mistress of the vatican.pdf - End Time Deception

Mistress of the Vatican
fiercely—sometimes violently—loyal to their employers, ready to cut
down anyone in the street who insulted them.
Olimpia’s kitchen and staff dining room would have been located on
the first floor of her palazzo, next to the stables and tradesmen’s entrance.
Seventeenth-century servants slept in the nooks and crannies of
a house, in the basement next to the wine cellar, in the small rooms next
to the kitchen or over the stables, and most commonly, in the attic.
The most important member of Olimpia’s famiglia would have been
her maestro di casa, an exalted butler, who supervised all her other servants.
The maestro di casa arranged the delivery of meat, fish, fruit,
vegetables, wine, and firewood from the Nini farms around Viterbo,
and drew up contracts with local bakers, butchers, poulterers, fish
mongers, and candle makers.
Olimpia and Paolo would have had two or three valets or footmen,
who, wearing richly embroidered velvet livery and impressive hats with
plumes, escorted them in their carriage whenever they went out, riding
on the back of the carriage standing up. When the master or mistress
was at home, these valets would welcome visitors and accompany them
upstairs to the salon or, if the visitors were unwanted, prevent them
from entering by a flurry of apologetic excuses. When not standing sentinel,
the footmen took off their expensive liveries and did more menial
work such as washing the floors, lighting fires, and replacing candlestick
stubs with new candles.
One of the Ninis’ servants would have played the role of master or
mistress of the wardrobe, in charge of the purchase, laundering, storage,
and repair of their clothing, sheets, tablecloths, and napkins. Only undergarments
were washed. The outer garments of wool, silk, satin, and
velvet, embroidered with gold and silver thread and edged with fur,
would have been ruined by water. These were cleaned with wine, hung
out in the courtyard overnight to air, and beaten with brooms to get the
dust out.
As a rich landowner’s wife, Olimpia was now in a position to buy
gorgeous gowns. All the best velvets, satins, and dyes in Europe came
from that portal to the East, Venice. But Olimpia did not much care for
the gewgaws of contemporary females. Later in life she would laugh at
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