I have to say that the top reason for why my school kicks ass is the fact that it is in Italy. I feel extremely blessed that I can say I live in another country. I know that not many people have the opportunity to move out of their home state let alone country. I know that I’m not moving here permanently, yet, but its still a change of pace that that everyone is entitled to have.
A Typical Day’s Events
A typical day for me is composed of many great things. For one of my classes, we went on a walk to the Pantheon. WTF? Who does that? I mean, how amazing is it that I walk to the Pantheon for a class lecture, and not just to go? It was my first time going and it was so great.
This is a fountain located in the front of the Pantheon.
This is the front of the Pantheon.
In the very front of the Pantheon there is an open area that is nothing but floor, ceiling, and columns. This is the very top of the columns. I love how everything in Italy is done with such finesse.
Inside the Pantheon the ceiling is a big dome. The higher up the dome the thinner the dome gets so that it can hold itself up. And the floors slant downward from the center for when it rains. There is a big hole in the very center of the dome (where you can see the light coming in) and its open year round so when it rains water comes in. The other building structure that helps with rainwater are drains in the floor. They are simple little slits that look like stars but they help minimize water damage.
The pantheon is still used as a church so you will see things like seats and an alter and even…
… a statue of Jesus. I love all of the different ways that Jesus is shown. What I think amazes me the most is the fact that even though they are all a little different, they are so similar to what we have back home.
Later that day, my class took a walk to Campo di fuori to take pictures. It’s a photography class and we do this every class period. This time it was campo and it was just after all the venders had left to go home. The assignment was to capture what was going on at campo in that moment. Here they are.
The next day my same teacher that I have for Masterpieces of the Vatican decided to take this class (Renaissance & Baroque Art) to Santa Maria sotta Minerva Basilica. I don’t believe it is one of the 7 Basilicas but it was beautiful regardless. We learned that the cathedrals off the sides of the church are bought by different families to have their loved ones buried in the church. They are all closed off my gates and only the families and the church have the keys. So you don’t get to go in unless your family tells the church that they want to have a mass there. And I think you only get to do that when it’s close to the anniversary of the death. Here is what I captured.
They were filming a movie or a commercial in front of the church so we weren’t allowed to stand on the other side of the elephant or get a better angle of the elephant.
This church had very interesting stained glass. Most places you see stained glass is either just a design or it is a story but this incorporated both in its design.
This is a woman crying and she is set on the side of a tomb. I don’t remember who’s tomb it was exactly but it was less old than most of the others. You can tell because it uses two different mediums, it’s more life like and they have it on a 3D scale meaning it pops out at you.
I believe Michelangelo did this piece and it took him two pieces of marble to make it. The reason for that is the first slab that he used split on him so he had to start again.
This slab just had a creed or something inscribed on it but I thought it was too beautiful to not take a picture of.
This is the front of the church. If you can imagine, behind the gold piece in the center is a long wooden bench that stretched along the whole back wall, and there were priests or monks back there praying. Va bene!
Location
Back in America location is prime. Italy is no different. My school is located right off of the south turn in Piazza Navona. We are also close to San Pietro. Last time I went it was only a 10 minute walk. Which is very nice for me because they have their own postal service and its more reliable and just as close as my Roman Post Office.
Also nearby are a bunch of cute little eateries. The closest are the gelato shop and the paninoteca. I go to each once a week. My favorite panino has tacchino, pomodoro, insalata, and formaggio. She toasts it for me and it is to die for. If I go to the gelato shop I always get limone. Sometimes I mix it with fragola but I like the limone better. There is also a pastry shop close by and they sell pastries in the morning and pizza in the afternoon. I think they also have select meats but I’ve never had them. My favorite there is the krapfet but they have only had it once. Next to that I love all the different kinds of cornetti that they have.
Aside from food shops, we also have a ton of glass blowing shops by my school. I went in a few of them and let me tell you, if I was never going back home I would have bought so many pieces from these places. The chandeliers that they have are so amazing looking. Aunt Stella, you would love it here.
We also have a bookstore that is very close, it’s at the bus stop that I get off at on my way to school. The people there, although they asked me to sit at another table that one day, are very friendly. I wanted to get a movie and they were out so I asked the guy to tell me when they would have it again. He looked in the computed and told me to go to another location because if I waited for it to come in it would be double what it was selling for that day. It was very honest, and nice, of him. So I went to the other location and I bought a movie that I found out will only play on my laptop or on a DVD player that I buy in Italy. It was completely worth it because it is my favorite movie and it has Italian dubs and subtitles. I already own the movie back home and it offers neither of those on it. the movies is Sotto il Sole Della Toscana.
The other great thing about our location is it only takes one bus to get me home. Most of the other people have to take a metro and then jump on a bus or they have to take a tram and then a bus but we only have a bus. Its conveniently located two blocks from our house, which makes the wait nice.
My classes
I’ve been in school for two weeks now and I can honestly say that my classes are kind of dry. I’m hoping that’s because it’s still early and things will pick up. I feel like I haven’t really learned anything new in my Italian class, and I fall asleep during most of my classes. But the fun thing is that we go out into the city in all of my classes. And my photography class has definitely been a good class for me. The teacher, Mario, said that I have a good eye for taking pictures and he complimented me on the pictures that I took this week. The lesson that day was to take pictures looking down and still being able to capture what was going on. He said that when we have limits, they give us more freedom. In saying that he means because we know how to work with a limit we are able to do something more than someone who did not know how to work with it. I really like that class and it’s the only one that doesn’t put me to sleep.
But the classes will get better. I will learn more and I will have fun all the while.
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