Rome and Lucca!

Hello All!

Two nights ago, the students split into two groups in Florence--some wanted the chance to do free time and others attended Shakespeare's Macbeth, presented in the courtyard of the Bargello, a Florentine museum of Renaissance statuary in a theatre-on-the-round format.  Our students sat on pillows in the front of the audience, so the action was right before our eyes! The play was highly physical, sword-fighting was high intensity and the three witches were portrayed as vulgar and animalian with other-wordly costumes.  Afterwards, the group made sure to take pictures with the actors that played MacDuff and Lady Macbeth (I will post these as soon as I am back in Florence).  As the play was presented by the American Cultural Association, we were lucky to have a play presented in English with Italian subtitles projected onto the brick wall behind the actors.

Then, yesterday the group split in two, with twenty students and three staff members heading to Rome, and fourteen students and three staff members remaining in Florence.

Today I am in Rome, with Antonio and Stefano, and Giovanna, Lindsay, and William are on a day-trip to Lucca with those who remained in Florence.  Although I do not have any pictures of the Lucca trip today, I promise that I will be posting many photos that those students and staff took when I am back in Florence on Sunday evening.  

I have checked in with many students and the staff in Florence, and they're having a great time. Yesterday the Florence students enjoyed an afternoon at the pool (apparently it was just the ticket, as it was quite humid in Florence, and the water was a perfect temperature to keep the students cool) and the Ferragamo Museum (the Mecca of stylish shoes--did you know Ferragamo provided shoes to the lovely American starlets of the 1940s and 50s?). Then, last night the group went to a Renaissance Dinner (something similar to Medieval Times in the States) which Giovanna said was a riot and the students ate and were merry, like the Florentines back in the Rinascimento.  These photos and more stories will follow when I'm back in Florence!

As for the group in Rome, yesterday morning we boarded the chartered bus to Rome, and three hours later we checked into our hotel, a lovely little albergo right outside the Campo dei Fiori (a piazza called Field of Flowers) in the center Rome.  

Stefano, our native Italian and an inhabitant of Rome for many years, gave us a tour of incredible and little-known churches.  We saw an Egyptian obelisk, Roman ruins, and the Church of San Clemente, which had a beautiful mosaic depicting Christ surrounded by grape vines and birds of paradise.  The group descended under the Church of San Clemente into a dark, damp cavern filled with marble artifacts, and a pagan altar, where pagans once performed rituals and sacrifices.  It was spooky--but it was no coincidence that it was directly underneath the church.  In the beginning of Catholicism, as the new Catholic Church sought out converts, they usurped pagan traditions, symbols and meeting places in order to convince more people to join their tradition.  

After this excitement, we went to the Convent of Quattro Cornoni, where the nuns have taken a vow of sequestration, and do not interact with men or the outer world.  In order to enter into their convent (as there you can find the frescoes that depict the history of Saint Nicolas), we had to ring a bell and a nun spoke through a small hole in the wall.  In order to make our donation to enter, as the nuns cannot touch our hands, we had to place the money on a rotating wheel, which disappeared to the room behind the wall.  That was certainly a new experience for me!  These nuns offer hospice to women and children in need.  After we had seen the frescoes, the group enjoyed the evening vespers in the adjacent church, where the nuns sang out several evening songs.  Many of the students told me they felt as though they were in a trance, and were very "chilled out" following the vespers.

As a cherry on the top of this already grand tour, we visited a large church (o dio, I forget the name) made in the 16th century to rival that of St. Peter's Cathedral.  Outside, we passed by a long staircase where pilgrims come to pay their respects to god by climbing these many stairs on their knees!  Our students gawked and asked: wouldn't that hurt?  On marble stairs?  That's faith, I suppose.

We made our way to a pizzeria in Piazza Navona, where we ate in the open air, and then enjoyed an evening people watching in the Piazza (although, many students went back to the hotel, tuckered out after our grand tour).

Today, the group in Florence has taken a day trip to Lucca, a small town known for its intact medieval wall surrounding the city center and its delicious food.  Tomorrow this group will visit Bologna, one of the "hippest" cities in Italy, as the University students, the music scene, and the good eats make it an attraction for more Italian tourists than American ones.  They will visit Piazza Maggiore, which is notable for its red brick architecture.  These photos to follow!

As for the Roman students, we woke at dawn to beat the heat and Obama to the Vatican!  We did a tour of the Sistine Chapel, the Laacoon statue, and Raffael's fresco, the School of Athens, in which there are representations of Socrates, Aristotle, and portraits of Michelangelo and Raffaelo.  Beautiful.  Now we have had a long lunch and a rest in hotel, and now we're setting off again, to enjoy the late afternoon light at the top of San Gianicolo, and then we'll have our dinner in Trastevere.

Che bella giornata!  

Until tomorrow,

Janet