Monticello & Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson autobiography is read in the acres of his beautiful home called Monticello.  It means Little mountain and if you stand on the little mountain and look East it is the highest spot until you reach Portugal.  I wasn't sure what to expect of this place my mom had described to me as being a house I would love for it's secrets and inventions and special features, I really liked it.  There's a neat lookout which was like his little fort with windows and I think I'd spend a lot of time there.  Being farmers, we loved the gardens and the fact being terraced gives them 2 extra months of growing season.  I learned what neoclassical was and that he liked modifying things.  He has a book pedestal where he read 5 different books at once and often in 3 different languages.  He was a big reader like me and is quoted as saying "I cannot live without books".  His 6000 book collection became the start of the Library of Congress when British burned our library down.  His house had dumbwaiters that brought up bottles from the basement with underground tunnels and secret doors the butlers used and the pond is where they kept fish because they had no fridges then.  He was a clever man and his house is a place we would love to live.