Return of the Prodigal Blogger?

Ciao tutti!

I have officially realized that I am a horrendous blogger, as it has been at least 25 days since my first post. This is obviously a sign of my woeful commitment issues. As for life here in Roma, if you think a ton happened in just the first three days of the semester, the next three weeks have been full of even more excitement, weekend trips, and amazing sights! If I explained everything in minute detail (like I desperately want to), this blog would probably swell to beyond novel-length; so, I'll just recap things in a nutshell to get you all caught up on my whirlwind romance with the Eternal City :)

Here's a summary of my schedule for Monday-Thursdays. No Friday classes=extra day for TRAVELING :D


Monday Class Schedule

-5.15PM: Philosophy of Art and Beauty

yep, you read that correctly--my first and only class on Mondays is at 5.15 in the afternoon. oh, it's sweet not being a freshman with 8.30AM classes every single day anymore.


Tuesday/Thursday Class Schedule
-9AM: History of Modern Europe II: The Age of Imperialism (aka AP US History from a European perspective)

-10.30AM: Italian Conversation and Composition. I thank Alessia and Patrizio daily for giving us more than we could handle back in the days of Intensive classes, because this one is just the same. *sigh*

-2.15PM: Public International Law. My professor is a Harvard Law grad, therefore, there are hundreds of pages of reserved reading, intense debates, and general tossing around of esoteric political theories left and right (although I prefer to think of it as more of an avalanche). In spite of these things, however, this class is causing me to seriously consider a career path in international law, and it makes me wish I were a political science major....because then I'd actually have some idea of what's going on in this class.

Wednesday Class Schedule
-1.30 to 4PM: Politics and Power in Roman Architecture from Augustus to Mussolini. This class involves walking around the Circus Maximus, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, as well as a million other awesome Roman monuments and churches spanning from ancient/medieval/Renaissance/Baroque Rome to Fascist Rome in 1945. It's blissful!!

-Again, 5.15PM: Philosophy of Art and Beauty


**Each day ends with an hour-long walk with friends back to Medaglie d'Oro, where we prepare exquisite roommate dinners, often paired with our staple dessert: nutella and biscotti**


***Another sidenote: at the end of our third week here, our room of 7 is currently on its 11th, yes, 11th jar of nutella. And this one is dangerously close to being empty***


As for weekend trips, I've been to Florence, Lake Como, and Milan. The second weekend here we spent in Milan and Lake Como. Now, Milan isn't exactly what it's cracked up to be, although the Duomo is absolutely magnificent, and the Teatro della Scala really is as fantastic as it appears in pictures. Lake Como, on the other hand, was a breath of fresh air after the frenetic pace of city life we had been so used to over the past couple weeks!


The day after getting back from Milan, I experienced a windfall of epic proportions--only it had nothing to do with money. Oh no, it was something wayyy more important than that. Silvio Ciampi, the eloquent, grandfatherly owner of Ciampi's Pianoforti down by the Piazza Risorgimento (basically next-door to the Vatican), granted me permission to use the pianos in his store to practice on! And, he gave me the key to his store so I can go practice whenever I want. I was floored, to say the least! I mean, you'd never hear of that happening in America, and this man didn't even know me. And yet, he was completely trusting....there are very good reasons why I favor the Italian people over Americans sometimes. They're so much more expressive, they're quick to argue, absolutely ridiculous, incredibly kind, and although a lot of Americans get frustrated with the Italian lifestyle, which seems to have no direction....it makes perfect sense to me. :)

The next weekend trip was to Florence (Firenze, in Italian). This city was the home of the great Medici family, who ushered in the glorious Italian Renaissance by attracting artists like Alberti, Brunelleschi, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Donatello, Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi. It is the domain of the magnificent Duomo, Santa Maria del Fiore, the city of Michelangelo's David, and the famous Uffizi Gallery...we went to Latin Mass in the Duomo, climbed to the Piazzale Michelangelo, the highest point in the city, window-shopped on the Ponte Vecchio at night, and had the most amazing dinner at a thoroughly Italian neighborhood restaurant called Il Latini....

Anyway, my goal for this post was to have it up before I left for my Philosophy of Art and Beauty class, so here you go!!! Hopefully I can overcome these commitment issues and start posting on a somewhat regular basis....

Vi amo,
Laura