Bracciano/Bagnaia..again

This week I got to go on field trips for a couple different classes. On Tuesday we went to Bagnaia to see the Villa Lante gardens. We had to draw one of the fountains, but I cheated and just chose a section of the fountain…since my skills are anything but great.
The next day we went to an archeological dig just a short bus ride from Viterbo It was at one time a Roman city, and then during the middle ages they built over the city. The archeologists have found the ancient road and tiles under the medieval ruins. The old baths are still in tact. It was cool to see something with so much history, but pretty much everything I see has a lot of history. I have never seen an archeological dig before, so that was pretty cool too. I can mark that off my bucket list.
I also started my Italian conversation class this week. I love the teacher. It is intimidating, but it’s fun practicing the little skill I have, and learning more vocabulary. It contradicts my composition class though, since she doesn’t want us to focus on being grammatically correct.
My long weekend (It’s pretty ridiculous, I have longer weekends than weekdays) most of us decided to save some money and stay around Viterbo. On Friday Jordan, Luca, Ryan, and I decided to return to Villa Lante to explore more. A giant park with beautiful tree-lined pathways and fountains surrounds the gardens, so we were there for quite a while. It’s fun exploring such beautiful areas. I feel like I am living in a dream.
We watched the sixth Harry Potter that night because we kept talking about it all day. I think I may be the only person in the world who has not read the series, and I regret it every time I hear everyone talk about how much better the books are in comparison to the movies. I decided I want to read the seventh book before we go to the next movie premiere (we are all determined to see it in England, somewhere).
On Saturday a bunch of us went to Bracciano, Bracciano has a giant castle, Castello Odescalchi, and a huge lake. It was such a cute town. We got there in the middle of parso pranzo and the town seemed dead. We explored the streets for a little while and then got lunch. We got a tour of the Castle. I had never been in an old castle before. This castle was AMAZING. It looked out onto the lake. Tom Cruise and Katy Holmes were married at the castle, and we all had a new respect for them after we saw it. There was going to be a wedding reception held there that night and when we walked into the room that it was being held, we noticed that all the tables had Harry Potter names. We decided that whoever the groom was, was the perfect man.
Afterwards we walked down to the lake and sat for a little while, Gaby, my brave roommie, jumped in with her clothes on! She is crazy! The walk back up to the train station was pretty ridiculous. It was pretty, but nothing is fun when I’m hungry and weak. We made it back to Viterbo by 6:30 and we made dinner and watched Friends. Everything was within a 45-minute ride from Viterbo. I decided that Italy has everything I need. I am in love, and I just don’t want to come home. It has already been a month, and I cannot believe how fast everything is going.