepy little town in the middle of Tuscany. This is the door to our hostel, Fattoria Bassetto, which used to be a monastery.
These were the stairs just inside that door. I love these stairs. They were so worn from so many years of monks. I don't have a picture of it, but my favorite was the stone thresh hold between the kitchen and the hallway. It was smooth, dark gray stone that had a definite dip in the middle. Just to think of that piece of stone being worn smooth by the leather sandals of the monks gives me chills.
This is the outside of the building where we slept.
The villa, where my professors and some other guests stayed. The grounds of Fattoria Bassetto were just beautiful.
My absolute favorite thing about the grounds were the lizards. They were everywhere! Some were skinks, like this one and some were geckos. They were super fast, and difficult to photograph. I kept a tally in my sketchbook of how many I saw here and I was up to 26 by the time we left a few days later.
That evening we went up to Certaldo Alto for drinks and dinner. Certaldo Alto is a little medieval town, on the hill above Certaldo proper.
Duiglad, the Australian that takes care of the running and up keep of Fattoria Bassetto, took us all to the little bar where his friends work. This Irish man, another friend of Duiglad's, serenaded us with his guitar. After we hung out there for a little while, we went to dinner with this spectacular view of Tuscany.