Where do we go from here?

This past week has been very very busy. Last Saturday we had our International Art Crime Conference. We had amazing speakers come to Amelia to impart their knowledge of the subject on us. We had representatives from Scotland Yard's Art & Antiquities Unit, the FBI Art Crime Squad, and so many more! I cannot begin to explain how informative and helpful the conference was, not only in better explaining concepts, but also in a grand scheme of things kind of way.

You will be happy to hear I am starting to develop a bit of a better picture of how to turn this passion into a career, but more on that much later this summer.

After the actual conference (where I did not take any pictures because I felt it would make people nervous) we had a four course dinner at a restaurant in town.

As per usual, the food was fantastic, the wine even more so. The wine here is dangerous... it is so lovely you almost drink it like water. We had to be quite careful this night because some of us were in heels, which do NOT work well on the Amelia cobblestone streets.

I tried to get some pictures of my friends. Here is Patrick and Derek.

Try #2! Close, but no cigar!

Finally! See even boys make people take multiple pictures!

The Vice Commander of the Carabinieri of the Division of Cultural Heritage with all of the ladies!

The following morning I moved to my new apartment (photos in next blog). After several trips up and down (both my old and my new apartment are on the 3rd floor)many stairs, I sat to rest on my couch. My restful state was violently interrupted when I heard a cannon go off. Then I thought to look out my window and realized that they were having a medieval festival. Important things to remember while living in an Italian hill town... cannons go off... horses walk around town... many men in tights.

Below is the stage with the targets for the archery competition. They have to walk around (in costume) to various parts of the city to shoot at targets.

This is where the cannons were being shot from.

Amelia put out the banners for the festival.

Later that night we decided to trek down to a restaurant about a 10-15 minute walk away that has GORGEOUS views of the city. I have posted pictures from here before (the one by the columns and the house I will live in) this time the sunflowers were in bloom.

Ciao Ciao!

When the cat's away...

Perhaps the title should say when I am away from my cat? So... the other night while trying to figure out where to bring their trash they found a kitten. They brought it some salami and played with it a bit, and then went away. :-) 

The next day they told me about the kitten. Anyone that knows me knows that if there is a kitten/cat involved I immediately want to A) figure out how to catch and hold it and B) find it a home. So... Lindsey and I decided to catch the kitten (who was all alone by the way). It turns out that catching the kitten wasn't very hard. She wanted to be caught.

So here are some pictures of the beautiful kitten. She was brought "home" last night and is already litter trained, eating well, and quite cuddly! :-) Kate or Lindsey are going to bring her back to the states (yes Tasha, Nellie and Danielle, breathe a sigh of relief, I am not trying to get another cat). :-)

She doesn't have a name yet, but will soon.

So this weekend is our BIG art crime conference in Amelia. We have some amazingly distinguished speakers coming, such as: the Ex Mayor of Rome, representatives of the Carabinieri, the FBI, Scotland Yard, etc. It should be a lot of fun and very interesting, but it is ALL day (meaning 9:30am-midnight) on Saturday. Then on Sunday I move into a new apartment, so don't plan on hearing from me until next week. :-)

Coincidentally my MOM and SISTER and LUIS and CONNIE and CHRISSY come next week!! YAY!! I am super excited. So lots of fun stories to come!

Ciao Ciao!

4th

For the 4th of July we decided to throw a party on the terrace... our go to place for parties. The funny part of this is that the terrace is a part of the two guys in the program's apartments, and neither of them are American. :-) However, they are very gracious hosts and let us throw the party there regardless. 

Here is the view from their terrace... it is unbelievable.

They have apricot trees, so we tend to pick a few for breakfast the following day.

For our 4th of July festivities we tried very hard to make all of the items very Americana. Lauren and I made a flag cake. Sadly a lot of ingredients were hard to come by, such as: whipped cream, strawberries & blueberries. So we used sweetened ricotta, apples and purple grapes. I think it turned out well considering.

Kate (in the white t-shirt) made caprese salad... which may not be super americana, but we all love the mozzarella here, so it is always welcomed. Lindsey was a super American and made potato salad and deviled eggs! They were FANTASTIC!

Here is some of the group at the gathering.

Some how we always tend to invite the musical Italians to our parties and we were serenaded with live music. 

After the terrace we moved down to Porcelli's (the pizza place) to hear the jazz band (from a previous post) play. Isabel (the patterned dress) is quite the dancer, so she got us all on the dance floor at one time or another.

This is our professor and his wife. We will be very sad to see them go next week!

The day after the 4th we had a walking tour of Amelia with our Italian teacher Monica. This is one of the many clock towers in the town squares. I thought it was quite lovely, esp. with the storm moving in.

All around Amelia you will randomly see pictures of Mary. A while ago (I don't remember exactly how many years) a pretty bad Earthquake hit this part of Italy and somehow Amelia was unharmed. They attribute this to Mary and have honored her ever since.

Here is a kitten friend. :-) So sweet! Kate and Lindsey have found a literal kitten near their apartment... I am trying to convince myself not to take it. 

This is Amelia's theater. It is pretty opulent. The curtain has a scene on it that was painted by a famous artist of the region. I think it is pretty neat that their curtains have scenes on them, they aren't just burgundy/red velvet.

After the theater we went to the cisterns. The Romans build the cisterns here and they are pretty remarkable. At one point one of the cisterns (there are 10 rooms) caved in and they couldn't figure out how to make it as well as the romans, so it leaks a lot. 

That is Monica on the stairs. Those stairs were pretty steep and creepy. The cisterns are absolutely freezing and damp so it was 100% like going on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney. You know, you were out in the hot sun and then all of a sudden there is the breeze of air conditioning... same feeling.

I have no idea why I thought this was the best way to stand for this photo. You can't see but I am in one of the really big rooms. The cisterns were made by the Romans to trap rain water so that the Amelian's could have water. There are no natural sources of water within the walls. 

On Tuesday night we convinced our Professor and his wife to join us for dinner at a restaurant that we had not been to, but they had. For some odd reason I was not very good about taking photos this meal, so there are none after the appetizers. We ordered wild boar prosciutto and bruschetta. It was amazing. 

We also ordered this... which was mushroom caprese. This lead to the most hilarious interaction we have had thus far in this town. Our table consisted of 6 girls and one guy. When this got to our table the owner/chef came out very excited with a huge smile and started talking very animatedly (is that a word?) about the dish (in Italian). We finally were able to pick out one word... Viagra. At first we figured... nope, it cannot mean what we think it means, it has to mean something else. Nope... he meant viagra. He was trying to tell us that the mushrooms were aphrodisiacs, and he then added that Derek had about an hour before they kicked in. I don't think we have all laughed so hard since we got to Italy. 

Back to class. 

Ciao ciao!

Bottles and bottles of wine, oh my!

Last week was quite entertaining and filled with sleep depravation. :-)

We started on Monday night going to a local vineyard with our favorite restaurant owners (the Rossi family). We were treated to a tour and a 5 course meal, complete with 5 different wines. 

I am trying very hard to hold true to my "more people in pictures" rules. I listen to you guys and amend my posts appropriately. :-) I welcome the feedback!

This is Kate, Lindsey, Lauren, Me, and Olivia (Olivia is an incredibly awesome girl from the UK, so you know I am super jealous of her accent!).

At the end of each row of grapes they have rose bushes. The rose bushes are not just for aesthetics, they actually serve a very neat purpose. Farmers use the roses to monitor the health of the grapes. Since roses are so delicate, they will react to things much more quickly than the grapevines will, so if a rose dies, or gets infected, they can either do something to protect the grapevines, or they can get rid of those vines so that disease does not spread! Smart Italians.

Here is the nice outdoor dining area. This picture does not do it justice. It's like a movie set, complete with twinkling lights overhead. This is not a restaurant, it is just the vineyard owners home. They do not typically have large parties, so this is just their porch.

Here are some of the photos of the area where they actually make the wine (these are for you Mr. Mann).

The bottles of wine pre-filling.

Vats o' wine. They were empty. :-(

This is the owner of the vineyard showing us how they fill, label and cork the bottles.

The wife of the owner painted these on the wall and...

the boar was turned into the label for their red.

Wine heaven! SO MUCH WINE!! :-)

Lindsey, Lauren and I with what we wish was a real bottle of wine. ;-)

And now for some photos of dinner: miso fritto! Translation... fried stuff. This fried stuff included: rosemary, sage leaves, onions, stuffed pepper, and a zucchini flower.

This is eggplant parmesan... AMAZING!!! Something worth noting, in Italy it is not breaded.

Starting at the top: wild boar sausage, beef and liver, beef, and potato. (yes, I sorta had to start eating beef... no I did not eat the liver. I am expanding my eating horizons, but not that far).

I took this for my uncle, but then realized that everyone would appreciate it. :-)

We ended up being at the Vineyard until 2am... and then we had to get home... and ready for bed... and in bed by 3am, only to wake up at 7am. It was TOTALLY worth it!

The next day we had a horrible storm!

This is my very unsuccessful attempt to show you the pebbles of hail that were hitting my windows. The worst thing about storms is that if they are really bad you have to close your windows, and that leads to things being very steamy in your apartment.

After the storm (on Tuesday) we went to Punto DiVino (which is the restaurant that coordinated our vineyard trip) for Catherine's dinner. I didn't get pictures at dinner, but I wanted to show you how pretty it was!

Ok, that's all for now. I must stop procrastinating and work on my presentation for tomorrow. I miss you all and will update you on our 4th of July party later! :-)

Ciao ciao (which I find to be less odd, now that I realize it literally means "bye bye")