Wednesday, February 3rd

We started the day with Art History as we crossed the Ponte Sisto to Trastevere so that Sijia could lead our discussion of the Villa Farnesina. It was here that we learned all about the extravagance and showmanship that went into Augustino Chigi's entertaining of foreign royalty and the Pope himself. I think we all could take a few pointers from him, like how we could throw our gold place settings into the river... as long as we think ahead to lay out a net to catch them.

Inside this pleasure palace of the Chigi family we were introduced to several beautifully preserved Renaissance frescoes (some painted by the rock star of the Renaissance, Raphael) depicting the romances of the Roman Gods including the tale of Cupid and Psyche. The paintings allowed us to show off our skills at identifying Gods, Emperors and signs of the zodiac; some of us more than others.

Once we had had our fill of the opulence of the palazzo, we all went our seperate ways until we met back up for an hour of Italian class with Fede.

After that, we moved into the conference room of the Rome center for a special viewing of the film "Nuovomondo" or "The Golden Door" followed up by a question and answer session with none other than the writer/director Emanuele Ciralese himself. The film itsself was mesmerizing, with a blend of magical realism and historical fiction to tell the story of a family of sicilian emigrants who come to Ellis Island at the turn of the century.

During the discussion afterward we were completely enamored with Ciralese, whose charm and charisma oozed out of every story he told. We also were pleasantly surprised to find that he had a very poiniant point of view on the issues and themes we have been discussing in Julie's class, including Italian amnesia, immigration, identity, and discrimination. All in all it was an illuminating discussion of both social issues and the process of filmmaking that we would have missed had the film not been mandatory. I guess our teachers really do know what's good for us.