Piano sheet music quesion?

I am trying to play the advaced, full version of Fur Elise, but there are a few markings on the sheet music I am not familiar with. Instead of having a line with a jagged edge that points up to symbolise when to use the pedal and when to release (the overlapping pedal it's called), the word "ped." in very fancy script and then an astresc (*) type thing a little farther down. it keeps reapeating those two symbols all over the piece. Could you please explain to me what each thing means? Thanks!