-Under the Tuscan Sun
There are no words. No words exist in the English language to express how full I am at this moment. This culture, architecture, scenery, light, language, people, passion, love, sounds are breathtaking and utterly wonderful. If I spoke the language, I am convinced that no one could persuade me to return back home... sorry mama.
Yesterday was our first day of class... oh joy.
Actually, it wasn't that bad. First, we had an Italian lesson with beautiful Mrs. Mary Louise Gray. After practicing our vowel sounds and learning the differences between hard and soft C's, we took another small tour of the palace with Francesco. Oh, the palace. How completely wonderful. I love it! Everything is so gorgeous, ornate and rare. We visited a big room probably used for entertaining and lounging in the warm months. It was big and open with one wall of windows. The ceiling and walls were painted to create an "optical illusion".
Francesco was so sweet has he tried to explained with broken english how the plants, animals, birds, and sky painted on the walls were meant to continue the palace exteriors inside. The next room was a room of portraits that also acted as the hallway to a bedroom. On every wall in this room were faces of nuns... i thought this was a little strange until Francesco explained to us how all of the children in the Chigi family, except for the firstborn son and daughter, were required to become nuns or to enter the priesthood. What a life.
i couldn't imagine being forced into life as a nun! That would probably be considered "bad parenting" these days. The dark green and cream wallpaper in this room was so gorgeous. As we all examined it even more, we realized that it wasn't wallpaper at all! The design had been hand-painted onto stone walls. The next bedroom continued the dark green from the room before it in the wall coverings, drapes, and the bed. But the coolest part was when Francesco opened the closet. Some women's clothes were hanging in the closet along with servant garb. 
The hanger rod was so high that francesco couldn't reach it even with the help of a hook! Poor thing... shrinking with age, I suppose. Tommy pulled it down and let us take pictures of a typical servant uniform. They were completely different than what I pictured servantry wearing- a long coat and matching pants of bright green, red, and gold with designs of the family crest and symbol all over them. A bit flashy, I thought... but I guess if you have servants, why not show them off?
After our short little tour, we went downtown the meet the mayor... who we were supposed to meet last week. He had an "emergency" of some sort. I don't think the mayor of Ariccia really cares too much about us because he keeps canceling his appointments with us. Ive heard he's not that nice anyway, so I'm not too concerned about it! In his place, we met the deputy mayor. He spoke not English, so Maurizio translated. The man spoke italian so fast, he made me feel dizzy. We learned all about the history of Ariccia and the politics of Italy.
Fun political facts:
Did you know that the city of Ariccia is the oldest city of the Castelli Romani (the hill towns of Rome) and that it is even older than Rome itself?
Did you know that Italy is trying to reform it's government to be more like Americas... they still have a lot of work to do...
Did you know that some guy running for office in this region stole the Obama symbol? Yeah, you didn't know that!
Did you know that the our next-door neighbor of Genzano is a communist town? The owner of a restaurant we walk past to get there is friends with Fidel Castro and Fidel has eaten there numerous times... it's a big deal.
Did you know that Pope Alexander VII (the Chigi pope) didn't want to be pope and almost rejected it? He didn't want to move his family from Sicily, but they made him accept the honor.
Did you know that I really like it here?
it's been pretty slow around here the past couple days, but we will be in rome from tomorrow until next week, so check the blog out later to find out what crazy things I will get myself into! I love you all!
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