Hurrah, finally a post that's on time! It's been a rainy weekend which has been perfect for sitting at home nursing a stupid tummy/headache combo and not feeling bad about being a couch potato. As exciting as it is to be in a new country, this is now "home" at least until May, and I've realized that I don't always have to be in go-go-go mode and do everything and stay out all day taking in the sights. It's nice to just sit back and relax and catch up on three weeks worth of blog posts both on here and for my internship blog, though now I feel as though I've spent the entire weekend writing which makes me not so excited about class tomorrow.

This week wasn't filled with too many exciting ventures on my own. On Tuesday the Renaissance Art class went on site visits to Basilica di Santa Maria Sopra Minerva next to the Pantheon to learn about the chapel of Cardinal Carafa (later known as Pope Paul III) and the significance of the friezes covering the walls, including the idealized view of historical figures intermixed with people of importance of the time (including Pope Sixtus IV who we learned about at the castle and Cardinal Carafa himself). It was also interesting to note the abundance of books shown in the frescoes, carved into the altar, inlaid in the marble floor, and even shown amongst the sibyls on the ceiling. I unfortunately arrived sans camera, but this would have been the perfect opportunity to snap some shots seeing as our professor went under-the-table (a.k.a. gave one of the men working in the church a little tip) to get us a two-hour block of time to sit inside the gated chapel with the frescoes illuminated (he joked that that's how you do business with the mafia... Not sure to what degree he was joking).

Thursday was another site visit in which we started out by discussing the architecture of Palazzo Venezia and how the renaissance period was devoted to bringing back the all'antica style, paying strict attention to geometric patterns and building everything with mathematic precision. We also walked down what used to be Via Papalis (now mostly Via Vittorio Emanuele II) that connected the Vatican to the Capitoline Hill for the newly elected Pope to travel to make his first public appearance after being chosen by the Holy Ghost, and arrived at Palazzo della Cancelleria, the first renaissance palace built in Rome. The Roman columns on the exterior (as marked by decorative columns outside of the arches) contrast with the Florentine columns on the interior (where the columns actually hold up the arches), and the use of different stones such as the priceless Egyptian porphyry (used by the Popes to indicate power descending from the depths of time) in the courtyard were things I never would have noticed before. We ended our tour at Palazzo Farnese, now the French embassy, where we could see Michelangelo's sculpture technique very much integrated into his architectural design. As our professor said, anything Michelangelo touched came alive with human-like movement including the "kneeling" windows and the masterfully crafted crest with the papal crown above the grand door facing the piazza. The amount of power symbolized through architecture, sculpture, and things that these people owned in the Cinquecento is incredible. According to our professor the two fountains in Piazza Farnese are actually bathtubs taken from the ancient baths of Caracalla, and it was supposed to show the transfer of power and money through the ages, manifesting in the Farnese family's immense wealth and power as materialized in their palazzo, garden, statue and art collection (now mostly in Naples), and view overlooking the Tiber and into their villa across the way. It's hard to wrap my mind around the idea that there was a time when these buildings were actually in use as people's houses and these ancient figures existed, living and breathing and carrying on with their noble business.

Taking a step back from ancient Rome (literally), my friend and I decided to explore the neighborhood of Monti which is located behind the ancient forums and up the hill from the Colosseum on Thursday, which is where most of the photos in this post are from. Monti is an adorable area filled with lively shops and cafes, flower vendors on the streets, hipster art galleries and little boutiques, and the most gorgeous street views at the golden hour right before sunset. We even managed to stumble upon a Space Invader put up by the famous Invader himself when he came to Rome (that's the fifth real one I've seen here!), and some cool quirks like the charred door -- the aftermath of an unfortunate fire, but now an interesting piece of city life. On our way back to Trastevere for some ahhhmazing pizza (I think Dar Poeta is my new favorite pizza place alongside Il Fornaio and Pizzarium) we ran into some commotion in front of the ancient forum leading into Piazza Venezia. It seemed to be some sort of protest against cruelty towards immigrants in Italy (from what we could pick up in our broken Italian). Being the Berkeley students we are and used to seeing sights like these we couldn't help but stick around to see what would happen. It was slightly concerning that there was a blockade of police trucks and men in riot gear preventing the protestors from advancing into the traffic in Piazza Venezia, but I was just perplexed at the fact that this movement was occurring with the Colosseum in the background. It really shows that while antiquity is what gives Rome its power and fame, there are real problems that exist for its current inhabitants and it's not just the idealized eternal city that everyone comes to see. The protest was filled with mostly a lot of chanting and singing, a drum line, some people speaking into microphones about how "The people are the solution and the government is the problem," and some vandals spray painting "Terrorista è lo stato (The terrorist is the state)" and the A in the circle as a symbol for anarchy on some plastic construction barriers. It seemed that a lot of people on the outside were, like us, merely curious to see what was going on, but when we decided to leave the police cars were backing up the blockade so they may have entered into the main piazza to further protest. I tried looking up information about it online later that night but nothing seemed to match what we had witnessed, which was very strange and surreal.

Wow, I guess I did have a pretty exciting week even though it feels like I did less than usual. Not to mention I finally Skyped with Robs (who threatened that I better post about it on the blog... Hope you like the picture, hehe!) which was a lovely time and a breath of fresh air talking to someone about Berkeley things and feeling like I was back in normal life again (because I still can't believe I'm living in Italy right now...). Since I've spent the past three days seriously lazing around I promise myself that I'll get out more this week! My fellow intern and I are planning on going to see a cool exhibit done by one of the artists we are working with, which is supposedly an underground series of tunnels commissioned to some artists every few months to re-paint in their styles. Gio Pistone does colorful monster-creature things, so apparently the walkway is filled with these abstract paintings until mid-March. I'm pretty excited to see it, as it'll be the second actual exhibit I'll be going to via internship opportunities. Otherwise, I hope the rain lets up so I can get back into my adventurous spirit and make up for all the sleeping I've done and cookies I've eaten this weekend.