the Garden's Secrets - Sept 4

Today was Sunday and for the first day in a while we had no plans. Everyone slept in then woke up for a late brunch around 10:30. After hanging out for a few hours I headed outside and began to explore the grounds. I found Laura and she came with me. While we explored the gardens it began to rain the tiniest bit, but it was cool and refreshing. First we found a lily pond with some cool looking green, yellow, and black frogs.

 I then climbed a pile of stones to get a look over the back wall and saw that there were farms and orchards all behind the villa that presumably is where our food comes from. I also turned around and was pleasantly surprised to find a little maze in our garden that Laura and I quickly worked our way into and out of. It was a bit unkempt with some weeds growing and a few broken patches of hedge, but on the whole it was a very cool “Secret Garden” or Narnia moment which I enjoyed.

We explored back further and found a volleyball-type court. And then worked our way to the back wall. As we walked around we kept finding things like a random old stone statue of a dog, a set of ancient stone table and chairs, a old fountain of a mans algae-covered face on a wall with water pouring out into a stone basin and a old gnarled tree that we could fit inside of through a gaping hole. It was a very good garden.

Later I went to a café and read for a while. The rest of the day pretty much consisted of hanging around the villa and preparing for class in the morning. The weather was much calmer today. As opposed to the relentless sun, it was pretty cloudy and even rained a bit. The cooling off was actually a very nice relief.

At about 11:45 as we were about to fall asleep a fireworks show begun outside. Really near and REALLY loud. Like shake the room loud. We couldn’t see them really from our window so it was kinda annoying to have to wait for them to stop (about half an hour later). But other people had a really fantastic view apparently so that’s cool.