Today we went back to the Villa Medici for the Tour in English. Before the tour started, we went thru a gallery with many beautiful paintings. We learned all about the Medici who lived there for awhile. He had his horoscope done at birth and it said he was destined for a great destiny. His older brother was like the Duke of Tuscany…a,very high rank…but alas! The older brother died one day and his wife the next, so this fellow went to be Duke of Tuscany instead of being a Cardinal in Rome (at the age of 14). The Villa is lovely and the gardens are beautiful. Napoleon bought the Villa Medici and it now belongs to the French Academy of Art. 528 artists from around the world applied to study there and 17 were chosen. They stay from a year to a year and a half with their families. There is a forested garden, a formal Italian garden and a labyrinth. In the labyrinth, there are statues of a Greek myth. A woman had 12 children and bragged about it to the gods. They rained down death upon the 12 children and the mother’s tears were turned into a lake in Greece. The 13 statues are all in a grove in this labyrinth garden.
I cooked a good dinner tonight of chicken, onions, red bell peppers, garlic, potatoes and olives…with capers thrown in for good measure. Mixed salad and cannoli for dessert.
It was a grey day with misty showers. Nice to be home in our cozy apartment.
Forgot to tell you that we picked up two more trashed plants yesterday. One just needed the dead leaves plucked off- but the other one really looked pitiful…all droopy and half dead. We watered it and it is perking up and putting out new blooms. Both have pretty red flowers…can’t remember the name of the plant…but they have perked up our little abode.
Going to quilt a bit, read a bit, then go to bed.
Buona Notte…good night!