Tuesday, July 7th

Today was the last day in Rome before our trip to Florence! We started out with a group presentation in Mona's class about Babette's Feast. Anand, Maggie, C'Havala, and Nikhil brought up some interesting points and questions about the story and movie. Though some of us were a little tired and worn out by the heat (I didn't know it was possible to get so hot in the morning...), we had a great discussion centered around the report!

After a long break, we moved right on to the bloody and violent world of Sacrifice! So Mona got out the lamb and we gathered round it in the seminar room.... No, just kidding. We merely transitioned from talking about the Gift to learning about Sacrifice, but that does not make it any less interesting! Sacrifice is in many ways a much more provocative topic than the Gift, since it is intertwined with both religion and violence. We discussed the origins of Sacrifice and the implications of its violence in religion and human nature. The whole class was both very thought-provoking and controversial, which is a good mix in my opinion!

After an hour's break, we met up at the portone for Lisa's class! We set off right away to the Jewish Ghetto, where Devin told us all the difficulties the Jews had to go through in Rome. Pope Paul IV segregated the Jews into this tiny quarter of Rome in 1555, and they were forced to live there until 1870! It was almost heart-breaking to walk down the dark, narrow streets, see the conversion churches, and then to hear about the emptying of the Jewish Ghetto by the Nazis during World War II! Definitely a darker part of Rome's history. Here is Devin relating the story to the group:


Next, we hiked up to Il Fontanone for Maggie's presentation! The ginormous fountain marks the end of the Aqua Paola, an ancient aqueduct restored by Pope Paul V to bring water to the peoples of Rome! We discussed the use of water as propoganda--by building the fountain, Pope Paul V both gained support from the people and plastered his name everywhere (the symbols for the Borghese are all over the fountain). We took a big group picture in front of the epic fountain, and I even dangled my feet in it!


Afterward, Lisa took a group of us girls out dress shopping. We tried on a ton of dresses and had quite the fashion show. We were planning on getting about 20 dresses between all of us and getting a group discount. However, when we got to the counter the cashier refused to give us any money off! Disgruntled and disappointed, we all put our dresses back and left the store to teach him a lesson. We decided to end the trip on a positive note with gelato at Giolitti's, though!

We then retired to our separate apartments to get ready for our trip to Florence! Yay!