Day 2: Was There A Day 2?

Day 1 ran into Day 2 because our 9 hour flight caused us to land at 7:47 a.m. Italy time... So we landed and got going with our day (remember we are running on about 2 hours of sleep)! Our bus picked us up at the Airport, and there we also met Cinzia -- our most important person to know on the trip.. She's our translator. She is probably the coolest, chicest, nicest Italian woman (not that I know that many, but she'd be at the top if I did). So Cinzia and all of us rode to the Palace! Let me tell you.. if you've never been to Italy, the Italians drive like Dale Ernhardt with their panties in a wad. There speed is high and so is their level of anger. I am just sure that there will be a traffic casualty during our trip.

But none-the-less... we arrived safely!! Here is where we are living for 3 months:

It is called the Chigi Palace and it his a very well-known, historical Art Museum in Arricia. The place is ballin. There are 4 sleeping rooms, 6 bathrooms, a common room/classroom and a kitchen. Our rooms/living areas are a lot nicer and bigger than I had expected. I will post pictures of it all later!

So we arrived, got unpacked and ate a lunch (a.k.a. a sandwich) that was provided by the program. It was basically two hunks of bread and some meat (it is still undecided what kind. scary.) We tried to dress it up with some olive oil and balsamic vinegarette. After "lunch" we walked around Ariccia and down to its neighboring areas called Albano and Genzano. We bought an Italian cellphone that looks like a circa 1997 handheld Nokia (it even has the game Snake on it. Score!) and had our first taste of Gelato. It was delicioussssssssssss! I don't know how in the world I'm going to resist ordering Gelato with every meal. After I devoured that little bit of heaven, we headed back to the Palace to rest up before dinner.

Exploring. In complete awe of how gorgeous and "fresh" this place is!

Looks like its straight out of a movie, right?

Exploring some more...

Dinner started at 7:30 and we didn't get home until 10:00.. To say Italians live a slower paced life is an understatement. I truly believe they don't have any stress, worry or anxiety. But dinner also took longer because Italians find it rude to rush you through a meal or out of a restaurant--so our dinner consisted of about 5 courses! Each with about a 20 minute interval to let the food settle. The restaurant we went to was a little hole-in-the-wall mom and pop restaurant where little English was spoken by the owners but they were absolutely precious! They loved us. Our first course was the same bread from lunch and mozzerella cheese. The mozzerella was to die for good. So much better than what they have in the U.S. Then came the proscuitto and another ambigious meat... then some olives and wine... then some pasta.... then some peas.... then, right when I'm ready for a fabulous "big finish" dessert, she brings some sort of stale cookie. Bummer! (but I have the rest of the trip to have Tiramasu or Creme Brulle--don't want to start of too strong anyways). The dinner was a very good experience of a true Italian restaurant and just the beginning of many more fabulous meals to come!

Note all of the plates and all of the glasses. We got a new plate with every "course" and we each got 3 glasses-- 1 for water, 1 for red wine and 1 for white wine.

You can see the mozzerella cheese -- delish! And at the end of the table, the older couple is Marko and Mary-lou (not kidding, those really are their names and they really are that precious). They are kind of the "founders" of the program--I'm not quite positive on the story of how Auburn in Italy got started, but when I get it I will tell you! Marko will talk to us during class some days and Mary-lou is teaching our cooking class--Bon Appetito!

The "main" dish, pasta with cheese and pepper. Very good, very Italian!

That is all I have for now....

P.S. I'm sorry if this post is a little all over the place.. I'm still on Central time. My body is adjusting poorly to the time change. I keep telling everyone that if you can't find Sara Kate, I'm probably at the Bar (Italian for Cafe) downing shots of espresso!