Barberini

We're entering the home stretch. I prepared some notes for two art history presentations today (Barberini family and Galileo). In the morning, we took a walk out past the Pantheon toward Palazzo Barberini (the Barberini Palace). On the way, we stopped at the Trevi Fountain, a magnificently designed fountain sculpted right onto the face of the Palazzo Poli. The fountain is apparently fed by the purest water in Rome. We took lots of pictures, and then each threw three coins over our left shoulders into the fountain. Prof. Schultz says that it's tradition to throw one coin in hopes of marriage, two coins in hopes of divorce, and three in hopes of someday returning to Rome.

Palazzo Barberini is a stately building, with a handsome driveway and fenced garden. The palace used to have vast stretches of land surrounding it, but those have since been reused. Sydney, Emilio, Daniel, and I gave a presentation on the Barberini family and Pope Urban VIII. The Barberinis were a rather disliked family in Rome, for their extravagant nepotism and political ineffectiveness. The Barberini line continues to this day, but the family now lives in a small residence behind the state-owned Palazzo Barberini. The palazzo is now a museum (which we toured, but couldn't take photos of...). The Baroque art in the museum is rather striking, if not a bit excessive. In particular, we saw one vivid painting of decapitation. It was a bit uncomfortable to look at. There were plenty of other colorful, serene images to look at, though.

Afterwards, Prof. Schultz took the group to a coffee shop. People had lattes, cappuccinos, or teas. I passed, content with my fresh, clean water.

I gave my oral presentation on Galileo in front of the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, the location where he sentenced and made to abjure his support of heliocentricity and Copernicanism (basically, the idea that the earth moves around the sun, which runs against scripture). I think it went fairly well (my paper will be posted here in the coming days). We'd been to the church before, to see Michelangelo's Risen Christ, so there wasn't a lot to show. However, we did get nearly attacked by a mob of pigeons. There's this lady who goes around the city feeding the pigeons seed, and they follow her religiously. For some reason, she decided to host a pigeon feast right next to our class. Sheesh.

A few of us visited this store that Prof. Schultz recommended that sells handmade leather-bound journals and related items. It's a nice little store; Emilio said it felt like something out of Harry Potter.

The afternoon consisted of laundry, project work, and video editing. I went with Katie, Rebecca, and Brandon to catch the sunset opposite the Acqua Paola. It was nice (week 3 video coming shortly!).

G'night, all.