I know you have been waiting with baited breath to hear news of my impending marriage…
...and it will be in Italy. Not the fanfare you wanted that presented in? Haha, sorry! By now, we have known for a few weeks that it should be here without too much trouble. Even so, we are really excited to be the first Americans married in our town, as far as we were told. Also, the city hall here is a 500 year old palace formerly owned by a prominent Viterbese family.
We did our usual “class stuff” and we ate out a lot this week, partly because of our lack of hot water (no dish washing without a lot of hassle).
I bought my wedding dress online, and it was shipped to the house. It is a 1950s lace dress that mimics my Nanna’s dress, so I am really excited to see it in person tonight. I still have to find my shoes, get a haircut and a manicure (because they’re so cheap here!) and figure out how to wear my hair. Whew!
On Tuesday morning, we were supposed to go with Francesca at 11am to go suit shopping. She could not leave the office until Stefano came back, and he got back at almost 1pm, so the shops were already closed. We waited at the office that whole time, so we were a little peeved. We did get to go later that night. Francesca said she would take us at 4, and that we could be back in time for our 5:30 class. We left almost at 5, and basically had to skip our Tuesday class so we could get Kevin’s suit tailored in time.
Wednesday, I had my Cooking Class. That was spectacular as usual, and one of my least favorite people was missing, so that was helpful to the atmosphere. We talked to Christine, my culinary professor, and she walked us to her tailor, who promised to have the suit done, by this Saturday. When we were done getting Kevin measured and so forth, Christine came with us to a store to look for a shirt and tie for Kevin, and only left after we picked something out and were ready to pay, because she had another class to go to. We were really thrilled with our purchase, and Kevin’s selections are some of the finest quality pieces of clothing we will probably ever have in our house. Wednesday night is when we realized we did not have hot water any longer.
Thursday, we called our program director about our water problem and about going to restaurants to see about menus and prices. He had us meet him and some USAC representatives from different schools at Dada, a nice restaurant with great atmosphere. We saw the menu, and returned that night to eat there and see if we wanted to have our wedding dinner there. We did decide to have it there, and we are excited about sharing this place with our family, but for the two of us to eat, it was about 50 euro, so we are hoping to get a break on the price when we come with 8 people! We’ll see…
We went to Siena on Friday, and all of the classes were canceled. It was a long bus ride, and I actually managed to keep from getting sick on the way there. We sat behind Steve, and a pretentious international studies director from Chico State. We really didn’t talk the whole way, and it was a little awkward, but I figure that listening to the annoying man in front of us took most of our time. We were also really tired from staying up late to clean up before the plumber came, and doing dishes, and then waking up early. When we finally got to Siena three hours later, we walked around a church with body parts of Saints in the back. I have to say “what was the catholic church thinking?” I hope no one keeps body parts of me lying around after I am dead: that is just sick. We walked around the town and saw the Campo. We wanted to walk up to the top to see the view of the town, but it was 500 steps, and 6 euros a person. We decided against it, but in the end it worked out. We ate some mediocre pizza at a little pizza place, and luckily our coke was there to wash it down, ha ha. Most of our free time was spent walking around the town. It was full of photo opportunities, and ambiance. We took advantage of the picture spots, and went to the opposite end of the town to look over a valley, and olive trees. It was really quite lovely. We walked through several of the 17 rival neighborhoods, and then went to the Duomo. Down in the baptistery, we paid 3 euros each to see some original Donatello works in bronze. The baptistery is dedicated to that one guy named John (ya know why, I’m sure.) and the bronze pieces were scenes from his life. It was really nice. We tried to take pictures of ourselves in the baptistery, but it was a little dark. We finally met up with USAC to get into the museum. The pieces were all the important pieces taken from the Duomo. They were nice, but the real attraction was the panoramic view of the town, that was only slightly lower than the Campo. The stairs really scared me, because they were spiral, with only one hand rail, and I could barely keep my feet on them, as they were too narrow, and made of slippery marble. ACK! We survived the way up, and were really glad that we didn’t pay to walk up the 500 stairs on the piazza. We could see for miles. One of the girls thought she saw the leaning tower, but it was really just a silo a few miles off. Pisa is supposed to be relatively close, so she thought it was a reasonable assumption. The funniest part, was about our friend Lucy. She always manages to step in dog excrement or something or rather on all of our trips. Well, this trip, as we were looking for “Pisa” a pigeon bullseyed Lucy’s arm. It was hilarious, just because it is a habit of hers. I even took a picture, haha. I guess you probably had to be there, but ask me for the picture when we get back to the States, and you might understand. When we got home, we found those notes from our landlady, and got so worked up, that I wanted Taco Bell, but the only fast food we have here is McDonalds, so we went out that night. Leave it to a water heater and false accusations to ruin a perfectly lovely day.
If you read the other post, you know that most of our Saturday, we sat around with the plumber, but we also bought Kevin’s shoes. That was good, definitely, and we picked up his suit from the tailor. It was impeccably done, and we are quite pleased.
Sunday, we cleaned and studied for the exam I have later today. My family is in Rome now, and tonight we go to meet them after class. They will spend Tuesday through Friday here, and fly home on Saturday, so we have limited time with them, but we do get to have them here for our wedding, which is lovely.
Gee, I hope mom remembered to water my plants before she left… now, my signoff line seems a little pointless. Oh well.
A Presto!
Doreen