Wednesday 2-24-2010

Today we started bright and early as we continued to discover who Caravaggio was a man, artist, and historical figure. Our walk began with a tour outside of a closed church in which a Caravaggio painting was held. Although we weren’t able to see the painting inside, we had an interesting discussion about the life and crimes of the artist. We were also fortunate because the church that we were standing outside of was right next to a palace in which Caravaggio lived for a period of his life.



Following our discussion we headed over to the Caravaggio exhibit. We hiked up a steep hill and found ourselves standing at the top of Rome, right next to the President of Italy’s residence. After a brief wait, we found ourselves inside the museum and it couldn’t have been more reminiscent of who Caravaggio was. The walls that housed the paintings were a very dark red and the halls were very dimly lit with the exceptions of the light on the paintings themselves. We were able to explore painting after painting, with a description of the piece of art and some historical information to go along with it. After viewing two floors of his paintings we were greeted by a fantastic view of Rome on our way out the exit. The exhibit was fantastic and even Caravaggio himself would have been happy with the way in which his paintings were displayed.



Once we were done with our break we headed to Italian class with some questions prepared for Fede. We had a discussion in order to touch up on what we were confused about in preparation for the final we have coming up next Wednesday. It was definitely one of the most helpful days that we have had thus far, plus we had the chance to invite Fede to our group dinner we would be celebrating that night.

We arrived at 6:30 to a potluck in Julie’s apartment. We we’re greeted with potatoes, burgers, hot dogs, polenta, pizza and a number of other fantastic foods to choose from. First and foremost we were there to celebrate Julie’s daughter Isabelle’s tenth birthday, which we most definitely did. Secondly, we we’re there to get squared away on our trip to Naples the next morning. After handing out the itinerary we went over a couple of items (what to bring, when to leave, etc.) and then headed back to our apartments for a short night of sleep.