Saturday,
November 18, 2006
Bracciano Elevates Italian Hospitality Even Higher
for "TomKat" Wedding
The
ANNOTICO Report
Bracciano is "prettying" itself up, posting all
kinds of "well-wishing messages every where, naming menu items in tribute,
and feeling like they are participants in the "TomKat"
Wedding, although none are invited, not even the mayor.
The
level of excitement in all quarters of town is palpable.
There goes the neighborhood
ITALIAN
VILLAGE BRACES FOR TOMKAT NUPTIALS
Saturday, November
18, 2006
BRACCIANO,
Streets
were cleaned, the grass cut and weeds pulled. Road signs outside Bracciano warned drivers that the center of town would be
closed to traffic all of Saturday to free the area around the 15th-century
By
early afternoon, town workers began setting up barriers on the street leading
to one of the castles entrances. The historic towns narrow streets
teemed with journalists and camera crews, while locals made their own
preparations.
We
are all participating a little in this wedding, said Simona
Palazzini, a restaurant owner in the square next to
the castle. And we are quite happy to do so.
At
the Il Ristorantino dining spot Palazzini
offered a Top Gun menu that included fettuccine with seafood called
Mission Impossible and apple pie with cream and hot chocolate named
after Suri, the couples daughter. At the nearby Trattoria del Castello, guests
could order a Tom e Kat a
basket of parmesan cheese with truffles and mushrooms.
Wishing
you love and happiness, read one well-wishing sign written in English and
taped to the window of a coffee shop.
Congratulations
Tom and Katie, said a sticker on the window of a clothing store, whose two
other windows sported a wedding dress with a photograph of the couple, and a
Top Gun theme with aviation outfits and jackets, and a poster of
Cruise as Maverick, the pilot he played in the movie.
Nearby,
a store had an arch of white balloons over its doorway, except for one red one
shaped like a heart. A picture of the couple and a postcard of Bracciano hung from the red balloon.
This
is good for the town. Its a beautiful thing that will make Bracciano known to the whole world, said Iolanda Barbarani, who owns a
hardware store.
Lidia
Sabbatini, who owns a flower shop, said residents
were besides themselves with excitement.
Everybody
is so enthusiastic. its not an everyday thing to have a
On
Friday evening, Cruise and Holmes left the Hassler
hotel where they have been staying in
On
Thursday, Bracciano Mayor Patrizia Riccioni said the celebrity couple would likely wed
Saturday in a Scientology ceremony at the castle, 27 miles north of
While
she stopped short of confirming the actual date of the wedding, the towns
Web site had a picture of Cruise and Holmes under the headline, The wedding of the year in Bracciano,
Saturday, 18 November 2006.
Riccioni, who met with the couple
Wednesday at an undisclosed location and gave them a gift, said Friday she had
received a large bouquet of white flowers, including roses, from the couple.
These
beautiful flowers arrived from both of them with a thank-you note, Riccioni told The Associated Press, adding that she was
almost moved by the gesture.
Riccioni described her meeting
with Cruise and Holmes and baby Suri, who was born
April 18, as intimate, saying that they seemed to be a couple in
love who is ready to take the big step of getting
married.
She
said that her office had not received any request to celebrate a civil wedding
as of late Friday morning, and that she believed the ceremony in Bracciano would be a Scientology rite. She has not been
invited to the ceremony, she said.
Scientology
ceremonies contain many elements of traditional weddings rings, procession, vows, etc. But they
also include certain Scientology fundamentals, including vowing to never to go
to bed without communicating about any differences. They also stress the
Scientology tenet known as ARC A
for affinity, the closeness between a couple; R for
reality, what a couple agrees on; C for communication, the exchange of ideas
and thoughts.
A
spokesman for the
The
medieval castle with its frescoed library and a loggia
looking out on a lake and the town
that surround it have seen celebrity weddings before. CNN foreign correspondent
Christiane Amanpour and
U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin married there in 1998.
The
same year, Italian pop star Eros Ramazzotti and his
bride, TV personality Michelle Hunzicker, had their
reception at the castle, gathering a crowd of TV celebrities and pop stars,
including Tina Turner.
Cruise
and Holmes have been staying this week at the luxury hotel near the Spanish
Steps in
Those
spotted coming and going into the restaurant included Mission Impossible
III director, J.J. Abrams, Brooke Shields and Jennifer Lopez and
Lopezs husband, singer Marc Anthony.
Meanwhile,
more VIP guests flew into
Cruise
and Holmes were first photographed together in
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