We had our first class at the Rome Center, in the lovely air conditioning (we were already sweating walking to class at 9 in the morning). Today, we had a guest speaker, the author of Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio, Amara Lakhous. He didn't really speak English, though, so we had to talk to him with the help of a translator. It made asking questions a little awkward but what he had to say was really interesting. He was an immigrant from Algiers and has lived in Italy for quite awhile but has only been an Italian citizen for the past two years. His book was based on personal experiences and was actually a really good read. Typical, interesting honors student discussion proceeded for an hour and a half, but, like I said, he at least had interesting things to say.
After class, I had to go get some money for our trip to FLORENCE tomorrow! So exciting. And, as I was walking home, I noticed the coolest giraffe graffiti ever. Italy is full of graffiti (literally, it's on every wall) but this was a super fantastic giraffe. I love giraffes. I also saw two men walking, drinking beer (open containers are totally fine here) with a second empty beer bottle in their hands, at 11:30 this morning. But they weren't as cool as the giraffe so I didn't bother taking a picture.
Anyways, after I got home and had some lunch, we had a little time before our next class. But, we were meeting for our art history class about 10 miles away (well, not really, but it was far) so we had to leave pretty early. We went to the Villa Borghese for class and saw a ridiculous amount of art. Basically, this one guy in the Borghese line had a mild obsession with beautiful pieces of art. He was where Bernini got his start and has the largest art collection ever, almost. He was even in a church once and saw this painting by Raphael that he loved and just had to have and, after the church refused to sell it to him, had it stolen just so he could have it. He even built his villa (Villa Borghese) for the explicit purpose of showing off his art.
Now, normally I am not super excited about paintings and sculptures (I mean, when I was at the Louvre I had checked out after like 20 minutes) and today was no different. The Villa itself was a bit overdone in Baroque style but we got to see Bernini's sculptures and they were amazing. And he was only 19 when he finished his first one! They almost made the hour-long walk in the 90 degree heat worth it. Almost.
We couldn't take pictures in the Villa Borghese (they don't even allow cameras in) so I don't have anything to show you. But google Bernini's sculptures is you want to see what I'm talking about.
After touring the building, it was time for another hour long walk home. At least it was cooler this time. Once we got home, I sat down to write this blog so I don't have much more to say! But it's Molly's birthday tomorrow so we're all going to get gelato tonight, which should be fun. And our train leaves bright and early tomorrow for Florence! Hopefully I will find lots of fantastic things there! I'll be sure to let
you all know how the trip goes.PS. One thing I've noticed about Italy is that all the homeless people have dogs. And these poor puppies have to sit out in the hot sun all day! They have converted some ancient ruins into a cat park, a cat "sanctuary" as they call it. It's basically just a bigger version of the Humane Society's old cat bus, though. Anyways, they should do something like that for the dogs! They just look so hot and sad all the time! I want a puppy!!
