And I thought not being able to find cupcakes was dissapointing

I was wrong. But the disappointing stuff doesn't come until later. I woke up this morning at seven, and prepared for a day trip to Orvieto, a small town in Tuscany built on a hill, it was beautiful. I packed reading and studying materials for the hour and a half trip but only ended up reading a little under a chapter, and napping and appreciating the view for the rest of the trip. To get into Orvieto without a car you have to take a little tram that leads you rollercoaster style up the very steep hill that the town is located on. Once inside we went on a short tour of the important attractions of the city. Our tour guide was terrible, he was a little creepy, and insisted that we stand very close to him. I've given enough tours on campus to know a bad tour, this was a bad tour. He spoke for nearly ten minutes about the realistic qualities of a tomb as if we had never seen a marble statue before, or as if we couldn't appreciate the work it would take to make it. Everytime we would stop he would ask us to come closer until we were practically on top of him, I was not feeling this tour. Matters were made worse once we entered the large church for which the town is famous. There was a ceremony or celebration of some sort going on in one of the small side chapels and the guide went in anyway to show us a model of the church. Another girl and I thought this was incredibly disrespectful and stayed behind. I haven't adjusted to the fact that churches here are used more as tourist attractions than places of worship. It makes me uneasy. The tour guide kept motioning for us to follow him, he didn't realize it was a respect issue for us. A girl behind me pushed me told me to go, and then snapped and pointed into the chapel. That pissed me off almost as much as pushy tour guide man. I was not going to intrude on this ceremony, but I also felt bad when one of the ISA directors came over and asked us if we weren't interested. They are extremely genuine people who put a lot of work into planning these trips for us. I explained that I wasn't used to churches being used for anything other than worship and he nodded his head in an understanding manner. Luckily the tour finished shortly after, my patience with our tour guide was completely exhausted. Becca and I decided to find lunch before exploring further, and found a cheap but fancy restaruant. They had wild boar, lamb, and rabbit on the menu, all of which I want to try; but they were a tad pricy, and in Italy you don't get sides without paying for them seperately. Instead I ordered a pasta dish with 'spicy' red sauce. I put spicy in quotes becuase it was not spicy by american standards in the least. Which was fine with me because it was delicious. We enjoyed a nice meal before continuing our adventure around the city. Most of the shops were closed for the afternoon nap, siesta, but the view from the city was astounding. We wandered the streets for the next hour and a half taking pictures of the breathtaking scenery, and not even covering a third of the town. I will definitely be returning to Orvieto with my eurail pass, it's incredible, especially on days with beautiful weather like we had today. On the bus ride home the entire bus took a siesta, it was lovely. I finished my reading and journals for Art Gallery Management once home; another item to check off my list. I then got an msn message from Stu asking if we could webcam, which was weird because based on the time he should have been on his flight to New York. Wrong. His flight was canceled due to thunder storms in New York. He spent seven hours in the airport today waiting for his flight, and then rescheduling it. The next available flight out of Kansas City didn't leave until Monday morning which would have put him in Rome on Tuesday, so instead, my crazy amazing boyfriend is driving four hours to St. Louis to fly out tomorrow morning at seven. He'll arrive in Rome almost exactly twenty four hours later than he intended to, not to shabby. He also had to take a cab home from the airport as he had been dropped off, and now has to pay for long term parking while he's visiting. Did I mention it's too late to cancel his hostel reservation and get a refund for the night? Just kind of a crap deal all around, but I would much rather have him arrive in one piece than risk terrible weather in New York. I'm glad he still gets to come at all. The good news is that I get an extra day to study for my midterms, which I can totally put to good use. There is an upside to everything. Now I'll be able to turn in a little earlier and spread my studying out over a longer period of time, sounds good to me.