Field Trip!!!

Well as I said, there was a field trip today, and I managed to haul myself out of bed and get to the bus on time and with breakfast. Then we were on the bus for about 2 hours, going to Bagnoreggio, which took my breath away. It's this gorgeous, quaint little città (city) with small stone houses and buildings, a lot of which date from the Etruscans (roughly, from 8 BC to 30 BC, if I understood everything right). Everywhere had flower-boxes and flowering vines, and the bluest sky you could possibly imagine. The city is basically on a plateau of rock (which they used to build everything), and there are incredibly sheer cliffs all around. The only way into the city is by walking on a ridiculously steep bridge. My description isn't doing much justice, I know, so check out:

http://www.stthom.edu/csp/images/Bagnoregio.jpg

Cut and paste, I can't figure out how to link on this Mac, and it's worth seeing. The picture is taken before the start of the bridge, so you don't see that it rises again pretty sharply closer to the viewer either. We had to do some sketches and study how spaces were made and the way the people used vernacular architecture (translation- they built with natural materials).
We subsequently went to Viterbo, which was not nearly as naturally dramatic, and the professors basically wanted us o see how it was like Bagnoregio on a larger scale. But it wasn't nearly as cool. So you can google it if you want to, but you have to check out that previous link.
Ahh. If I didn't have to walk that hill every day, I'd consider living there.