Monday February 15th

Already week seven! These past six weeks have absolutely flown by. Every day has been a new adventure and a new lesson. In fact, almost every day so far has been packed with activities –class, visiting Rome, various projects, writing assignments, readings, eating, exploring, and planning presentations. It’s been fantastic but I also think that I speak for all of us when I say that a slower, more relaxed day like today was welcome.

Only two classes today: Introduction to Baroque Art in the Conference room (one of very few in-house lectures given by Lisa) and Italian language class. In Italian, we learned some grammar, hotel vocabulary, how to book rooms, and how to make the receptionist aware of problems. For example, “l’acqua calda non funziona” and “posso avere ancora una coperta.” Both of these would have been useful in the past, especially when dealing with the jolly man who fixed our heat every other day but couldn’t understand a word we said! In the future, I’m sure he will appreciate our new Italian phrases.

In Lisa’s class, we learned about Baroque Art. Since today was less strenuous and eventful than most, here is a quick review on the major tenets of Baroque Art with fun pictures from past adventures in Italy to help you remember

1. New Subject Matter: landscape, portraiture, still life, scenes of every-day life
(below is a picture of Carisa, Steph, and Lauren doing arts and crafts (in a scene of every-day life) in honor of the olympics. Picture of the finished product to be expected later in the week)


2. Deep Interest in Psychology: Passions of the heart
(below is a picture, a still-life, of our Valentines Day treat made by Erika. Thanks Erika!)


3. Concerns with Space
(below is a picture of Sijia, staring off into space. Actually, she is looking up at a Baroque style ceiling that is painted to look like it goes higher than it actually does)


4. Preoccupations with Time
(below is a picture of an hourglass taken in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, indicative of time)


5. Expressive use of Light
(below is a picture of Florence at night. lots of light. beautiful)



Of course, there was cooking and eating delicious treats before, after, and in between the classes! Mostly, we just took it slow. Different sets of people went on walks, explored their rione, worked on their projects, and quite a few of us grabbed gelato for an evening dessert. I don’t think we could ever grow tired of gelato! The day ended with everybody watching the Olympics and working on upcoming projects.

Ciao!
Alexis and Teo