Medieval Nights - Complete with Tights! Part 3

Get ready for your final installment of Medieval Nights - Complete with Tights! This isn't the end of the medieval fun, or the end of the tights, but it is the end of this series.

The night after the walk around and eat function, we went to Palazzo Farranttini for a harp recital. The harpist was wonderful and as always the views were amazing. This is a view of the tower next to the duomo from the backyard of the Palazzo.

Another view. I would give anything to have this as my backyard.

Here is the harpist. For her encore she played and sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

This is Sant'Agostino. I'm not going to lie, even though I walk past it everyday I had to look it up to find the name. They don't really have names on the churches, and I haven't gone in this one yet. However, this is the piazza near school, so it is close to my heart. 

The following day during lunch we had a random whiteout rain storm that lasted about 3 minutes. Unfortunately Emily was walking to the store at the same time and got caught in the rain. Here she is not pointing at her bottom, she is trying to show you how the front of her is drenched and the back of her is dry. 

That night we went to a big dinner for the Crux Burgi. 

The tables at these events are long picnic tables, and you don't really sit in groups. So you sit with the locals. Lindsey and I got to sit with these boys (who just could not sit still long enough to take a photo).

I'm not quite sure who this guy is, but he was dragging around the other guy (well... not dragging, but he had the other guy on a rope) and kept talking to all of the tables. He spoke a little too quickly for us to understand much.

Then the drummers came. I love the drummers. The drums are so cool, you can hear them coming from streets away.

An announcement... I don't remember what it was about.

Lindsey and I at the dinner. This is the ONLY non-red devil eye picture of me in weeks.

One last shot of the piazza before we went home for the evening. The dinner was lovely we had antipasti, pasta, sausage, and watermelon and cookies for dessert. Oh, and bottles and bottles of wine of course.

Ciao Ciao!

Medieval Nights - Complete with Tights! Part 2

Last weekend we went to a big Medieval dinner. The plan is that you start the dinner in one place, and then walk around the town to go to each of the courses. One of the things I LOVE about the organized dinners is that you get cups or wine glasses to take home. For this event we got these mugs that look like coffee cups without handles. Lindsey and I got ones that were rather dull, and Catherine and Ender got ones that were better... so we convinced them to switch. :-)

Ok, so this is what the street looks like since it has been decorated for the festivals.

This is the exit gate from the dinner. The best part about the dinner was that cars could not come into the walled city until it was over. It was nice to walk around and not have to jump into doorways when a car would come. 

This is the entrance. When the dinner was starting everyone was packed in here waiting to get in to pay for dinner. There were men in medieval dress with spears that would only let small groups in at a time. Lindsey, Michelle and I got stuck between the 3 men (they were like a triangle around us). They were pretty funny. 

I like the extent they go to decorating things. They covered up the street signs with paper. :-)

This is the shield of the Crux Burgi contrada, where first course was.

Here come the drummers! Sorry it's a bit blurry, but the photos don't come out so well with flash.

More drummers.

I don't know who the guy in the black and white is supposed to be, but he seemed pretty important.

They are going into where the first course is to make an announcement. 

This is the archaeological museum. You might remember it from the wine festival a while back. We have class right next to this, so we are here quite often. The guy in the white shirt with the cap is named Marco (as are his two best friends, yep, Marco, Marco, Marco) and he is the juggler for the evening.

They are waiting to give us our food and wine. 

The rest of the stops on the tour got a little crazy and a little crowded, so the photos did not come out too well. Let's just say that at the meat station there was a crowd, we waited for an hour because we realized there was no real exit. It was a lot of fun though.

Here we all are: Lindsey, Verity (our professor's really nice daughter), Isabel, Emily, Me, and Kate. Kate and Lindsey are modeling the mugs. 

Ciao Ciao!!! 

Medieval Nights - Complete with Tights! Part 1

I was going to post all of my current medieval night pictures at once, but I just looked in the folder where I pulled them all and there are too many for one post. So you are going to enjoy Medieval Nights - Complete with Tights 1, 2 & 3!

Why Medieval Nights - Complete with Tights? Just when you think Amelia could not get any cooler, it does, they have a medieval festival. Not a one night fair like festival, oh no when they do a festival they go all out. Thus far the festival has been going on for about 2 weeks. Each night something different will be going on. Within the walls of Amelia there are 5 groups (contrada's), each contrada has a play and a dinner on different nights. Sometimes more than one dinner, etc. Also, each contrada has a "restaurant" set up. No, I don't know if it is like Medieval times, we haven't gone yet, but it is meant to be Medieval so we shall see.

Here is a picture from the play that our friend Alessio wrote and starred in. It was VERY funny. Basically the bakers accidentally baked some bread that had some viagra like abilities, except with ladies. So the ladies kept coming after the bakers, sometimes they caught them, wink wink. At the end they finally figure out what happened. SO FUNNY! If that wasn't good enough, we got fresh orangey donuts just for attending. :-) AND some of the magical bread. 

Alessio is the one in white second from the right.

This is the flag of their Contrada!

The next night we had drinks with our professor, his wife and their daughter. After we ordered we walked outside and were greeted with this sky. I think it is beautiful in the picture, but as I am sure you know camera's don't do nature justice, so you have to imagine how magnificent it was in reality!

Another angle.

After drinks we decided to go to the play for the night, it was by the Crux Burgi contrada (which Kate and Lindsey are technically a part of, so we figured they were our adopted contrada).

 First, the scene to get into this play was hilarious. Just think small alley and about 75 people trying to fit through one doorway.

Add to that, the drummers that come right before they open the door to tell you where the play is the next day. The drummers are CREEPY but SO COOL!! I tried to take photos, but they didn't come out because the alley was so dark. I didn't want to look like "that" tourist since no one else was taking photos (well no one outside of the group). 

Once we LITERALLY pushed our way in, we were in the courtyard of a palazzo. Here is the stage with the actresses on it.

You have to imagine where I am standing, I am completely surrounded by walls, like a big "U." That dark spot you see behind the "stage" is the valley. They are on the edge of the wall. There was one point while watching this that I leaned on the wall and thought "Really?? I am really here? Watching this medieval play, seeing all of these things??" It was truly amazing.

As for the play. We were hoping for a comedy, but this one was creepy. It was also a bit longer with some new vocab words, so we didn't understand it all. Basically there were possessed dolls that kept hiding things and then putting them somewhere else. The "dolls" were played by little girls that would come out humming a creepy song and the first time they came out carrying scissors (because that's what they just took). CREEPY!!! The girls had on blue dresses and red masks over their faces.

The next day we were having drinks at Bar Leonardi after class and I saw this cat. I have dubbed this cat the "smart" cat cause she is always doing really smart/human like things. This is her best yet. She just wanted to go for a ride! (I like how she poses)

Another angle another pose!

Ciao, ciao!

To Terni for Dinner!

So I may have lied a bit... I am still playing catch-up, but I am closer than I was and things have been pretty quiet.

So your installment for today is our trip to Terni for Dinner with our Italian teacher Monica, her husband and her brother. 

Info on Terni, it is only about 15 minutes away and is a bit more "metropolitan" than Amelia. (I still love Amelia more, but Terni is more "young.") Monica was kind enough to realize that there aren't many young people in Amelia, so she organized for us to get out of town and hang out with some more people our age.

Dinner was fantastic, possibly more so for the company than the food. Here is Monica and her husband Michele. They are so wonderful! 

Here is Michele with Salvatore (Monica's brother) behind him.

We were having fun trying out a couple of hair styles on Michele. Here is mine...

Mine after you photoshop me out. :-)

Salvatore and Michele. This picture occurred immediately after a man tried to get us all to take roses (if you haven't been in Italy, you may not understand this. There are guys walking around that try to give ladies roses and then make the men pay for them. They are quite forceful). So Michele and Salvatore joked that they were together, so they had no significant others at the table. :-) Very funny. It even made the rose man laugh.

Lindsey, Salvatore and I. Salvatore and Michele were very funny, they kept helping Lindsey and I with our Italian. I have learned that I can understand more Italian than I thought, but I am awful when it comes to speaking it. 

Some of the Italian class ladies.

Lindsey, Monica and I.

Here is a photo of where we ate dinner. It was very nice and we had a lovely view of the square and the fountain. 

Part of the dinner group in front of the fountain. Terni was a lot of fun. Apparently, when their football (soccer) team wins a big game they all jump in this fountain to celebrate.

Ciao Ciao!

Down to two

The two days before my mom left we decided to act like Amelians, so everyday after class she would meet me at Bar Leonardi and we would have some prosecco. The lovely thing about drinking in the afternoon in Italy is that they bring you snacks!! :-) I love this! For 3 Euros you get a glass of prosecco and snacks. 

My mother enjoying her prosecco.

Both of us enjoying our prosecci! (that's not a typo, that's the plural for prosecco)

The next day we decided to hike up to the Duomo. It was HOT, but we made it. Luckily the Duomo was open. I have attempted this hike before only to find that the Duomo was not open, so I was very happy this time.

The Duomo is beautiful. Lindsey and I started talking about finding out why they call it a Duomo instead of a church, etc. Well a Duomo refers to a church that used to be the seat of a Bishop, but that Bishop is no longer there. So there, you have a bit more history.

This is on the ceiling. For the first time I can really understand why people could become so connected to the artwork in their churches. The town on the bottom of this image is Amelia. Even though Amelia has only been my home for a few months, I still felt pride when I looked up and saw it there. 

A closer shot.

The altar. The churches in Italy are really breathtaking. Even when you think you are walking into a little small town church you get blown away!

The dome.

The view from the top!

After the Duomo my mom and I walked down to Bar Leonardi to wait for Danielle to arrive.

She made it!! :-)

We then walked down to the chalet for some pizza and wine in the park. This is one of my favorite pizza's. Pizza Caprese. Like a caprese salad on top of pizza dough! :-)

The next morning Danielle and my mother left. Do you know what that means? Once I post my next blog I will be caught up! :-)