Wowwwwee, am I behind on updating or what! A little late, but better late than never right? Last week was the week of recovery from break, the first week of core classes (and homework, yippee), and the week of lack of blog posts. I keep meaning to type up all of my notes from Prague but I haven't gotten around to uploading my photos and formulating cohesive sentences but I will get around to it eventually...

Anywho, reality sort of hit when we switched up our schedules for 1.5 hours of Italian in the morning and core classes in the afternoon. I'm taking Sociology of Rome and Renaissance Art in Rome alongside intermediate Italian class, and they seem like very interesting courses. Sociology started out with discussing the life and times of Pier Paolo Pasolini (and his dramatic, tragic death-by-car-running-over-his-head... thanks for the photos on the power point, professor) as we are beginning the semester by reading his novel A Violent Life. It provides a romanticized view of the impoverished youth in Italy and though his prose is not my favorite, the discussions regarding why he was so obsessed with the sub-proletariat brought to light more of the complicated social and political structure of this country. Renaissance Art is officially my favorite class at the moment, even though my hand is always cramped at the end of the 2-hour lecture because there is just so much information. We've learned so much about the Sistine Chapel and Sixtus IV in the first few hours that my brain is swimming with information about the travertine facades of Roman churches and the four paintings at the entrance to the chapel that depict parallel scenes from the Old and New Testament. Our third lecture was a site visit, and we got a private tour of the Castello Odescalchi di Bracciano led by our professor, who casually mentioned that he is personal friends with the princess and therefore can do "basically whatever [he] wants" and took us into locked rooms, over velvet ropes, and even into the princess's private quarters where we sat on her living room couch. In the castle. What. I want to write up a post about my experience in Bracciano, so hopefully that will be up soon!

On Friday after the castle visit and a meeting in Pigneto, Maddie (my friend from Cal who is studying in Bordeaux) came to stay with me for the weekend. We spent Saturday, Sunday, and Monday visiting all of the wonderful sights Rome has to offer (quite literally... we saw Largo di Torre di Argentina, Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere, Piazza Venezia, Il Vittoriano, the Colosseum, Foro Romano, the Palatine, Campo de'Fiori, Piazza Navona, St. Peter's Square and Basilica, the Pantheon, the Trevi fountain, the Spanish Steps, Villa Borghese, Mercato di Porta Portese and Villa Sciarra). She even accompanied me to the opening event for Jacopo Mandich's show Cosmogonie at Galleria VARSI on Saturday night for my internship. Maddie fell in love with the city and it was wonderful being able to go around with her and share all of my favorite things, not to mention participate in some firsts myself such as going inside the Colosseum, Foro Romano, and the Palatine. On Monday night we somehow decided that getting Chinese takeout was a good idea (when in Rome, right?) and took our little boxes of fried rice and stir fried noodles to the Trevi fountain to bask in it's illuminated glory and ate our dinner under the watch of Ocean. It was the perfect ending to a magical weekend taking in all of Rome's best features.

Now it's time to recoup and catch up on all of my reading from the weekend. I'm excited to take some down time and relax, but it's also been SO nice out that I think I will take advantage of the sunshine and make my way to the park to read in the afternoon one of these days. My friend recommended Villa Pamphilj for some great views and a serene environment so I will have to navigate my way back up the hill to pick out my perch and learn all about Italian youth culture through the eyes of Pasolini.