BUONGIORNO
These past two weekends have been so much fun. Seriously, so much fun. Lucky for me, both of them were educational, so I’ve been feeling very enriched with knowledge!
The first weekend was my one credit class, Modern Art in Rome. We had class for a few hours on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and we have a few projects to finish by Easter Weekend. The weekend consisted of walking through different Italian neighborhoods (we took the A Line all the way to Porta Furba, and I know that means nothing to most of you, but it’s like, really far away from campus), eating gelato, taking pictures of street art, and more walking. It was really interesting to see all the street art scattered everywhere throughout the city, and how wide the range was. Some of it was legal, most of it was not, some art covered entire buildings, some art was commissioned for beautification. All of it held a story, or a message, or a feeling. We visited museums, and we got to visit the apartment of a modern artist! The weekend was made so much better by the fact that I got a credit for roaming Rome and looking at art. Seems like a good deal to me, I’d do it again.
Before I get into that weekend, I’ll tell you about Wednesday morning. The station church was San Paolo fuori de Mura, or St. Paul’s Outside the Walls. Maura and I were super excited about this church because of it’s reputation, but our problem was the location. It’s outside the city walls (hence the name), so it took some time to get there. I booked a taxi for 06:00 and set my alarm for 05:15 the night before. Unfortunately, I fell asleep while picking the song to wake up to, and I never actually set it (this is not the first time this has happened)… So, I wake up to my phone ringing, I answer, and all I hear is loud Italian and I really don’t know how to respond and I’m still groggy from literally just waking up and so all I say is “English” and he kinda stops, and then says “address!!” really loudly so I say Via Nazareth 400 but he doesn’t understand me and keeps saying “what number” and I keep telling him 400 because I don’t know how to say 400 in Italian so this guy is yelling at me because he’s probably driving around aimlessly and I’m hopping around my room trying to put tights on yelling 400 into my phone at six am all the while receiving frantic texts from Maura because she’s been waiting for 15 minutes in the lobby but I can’t tell her what my deal is because the taxi driver still doesn’t know where to go SO to make this long story short, it was a stressful morning. It may have been the worst wake-up call ever. But it’s fine. I hung up and literally called another taxi, who got us to the metro station, which then got us to San Paolo with time to spare. Exactly three minutes to spare!
Anyway, the morning was really great after that, and I really enjoyed seeing the church. The mosaic is beautiful, and probably my favorite that I’ve seen. Which is saying a lot, because I’ve seen many a mosaic in my day. There’s also mosaics of every single pope since Peter, including Pope Frances, which is pretty cool! The church is built on Paul’s burial site, and inside the church are the chains that were said to have held him prisoner in Rome. So, pretty cool. Maura and I were also invited to a breakfast at the neighboring seminary, so we had bread and coffee with Deacon Josh. We met the two other seminarians who sat next to us, one from Liverpool and one from New South Wales!
That morning we also got to meet our Italian partners, who are high schoolers that will be completing a project with us for Intercultural Awareness. My partner’s name is Francesco and he’s very nice! There’s a very tangible awkwardness, though, because I don’t speak any Italian and his English isn’t the best. Our interactions have made me thankful for google translate and an even deeper appreciation for bilinguals.
We also had our Caput Mundi class in the forum, which was amazing, as always.
So, that weekend was our Modern Art class. It was taught by Fabio Benicasa, who is one of the Italian professors on campus and also happens to be one of the coolest, most laid-back people I have ever met. He took us around the city, showing us the coolest and most obscure things, stopping every so often to share some knowledge nuggets and have us take pictures.
On Friday, we visited the Ostiense district in Rome. Our first stop was an underpass where graffiti was legalized, so we got to see some cool art. Art in these places was often higher quality, because the artists had more time to create it. (They weren’t running from the police.) We also saw an entire building covered with murals, and even though it’s illegal, the police did not bother the artist for three years while he completed his work. It’s very well respected in the neighborhood, so it’s stayed untouched and beautiful since it’s creation.
(Fabio asked us to take a selfie with our favorite character on the wall, of course I chose the astronaut)
We got gelato at a really nice place in Ostiense and for lunch we went to Eataly, a gigantic market/restaurant/store and we got pasta with buffalo mozzarella. This was the first time I consciously ate buffalo mozzarella, and I have to say, it isn’t my favorite. We walked around a little bit after lunch, and then met up with the other modern class at MACRO (Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma, a modern art museum). Fabio works at MACRO, so we got a behind-the-scenes tour of the rooms where artists will create exhibits. There was no art that we actually saw in the museum, but it was really interesting to hear about what goes into planning and creating an exhibit. After the MACRO, we had one more stop, which was the studio apartment of a young artist. He invited the bunch of us to his work space, where we saw completed, half-completed, and just-started works of art. He showed us his mood boards and explained how and why he got into modern art. It was a really cool experience to see that kind of thing first hand, and as soon as the visit was over, class ended. It was a long day but we got to see so much, and everything was so interesting. Our assignment that night was to watch a documentary on street art called “Exit Through the Gift Shop”. It’s directed by Banksy, and it’s about this guy Thierry who started filming street artists and eventually became one himself, called Mr. Brainwash. I actaully fell alsepp during the film so I’m really not entirely sure the details, but when I woke up everyone hated Thierry, and I think he turned out to be a bit of a dirtbag.
The next day we went to an area called Tor Marancia, and we walked through a neighborhood with each building painted by a different artist. Each mural was unique and beautiful, and created such a personality for the neighborhood.
Our next stop for the day was the Museo dell’Altro e dell’Altrove di Metropoliz, or MAAM (Museum of the Other and the Elsewhere of Metropoliz). This was the weirdest place I’ve ever been to, and it doubled as a refugee/squatter home for about 200 residents. The art inside was abstract, and it made you think and made you uncomfortable. There were a few things I did enjoy looking at, but mostly I wanted to leave… especially because our professor prefaced our visit with “so, a bunch of rats and cats might be running around”. We did take some group pictures, though. Those were nice.
Sunday was our last class, and we walked and walked and walked. We went to one of Fabio’s favorite restaurants in Pigneto, and ended the day with more walking! We got to see so much of the city and the city’s art, and I’m actually really glad that I took this class!! I earned a credit for sightseeing and taking pictures, basically. It was a good weekend!
Our second and final academic excursion was to Southern Italy, and we went to Capri, Paestum, Campagna, and Pompeii. We left early on Friday morning to arrive in Naples around noon, then took a ferry past Mount Vesuvius to the beautiful island of Capri! We only had a few hours to spend on the island, so we made priorities: lunch, lemon soap, limoncello, and hand-made waffle cones. And maybe if we had time, some sightseeing! We did everything on our list, and we had a really few hours walking around and taking it all in.
We had lunch with a beautiful view, overlooking the city down below and the Tyrrhenian Sea. The gelateria served hand-made waffle cones, and the gelato itself was some of the best I had! (If I was going by just the cone, this place would make my top three gelaterias.) I loved being right on the water, and hopefully one day I’ll go back to Capri and spend more than three hours there!!
(We found postcards that actually resembled the Capri we saw! The weather was didn’t match, but we still counted it as a super win.)
Our next stop was a buffalo mozzarella farm, which was seriously so much fun! We got to see where the water buffalos lived and did their thing, and then we got to try some super fresh buffalo mozzarella and spend our money on some buffalo goods. Everyone got gelato or a cappuccino, and I heard really great things about both. I got pudding, which was probably the best pudding I’ve even eaten. We took pictures with the buffalos and explored the farm, and it was so cool to see. (In all honestly though, I don’t like buffalo mozzarella. It’s kinda gross.) Other people also bought buffalo leather purses, which were super luxurious.
After the mozzarella farm we explored the town of Paestum, which is the site of several ancient Greek temples. There were three that we got to see, and one we got to go into! It was really great to see temples so different from Roman temples for a change. Plus, the architecture is super incredible. My Caput Mundi professor was my tour guide, and so the whole day was very informational (my favorite)!!
We ended the day in the small town of Campagna. We visited a Holocaust Museum that had a completely different atmosphere than any other I’ve experienced. The museum shared the story of Giovanni Palatucci, who saved the lives of countless Jews. There was a concentration camp in Campagna, but it was different from most because no one ever died there. We heard a story that the Jews who were hiding in the mountains surrounding Campagna saw a bomb dropped on the town, and even though they risked being sent to death camps, they came back to help the Italians that had imprisoned them. It was an emotional experience for many, and we took our time walking through the halls of the museum.
That night we had a fancy dinner at our hotel, and we were all told to wear our Sunday best. The speechies in Rome finally took a picture together!
The next day we had the morning to learn about and explore Pompeii!! I’ve noticed that none of my mental images of places have been even been remotely correct, and the same thing is true about my visit to Pompeii. I don’t think I’ve ever seen pictures or anything, because it was nothing like I expected. Honestly, though, I don’t really know what I expected. It was a lot bigger than I thought! It was so cool to be walking through history and seeing the same buildings that the Pompeiians in 79 saw. It was the coolest experience, especially because we had a guided tour, so we learned all about the city in addition to actually seeing the ancient ruins. We also got to see the famous casts of the bodies, which are pretty chilling.
It’s been quite the whirlwind of school and work and Rome since coming back after spring break, and it’s crazy to think the semester is more than half over. It still seems like I just got here. I’ve been so many places and seen so many things, and there’s still so much I haven’t done! I haven’t even been inside the Colosseum! Or the Borghese Gallery! I haven’t even seen the Sistine Chapel!!
It’s really hard to believe I only a few more weeks in this place.
Ciao ciao,
Ally
Allison Julia 
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