GL 350 Week 4..Hey girl I'm waitin' on ya come on and let me sneak you out

I can’t believe week four has come and gone so quickly. It seems like just yesterday that we arrived in the beautiful city of Rome. After our weekend in London, Monday morning seemed to come a little to early. We had to catch the 8:24 train into Rome to begin our day with a student led tour. Danielle led her tour which was of Aventine Hill. It was really cool because in the beginning of her tour we walked through a dirt patch that used to be used for racing. At the end of her tour we walked into a garden and got a beautiful view of the city. Even though we were miles away from St. Peters Basilica, it still stood out among every thing else in our view. After the tour was over we had class in the gardens, and as usual it was interesting watching the views of by standers who were trying to understand what was going on. 

On Tuesday morning we had another student led walking tour. This time it was Amy J. and Rachel through Piazza Della Rotonda and Piazza Navona. While walking around the first corner of the tour we walked up on the four rivers fountain under the obelisk.  As Muriel Spark says in The Smiles of Rome, “In central Rome you only have to walk down the street and you come to a fountain by Bernini” (p. 231). This is true because you never know what great wonder your going to see when you walk up the street or round a corner. The rivers are represented by people and one of them is blocking their face because they thought the church was going to collapse. We then walked to a bakery shop that had the best cannoli’s in all of Italy, or so I thought. When the tour was over we were headed towards subway only to realize it was closed for maintenance. We had to settle for a little mom and pop pizza place right down the road that turned out to be pleasantly good. After lunch we had another class in Rome in front of a different obelisk. This time we were in many different tourist photos including one of our own.

On Wednesday we had our free day. This time it was spent writing our Soc 490 midterm and doing laundry. Thursday morning Mrs. Mustafaga arrived to campus, just in time to celebrate her birthday! Since professor wanted to greet her at the airport our morning class was postponed and we caught the 10:24 train. After two train rides and a metro ride we finally arrived. We spent the afternoon at the museum of the mind. It was a museum of an old psychiatric hospital so it was pretty cool to see the history in the place. Before we got our tour of the museum we had class across the street since we had time to kill. Thursday night we had our first dinner with Professor’s wife and had Pope cake! It was a surprise to her since she had no idea we planned a party for her birthday.

On Friday morning we headed to Florence. We caught the 7:43 train into Rome and then the 9:15 train toward Florence. It was a beautiful city and frankly the best one yet, besides London. The afternoon was spent with an orientation of the city and then time to explore. Katie and I went on a mission to find a leather shop and ended up walking from one side of the city to the other. After we found what we were after we headed back to the hotel to relax for a while. Around 7:30 we met Danilo in the Lobby so the three of us could head to Hard Rock. Since we’ve been to three Hard Rock’s in different cities since arriving it’s sort of a tradition by now. 

On Saturday we went to an Art museum which was kind of boring but interesting at the same time. It was filled with over twenty rooms filled with paintings and sculptures. When we were done at the museum Katie and I headed towards the Duomo to accomplish the task of climbing to the top. Eight euros and 463 steps later we were looking over the entire city of Florence. It was breathtakingly beautiful and not just because we were over five stories in the air. After the Duomo we went out in search of a leather jacket and ended up in a market full of venders, each one willing to make the right deal for us. When a vender asked us how much we were willing to pay for the jackets and we both said a price without looking at the dealer in the eye. As Barzini says in The Italians, “Italians must always look at each other’s faces. The read in their opponent’s eyes (or catch in his voice and choice of words) the signs of his stubborn decision or hidden timidity” (p.188). Since the dealer knew we hesitated on how much we were willing to pay he asked a higher price than what we offered. 

Now we know that the Italians will only take us seriously if we can maintain a straight face. We ended the day with a group dinner at an authentic restaurant that served amazing food. Our dessert was Tiramisu and it was to die for, literally. On Sunday we had time to do last minute souvenir shopping until we had to head back to campus at three. Overall it was a great week, stay tuned for next week!