Saturday, September 9, 2006

We had the chance to sleep in on Saturday morning, but of course, there was an exciting alternative, which I decided not to pass up. Christy and I got up early and decided that we were going to go into the central square in Pistoia to see what the market was like.

We were told that the market had been going on continuously for hundreds of years on Saturday mornings. It is a good place to go and hang out with friends, but it is also a good place to find wares and clothes for a much cheaper price than may otherwise be available.

Christy and I decided to go and hang out down there and see if we could get some good photos, but we also decided to do some shopping.

We got there early enough that they were actually still setting up, and we spent about an hour and a half walking through all the booths looking at clothes and jewelry and kitchen wares, etc. It was a lot of fun. I ended up buying a sweater that has long sleeves and that has a very flattering shape that I will be able to continue to take advantage of when I have a much bigger belly.

At 10:00, we all met at the office of the commune to go and meet with the mayor. We were taken up into the 700-year-old building for a nice meeting. He gave us a talk in Italian about how important it is to continue quality inter-cultural communication to avoid things like 9-11 in the future.

When we were done with the mayor, he gave us gifts of hats, pens and miniature cutouts of Pistoia. Then we went and had some good food.

The afternoon was time to be off and get some things caught up. I spent some time working on my journal, but when I got tired of writing, I ended up spending the rest of my time out on a blanket next to the fountain in the back reading my book about having healthy children.

It was nice to lie in the sun and talk with my friends.

When the sun got lower in the sky, the wind was blowing, so Christy and I decided to take a walk around and see if we could make ourselves photographically useful. We took a walk around the outside walls of the villa where we found another farmhouse with a garden. I spent some time photographing the beautiful grapes that were in that garden. We walked around, and I took photos of the olives and the olive trees.
We got trapped in the outer walls of the villa, and the only solution was to climb the fence at one point. We decided to climb the gate because it was the most sturdy and had the most places to grip and stand, but the top was very pointy. I made jokes with Christy about her allowing the pregnant woman to climb the fence, etc. It was kind of funny.

When we got back to the villa, I ran into Morgan. I asked her if she wanted to model for me, and she said yes. I ended up taking her into the fields of olives in front of the villa and photographing here in the late afternoon sun. I think that I got the effect that I was looking for. Just when I told her that we were done, the sun went down. I was satisfied.

Dinner that night was spaghetti, mashed potatoes, green beans, chicken, fish, salad, cheese, fruit and cake.

After dinner we skipped Dante and ended up talking about the Venice trip we were about to undertake. We got a general itinerary and then we studied our maps so that we wouldn’t get lost.

I was very tired when we were done talking, so I went directly to bed.