Club Chigi

So last night we had our first "Apperitivo [appetizer] Party"... and it was a SUCCESS! Sallie and Alex went and bought decorations and everyone else bought something to make! We made some American appetizers and a few Italian. You didn't hear this from me but the Italian dishes were last to be eaten or untouched :) I knew they secretly liked our food! ha!

At first the party was awkward... that might have been our fault but we just didn't know what to do! Slowly, some adults showed up and a few high school girls we had met at the school earlier that day. It's very difficult to mingle with people you don't know, that are older/younger than you, and that don't speak English very well...

Honestly, we thought our party was a dud... until... tons of people our age started to show up and other adults! We should have known the Italians would be fashionably late! The awkward small talk while snacking suddenly turned into a 3 hour dance party! ...and it was SO much fun! I think it's safe to say the Italians were impressed with our party skills because we couldn't even get them to leave... so around 1 am we had to start kicking people out!!

Cinzia said it was the best apperitivo the girls at the palace had ever hosted!! 

Go Chigi Princesses! :)

Egg salad, quesadillas, chicken nuggets, veggie plater, fruit, etc.

All clean an decorated! 

dancing!

Girls with Cinzia :)

Rae- Mary Cate- Me

some of the Italian boys!

...this is only 8 of the 250 pictures I took last night... is it possible to be addicted to your camera? haha

xoxo
Britt

P.s. I will not be blogging for a week or so because... on Monday we are headed to Tuscany!!! We will be staying in Siena and Florence until Thursday... then on Thursday we head to Cinque Terre until Sunday!!! I am SO excited to say the least. So have a good week... and weekend! Miss you all lots.

Wine "Tasting" and Pottery!

Hi friends! I have a lot to update you on... so bare with me :)

My special visitors are on there way home this very moment! I was sad to say goodbye to them last night but so thankful they were able to come and spend a week with me! They joined us on our Tuesday field trip [as you saw in the last post], one of our classes on Wednesday, and our field trip yesterday [Thursday]...

Wednesday night after Italian, History, and Philosophy, we had the best class of the day: Wine History/Tasting! Maurizio taught us everything we need to know about wine, the different types, where they are made, how to taste them, etc. and of course, after the lesson we... tasted! A lot!

Maurizio provided 3 different white wines and 5 different red ones... we ate bread, cheese, and salami, and he even made carbonara! [pasta with eggs and bacon] ...which was delicious!

Wine Wine Wine!

Snacks

Maurizio cooking the pasta!

.... and serving the wine!

Mom loved coming to our class!

Emily even tried some! Can't you tell she loved it?? :)

Yummy Carbonara and red wine!
(which I ended up preferring over the white- didn't see that coming!)

All of us!! 

The next morning came very early to say the least. We left for Deruta at 7 am! Thank goodness we were able to sleep on the bus ride there! Deruta is in the Umbria region of Italy and is known for its hand made pottery [which is exported world wide-- even to Birmingham, AL!] There are over 250 factories there that still produce pottery today. The process includes: shaping, firing, glazing, painting, and a second firing... the pottery usually sits 60 days between firing and glazing, and depending on the size, one piece can take as long as 6 months to finish!

The Pottery Factory we visited... the owner gave us a tour of his
business that has been in the family for over 500 years!

Shaping and smoothing out a 'fish shaped' dish

Adding the bottom piece it will rest on... this was one of the coolest parts.

Some of the finished work! This room was mainly contemporary designs... by American artists!

Glazing the plate after 1st firing

AMAZING hand painters! Such tedious work. 

Uh.. when did she get taller than me?

I love the true colors! Especially the solid white which sadly I do not have a picture of.

My favorite design by far. So bright and fun!

Instead of buying anything, I took pictures.
It's ALOT cheaper that way! haha

After Deruta, we headed to Assisi! We ate lunch in Assisi then took a tour of St. Francis Basilica. The church is one of the most important places in the Catholic pilgrimage.

Yummy mushroom, asparagus pasta for lunch!

Getting ready for our guided tour!

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside... and I have never been tempted more! The church was built in honor of St. Francis immediately after his canonization in 1227. The pope ordered for the church to be built because St. Francis was thought to be a very holy, closely following the footsteps of Jesus.

There is an upper church, then a lower church, and then St. Francis' crypt is underneath. Some of the church is Gothic styled and the rest is Romanesque. The architecture, stained glass, story paintings, original tomb, etc. was absolutely incredible. I wish I could have taken pictures!

St. Francis Church of Assisi!

Last but not least, today [Friday] some of us had our practicum. Myself, and the 5 other HDFS majors, were assigned to go to the local high school. We were there from 9:30-1:00 and were split into groups in 'English' classrooms. The school is an Art/Language based school, so most of the students know English and are also learning Spanish, French, and German! Very impressive. It put my 3 years of Spanish in high school [that I do not remember 99% of] to shame.

I have to admit, I was nervous at first thinking it would be very difficult or awkward to communicate with the students, but I was blown away with how much english they knew! I was in 4 classrooms total where the students were allowed to talk with me and mainly ask questions about America, what I am studying, or anything from pop culture to food! The students were ages 15-19 and were very excited to have us there! Everyone in Italy is so welcoming!! Most of the girls wanted to know what kind of car I drive or who my favorite singer/actor is and the boys wanted to know if I liked Italy and the places I had been so far. I also got funny questions about proms, cheerleaders, "Sweet 16" parties, NYC, and 'wild spring breaks'! Haha! They were all so so sweet and I really enjoyed getting to know them!

Some of my 'students'! [16 & 17 years old] :)

Oh and... on the way home from the school I stopped by the grocery store to get stuff for our party tonight. I was looking for cheeses when suddenly I heard "Hi Brit-ta-ney" spoken softly behind me. When I turned around it was one of the sweet seniors I had been with earlier! It was very strange to be around town and have someone recognize me and call me by name! Yay for having new Italian friends! haha

I have to go get ready for our 'party' now! We are having an appetizer get together at the palace and were supposed to invite anyone we have met here so far. Personally, I have not met many Italians that I could actually communicate well with so I have no invited anyone in particular but all of the staff, boys from the coffee shop across the street, and even some students from today will be coming! 50 guests are expected to attend! We are making some American appetizers and some Italian... so it should be fun! I'll post pictures later :)

Happy Weekend!!!!

xoxo
Britt

Sirio Giam, my Italian bf?

Like I said I would in my last post... Monday night after class, I went to Rome to meet up with the gang for dinner. We met at the Spanish Steps at 7:00 and immediately started looking for a place to eat nearby [because the last metro was at 9:00]! We grabbed a seat at the first place we saw and were very excited about eating inside where it was warm! The restaurant ended up being more "Americanized" than we had expected but it was nice to be able to speak the same language as the waiter for once...

Our waiter was very nice and mom and Mrs. Dalziel were really enjoying talking to him. Like always... mom asked him if he would take a picture of the 4 of us and he jokingly said, "Oh, with me?"... [little did he know she was going to think that was a great idea]... she replies, "Yes!!" and immediately tells me to get one with him. Awesome. He says, "No, no I am kidding! She is turning red!!" ... At this point, it would have been more awkward to not take the picture with him so I get up and let her enjoy the moment. After I sat back down [and he walked away] we all died laughing, passing around the camera. The worst part was that I hadn't showered that day and had on a thick ear warmer the entire night [because it was freezing]... so in the picture I look like a cancer patient [that's horrible, I know!] They were all making fun of me but I did not care because no one was ever going to see the picture again... Wrong!

Minutes later... our waiter comes back and asks me, "Could you possibly email me that picture?" My first thought was, "Uh, are you serious?... Why??" but I say, "Yeah, sure!" He then WHIPS out a sticky note where he had hand written his email address and proceeds to spell it out for me to make sure I can read his handwriting. ((I know what you are thinking--- Wait, did he really go write this before even asking? Yes.)) So anyways... he tells us his name is Sirio Giam but due to his accent, we thought he was saying "my surname is Giam" and Emily and I were thinking... well that's nice but what is your first name?! and Mrs. Dalziel thought he was saying "John" so she got excited and tells him she has a son named John! He corrects her and we all continue to laugh at how dumb we are sometimes... [It wasn't until we read it on the way home that we saw his name was Sirio- and realized he wasn't just repeating his last name to us haha] ....So I take the paper and put it in my purse and we once again all laugh and joke about how awful I look in the picture and at the fact that he wanted me to send him a copy!! Then.. I realized that the picture is on mom's camera so I would not be able to email it to him... and she has no idea how to begin to do it... soooo... we awkwardly tell him we need to take ANOTHER picture with my camera! haha and he replies, "Oh ok! How about outside?!" As we are following him out... Mrs. Dalziel quickly pulls my earwarmer off and my pony tail holder out hoping I would look better in this one. Unfortunately, I don't think greasy, creasy, all around nasty hair has a chance of looking good but at this point, I didn't have a choice! Still laughing at this entire situation, we take the picture [on the right camera this time], thank him for being a great waiter, and leave... as he tells us we must come back next time we are in Rome! ...Don't get your hopes up too much, Sirio...I know this boy named Matt and he just might have a problem with that plan :)

Moral of the story: Do not wear an ear warmer in Rome after not washing your hair that day... you might have to take a picture with [and forward it to] your Italian waiter!!!!! :)

The picture with Sirio Giam and my gorgeous hair!!

Today, Tuesday, we got up at the crack of dawn to take a 2 hour bus ride to Civita di Bagnoregio, which is a small town on the border of the Lazio region in Italy. Most everything was closed when we got there because it was so early, but it was still very neat to see. There is an olive oil mill that has been there 400 years that still makes and sells oil and bread.... I was really hoping they would be open!

Civita di Barnoregio is almost like a secluded island- on land! The view was incredible!

Civita di Bagnoregio in the distance!

Longggg hike up!

1/2 way there!

We made it!

An unbelievable view!

After we successfully walked back down the hill, we got on the bus, and headed to our main destination, Orvieto, a medieval town across the Lazio border, in the Umbria region. The main attraction is the Orvieto Duomo- a cathedral that is entirely white and black marble with very detailed gold and colored designs on the front. There are two chapels inside [that we could not take pictures of] that are amazing paintings. One masterpiece is of the "last judgment" by Luca Signorelli.

Oriveto in the distance! (pic from the bus)

Orvierto Duomo

Love love love the coloring.

All real gold detail!! So awesome.

The massive organ.

Alter.

All black and white marble, inside and out. So detailed.

After visiting the church, we were free to eat lunch, then met back up to go to St. Patrick's Well. None of us knew what all the hype was about this well... until we got there. From the outside, it seemed so simple, we were wrong! The pope had the well built in 1527 to provide water incase of a disaster. It is 174 ft deep, with 248 stairs. There are 2 spiral staircases [with separate entrances] so that donkeys could easily maneuver down to the bottom.

St. Patrick's Well

From the top! (70 'windows' in the inside for light)

Finally made it to the bottom!

Emily making her wish!!

Once everyone started to head back up [I was still taking pictures of course- and got a little behind] then I panicked realizing I was going to be the last one in this big, creepy well so I started running up the stairs to catch up. Well.. I could hear some of the girls voices but it seemed that I could never catch up to them... even while running! I was shouting to them through the window openings and they kept telling me to stay there because I was above them and they were almost to where I was [but I knew this couldn't be right]. Suddenly, I realized I had gone up the down staircase and freaked out! Without thinking, I ran as fast as I could BACK down to the bottom and then BACK up to where I finally caught up with them. At this point, I could barely breath and my heart was racing. Emily thought this was very funny.. but I was truly scared! haha... Needless to say, by the time we got back to the top I think I had climbed [or ran] over 600 steps and I was reminded how out of shape I am. Silly me.

You have a lovely well St. Patrick... but I do not think I will be visiting again :)

View right outside the top of the well!

Such a joy having my family here!

xoxo

Britt

P.s.- Incase you were wondering... I just emailed Sirio the picture! I will let you know if I get a response! ha!