So, I think I am going to skip telling you about the sessions I went to since I doubt most of you really could care less about the things I learned. I will tell you that I had a great time in all of the sessions, and the speakers were both interesting and informative. I did not feel that I wasted my time in any of them, and that is really a good thing!

Once it was time for the luncheon speaker, we got a chance to leave the library and walk over to Ochre Point (constructed 1888-1892), a Gothic French Chateau designed by Richard M. Hunt for banker Ogden Goelet and his family and is second in size and grandeur only to the Breakers.



Goelet and his wife Mary settled in nicely in their new 50-room home. During a typical eight-week summer season required twenty-seven house servants, eight coachmen and grooms, and twelve gardeners.


Their daughter, May, married the English Duke of Roxburghe, taking with her an $8 million dowry, while their son Robert became a major force in the development of American railroads, hotels, and real estate. It was his gift of Ochre Court to the Religious Sisters of Mercy in 1947 that established the then Salve Regina College in Newport.


This stately home because house the whole of the university at that time. he original fifty-eight women students lived on the third floor, attended classes on the second, studied, prayed, and dined on the first, and snacked and purchased books in the basement. The eight Sisters of Mercy who made up that post-war faculty established their own modest living area in the servants' quarters. As it celebrates its 50th anniversary, Salve Regina University has grown to encompass over 60 acres and more than two dozen buildings, yet Ochre Court remains its heart.

We conference goers settled into the stately ballroom that was filled with beautiful gilding and parquet floors. Through the windows we had an incredible view of Narragansett Bay as we took in the speakers, who were Pino Luongo and Mark Strausman. These co-authors of Two Meatballs in the Italian Kitchen talked about their personal experience as world-renown chefs, Italian cuisine, and their differing views about preparations.

I will continue with more about Mark and Pino and their contributions to the conference in my next installment.