Saturday evening's get-together went well! The guys were just starting cooking when we all arrived (!) and it took a while and ten people in the kitchen to get it all worked out, but in the end it was delicious: fruit salad, caprese salad, bread, pasta and gnocchi, tomato sauce, fried rice, seafood melange with vegetables, and watermelon and tarts for dessert. There was more than enough food for everyone (especially fried rice), and we were all stuffed at the end. Later, several of us went to Magnolia to watch the 3rd place World Cup game, and Germany won (no surprise there, really).
Sunday we spent mostly working on our projects - one final push! In the evening, my roommates and I went to a bar in our neighborhood to watch the final World Cup game! The first half was not very exciting at all, but the second half was intense. When it went into overtime, we got a little excited because we hoped that it would end with a shootout. But it didn't; Spain won (hooray for Spain). We saw the waiter from Magnolia at the bar; we said hi, and he recognized us. =)
On Monday morning, we headed out to St. Peter's basilica and piazza. We'd seen a bit of the piazza when we left the Vatican museums, but this time we were actually going inside. The piazza itself is quite amazing and very large; I can only imagine how it must feel when it's filled with people to see the pope (you can see the pope's apartment's window!). There's also a really cool effect that you get when you stand at a specific spot in the piazza. The colonnade is four columns deep, and most of the time you can see them all; but when you stand at a certain spot, all the columns line up and it looks like a single row of columns - really awesome!
After a presentation, we entered the basilica. I think my eyes almost popped out of their sockets, it is that much more amazing than any church I have been in before, even Notre Dame. Notre Dame was impressive in a very old, noble, peaceful way. St. Peter's is in-your-face glory (of course, this is considering that it's always packed full of people). We had to use headsets in order to hear Lisa over all the people. One cool thing was that photos were permitted, whereas they usually aren't in churches! This is because St. Peter's has NO paintings (o.o), just mosaics, which is really incredible. A lot of the mosaics look so much like paintings that you have to get within a few feet before you realize that they're not paintings. The baldacchino is also amazing, a monumental bronze canopy for the pope when he presides over mass. There's always more to say about St. Peter's but I'll leave that for later.
When we got back to the Rome Center, it was time for presentations for Kathie's class! My group presented, and it went very well! We went a little bit over on time, but otherwise it was smooth. We all knew our parts, and Kathie really seemed to like our articles and ideas. Now to finish the magazine itself...On Tuesday, Professor Kasaba gave us an introduction to Istanbul and what to expect. We're staying in the dorms at the university (there's also a high school, where Kasaba went to school himself!), north of the main city. We're landing at an airport on the Asian side, and busing to the university. I had no idea that Istanbul was so BIG - 12 million people, compared with Rome's 2.5 million! Of course, it is a considerably spread-out city as well. We're going to be eating very well, and I'm so excited! It'll be awesome, and more like a vacation than the last four weeks, I think. After the lecture, we listened to more migration presentations for Kathie's class. All of the presentations were really excellent, and I learned quite a bit, too.
On Wednesday, we had a really packed day. We started by walking to the church of Santa Maria della Pace near Piazza Navona for Sarah's presentation (a cute, peaceful little church), and heard about Rome's talking statues (places for criticism of the pope). We had to hurry though, because we needed to get back for presentations in Professor Kasaba's class! All five groups had to present in two hours (but it really turned into three hours). Most were very good, and Professor Kasaba seemed impressed with our topics: ultramarine pigment (ours), couscous/risotto, coffee, medical knowledge/institutions, and decorative glass. Thank goodness that's done with (except for the paper...).
After lunch, we reassembled for another art history class. We walked to Piazza Navona to talk about Bernini's famous Fountain of the Four Rivers (super cool!) and the Palazzo Pamphilj, now the Brazilian embassy. We went into the Church of St. Agnes next door (a very free-feeling church - small, shaped like a Greek cross with a very high dome, Baroque and ornate but not over-done). Finally, we walked over to Bernini's elephant obelisk, by the Pantheon, to talk about obelisks in Rome as signs of papal power and signs for pilgrims. Lisa treated us to gelato afterward (I've noticed we've been eating a lot less gelato lately. I think this is less because we have lost the taste for it as that we've been spending lots of time working on our projects) at a cute little place near the Pantheon (not quite as good as Gelato del Teatro, which she introduced us to before).Since we were out of food to cook and we didn't want to get more (since we're leaving on Friday), my apartment-mates and I decided to go out to dinner. When we'd been walking around looking for a place to watch the World Cup, we'd seen this ever-crowded, cheap, good-looking restaurant not too far away, so we tried it out. I got gnocchi with pesto and it was tasty.
I had panna cotta with berry sauce for dessert. The panna was OK but kind of tasteless, but the sauce was both sweet and slightly sour and oh-so-tasty. I tried to eat every last drop. All-in-all, the restaurant was a success. If we had more time, we'd probably try it again.This morning (Thursday), we had our last art history class (gasp)! We walked to the Villa Farnesina, in Trastevere. It's a palace that was constructed by a Chigi banker named Agostino, but was later bought by the Farnese when the Chigi lost their money (hence the Farnesina name). It's a cute little country villa, not too large and tastefully decorated. The ceilings of the rooms are beautifully frescoed, some by Raphael himself. I would totally spend a few weeks in a house like that during the summer, frolicking in the gardens and having fabulous dinner parties.
This afternoon, we cleaned our apartment thoroughly for our imminent apartment-check by our landlord. If I do say so myself, it looks very nice! I am now resolutely NOT working on my migration or Islamic cities papers/projects (there's no need - we have until the end of July, and I can't bring myself to do it right now), and blogging instead. Tonight, we're having a group dinner; Lisa is taking us to Pierluigi, which she says is one of the best restaurants in Rome. I'll let you know how it is; I'm anticipating it impatiently. I can't believe we leave Rome tomorrow - it seems like a very short time since we moved in! Yet I'm glad to be going home, too.
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