Rome Revisited

We've been back in Rome now for 5 days and it already feels like home again. We've surprised ourselves as a class at how well we feel we can navigate a foreign city after such a short amount of time spent here.

My research partner, Kassi, and I finally got to present on the Borghese family and Gianlorenzo Bernini's artwork on Thursday (see Lynn's photo upload below). The Galleria Borghese was (not surprisingly) my favorite Italian museum. The knowledge I gained during my research on the family and their patronage of artists and the familial connection with the church made touring the galleria more valuable because I comprehended much more of what I was looking at.

However, yesterday's Vatican Scavi, Saint Peter's Basilica and museum tour were a close second. Stepping into the Vatican City was a surreal experience, and I think I was the last person in the museum that day. Kyle, Alyssa and I particularly enjoyed the contemporary art exhibit- something I wasn't expecting from the Vatican Museum. I wrote down a bunch of the artists to look into when I get home because I liked the work so much. There were so many tour groups in walking around that I was able to eavesdrop and get some free information about some of the frescoes in the Hall of Constantine that made me appreciate the artwork even more. Stepping into the Sistine Chapel has probably been the highlight of the week so far. ( And I feel so lucky to be able to say that last week the highlight was touring Pompeii, another incredible experience) I studied Raphael's work in high school art history courses but it was still jarring to see them in person. I was taken aback by the size- in my mind it was this larger than life church but it was really just a quaint chapel that happened to be covered in some of the world's most iconic paintings.

Today we saw the Victor Emanuelle Monument and the Risorgimento Museum. Inside there was an exhibit of flags of Italy which was interesting to see the history of their flag- which was particularly relevant to the theme of the day " The emergence of Italy". I personally found this interesting to contrast to the United States especially because America's flag has been edited so many times to accommodate different states in our "emergence". You were able to take a walking tour around the terrace that had beautiful views of Rome and short explanations of it's architecture.

I can't believe tomorrow is our last full day in Rome! I'm excited to start getting into more contemporary history when we talk about fascist Rome. Will report back tomorrow! Ciao!