Day 5: First Friday

Soooooo Kasi, Becca and I had really high ambitions to wake up at 7 and run down to Albano this morning, but when our alarms went of all 3 of us were literally frozen. I don't know if I have told ya'll but it gets really chilly at night. I don't know if I've ever been this cold or worn this many coats/cardigans in May. Dang you Italy. But anyways, we all woke up and noticed that we left one of our windows open, so the cold air was flowing in. None of us had cold-weather running gear, so we decided to can our run and count our hour long walk to Genzano as exercise. Secretly I was really glad we canned the whole idea because I didn't go to bed until 2 a.m. last night. (I don't know if it was the nervous-ness of buying our plane tickets or just the fact that I'm living in Italy started to freak me out.. but it definitely kept me up at night.)

Today was the first day of our classes with Marko teaching. Class started at 9:30 and it was in the Palace, so we all headed that way around 9:25. Well another fun fact: Italians don't believe in a schedule. Seriously. I've decided that everything on our schedule needs to have atleast 45 minutes added to it just incase because they are always slow and taking their sweet time. So Marko didn't get to the classroom until 10:15 and class started at 10:20. Ya'llllllllllll, I think I am in love with this sweet, old man. He began by telling us his life story (which took about an hour). He speaks 5 languages and has lived in Switzerland, Rome, Ariccia, Germany and San Francisco. Talk about well traveled! I can tell he is full of wisdom and fun stories, so I am looking forward to talking to him more. After he told us his life story he began his lecture on History and the beginning of civilization. He told us that in order to enjoy our summer in Italy and really anywhere else with intense architecture and antiquity, we must understand where everything came from. I am real excited about learning (though I assume I did learn this at some point during my 2 History classes at Auburn.... chalk it up to short term memory loss/selective memory) all of this information. I have a feeling that it will be really easy to listen to sweet Marko's lectures.

After class we broke for lunch so a few of us came back to the Palace to eat (we went American style with a PB & J. You have to eat normal when you can). This is also the time when we booked another flight for Barcelona during our midterm break. I am thinking that we all have the potential to be real good travel agents after this summer.

At 12:30 we had a tour of the Chigi Palace with Francesco. It was unbelievable! There is no way that pictures will do it justice. All of the rooms had leather walls and all of the rooms were exactly the way they were when the Chigi family passed it along to Francesco. Here are some pictures from our tour! (And this is only half of it!)

This is a picture of the courtyard of the Chigi Palace

The "Summer Room". Notice the leather walls!

Francesco taking a seat in "The Green Room". He is (obviously) an Art Historian, so he knew about everything having to do with the Palace.

"The Green Room" -- look at the bed!

"The Pink Room". This one was used for guests and travelers. It looked very 80s. The Chigi's were way ahead of their time when they decorated this room!

"The Beautiful Room". The Chigi family collected paintings of beautiful girls around Ariccia and hung them in this room. Creepy, huh? And it was hysterical when Francesco would point to some , how do you say it.... unfortunate girls, and say that they must have had a lot of money because they paid to have their painting hung in there haha.

This is the tile that was used to make the imprint on the leather. All of the leather walls were hung, stamped and painted by hand. They were beautiful!

This is the main room with MASSIVE paintings! This is where concerts are held in the Palace these days because it has really good acoustics. I couldn't believe the enormity of the paintings

This painting is the one that really stood out to me because it had a really interesting story. The man in black is Saint Augestine, he was a good friend of the Chigis, and he saw this little boy by the sea one day. The little boy had a shell in his hand and Saint Augestine asked him what he was doing with it and he said he was going to try and fit all of the sea's water in there. Augestine questioned the little boy and said "How can you do that? Do you know how much water there is on Earth?" and the little boy said "Well how do you fit all of the knowledge and unknown about The Holy Trinity in your brain?" . Francesco definitely told it better but I hope that makes you look at it and go "Huh" like I did.

This is the bridge that connects Ariccia to Albano. Isn't it amazing?

Me and Emily in some room of the Chigi Palace

The afternoon consisted of a trip to Genzano -- another neighboring town of Ariccia. Like I said earlier, the schedule said it was supposed to be from 3-5 but we didn't leave until 3:20, and it was a 35 minute walk there (uphill) and once we got there, they were like "OK you're free to do whatever." Italian time. So we wandered around, got gelato, popped into some cute shops and just toured. I reaaaaaaaallly like Genzano! I noticed that a ton of people were out just sitting on benches or pushing their kids in strollers--so laid back! Italians love life.

Getting gelato! Today I went for white chocolate and coffee. I think I'm addicted.

The town of Genzano! I will be revisiting.

Since we were free to roam in Genzano and it was getting late, a few of us decided to walk back towards Ariccia and stop at this restaurant on our way back for dinner. A few girls from previous semesters in Italy had told us about this one particular restaurant so we were excited to try it. It's called BBQ, but don't get excited--it's not like a Gibsons or anything. It was a really modern, posh place with a delectable menu. The weather was near perfect so we sat outside on the terrace. We have learned that the cheapest wine is the vino de casa (house wine) so some girls ordered a bottle and we also ordered dinner.

This time the vino de casa was Castelli Romani -- which is the region of Italy that Ariccia is in. Very local!

Attempting to use the Rick Steeves Italian phrase books to communicate with the waitors. They didn't understand "Balsamic vinegar on the side"

A little toast before dinner

A house right off of the terrace--typical Italy with a decorated balcony.

There is going to be a festival in Ariccia this weekend so they put up these lights on the one road in Ariccia. We all thought they were leftover from Christmas but then it occurred to us that their colors are red, white and green. Duhhhhhhhh.

My massive Margarita Pizza con Bacon! 4 of us ordered our own pizzas--we will know to split them next time!

After dinner we decided to see what Ariccia had to offer on the nightlife scene. Ok... either we didn't go to the right place or this is the extent of their young crowd. A big group of us went to this pub right near the Palace and it was hysterical when we all walked in and realized that there were like 5 other people in there. Well, we made fun amongst ourselves!

It was a really good First Friday in Ariccia and I'm looking forward to closing our windows and blacking out the room to sleep in tomorrow! Cccciiiaaaoooo :)