May 14

Ciao!!!

Here's a brief summary of the past few days. The first day we went to a local pizza joint that overlooks all of arricia. Perfect view. Had some delicious pizza and vino. There was a local festival going on, so we went to watch the fireworks. Then came up to the roof of the hotel and enjoyed some wine.

(This picture is where we stay..Hotel Arricia)

The second day, we went to the Palazzo Chigi (where are classes are) and got a tour/introduction to the summer. The palace is soo cool. Lots of huge original paintings everywhere. Then we went to meet the Mayor of Arricia. It was interesting, he spoke no english. Asked us if we were for Hillary or Obama. We said neither! We went to a local restaurant for lunch. It lasted 2hour+ l..It was a full course thing. I've tried bunches of stuff already;) We had this amazing cheese!!!! and fresh pea things. Then we had huge balls of mozzarella, sausage, this frushetta, and this really thin dried pork. Then some random kind of pasta. Long meal, lots of yummy food, cute waiters!!!!

Yesterday, we had our first day of classes. Conversational Italian and Mediterranean History. Our professors Marco and Mary Lou Antonini are soo precious, they are in their 70s probably. They basically bought the Chigi Palace and helped start our program. Their son Maurizio is another one of the program directors. They have traveled everywhere possible. Marco Antonini speaks 5 languages. Then there's Francesco this cute short Italian man, he teaches us lots of different things. Our other professors/program cordinators are Jessica, Cincia, Roberta, Dr. B, and Susanna.

Today we toured the Castelli Romani region that surrounds Ariccia and several other towns. Aricia sits between Lake Albano and Lake Nemi. We hiked around both lakes. We ate at this really cool restaurant in Nemi that overlooks the lake. Gorgeous. One of our waiters is an Elvis impersonator...he was hilarous..very interesting. We went to this town called Castle Gandolfo, which is the Pope's summer home. There was great cheap shopping there! Instead of riding the bus, 5 of us rode in Maurizio's car to get the local driving experience. It was very exciting haha. One of his friends, has some land right on Lake Nemi..where he has his own vineyard, just as one of his hobbies. He didn't speak much english so it was very difficult/fun to get to hear him speak about the process. We tried some of his wine that was purely grapes...no extra unhealthy junk...so basically it was organic (no chemicals). Also*** The gelato is amazing!!!!!!