Pamphili

We had a very busy day today, starting with a one-hour Art History session in the morning, visiting the Santa Maria della Pace and a "talking statue". The della Pace is a very compact church placed literally in the middle of a street. It's a neat little space, just as finely decorated as any of the other churches we've seen. The usage of space set up a nice contrast to the overwhelming scale of St. Peter's. The talking statues in Rome are a set of statues which have been used as figures of public speech. We saw the sculpture of Pasquino, which was plastered with various flyers. Romans would post or write on these statues their thoughts with regards to the city administration and government, or the church.

Immediately after our morning session, we headed to the UWRC to give our Islam and Italian Cities presentations. Each of five groups presented a particular topic which demonstrates Islamic influence on western (including Italian) culture. We saw presentations about coffee, paint pigmentation, medicine, glass, and food (the last of which included samples of couscous and risotto!). Our presentations ended up taking half an our more than the two hours we had allotted for class, but all of the groups did a good job of demonstrating how the elements of a culture - even those thought to be "traditional" - are the result of intercultural exchanges.

After lunch, we met again for a second art history session. This time we visited Piazza Navona and learned about the Palazzo Pamphili, the Four Rivers Fountain, and Elephant Obelisk. Bernini's Four Rivers Fountain is a particularly impressive sculpture, featuring four massive figures which support a towering obelisk. The obelisk is a replica of an Egyptian design, featuring gibberish heiroglyphs engraved by its Roman creators.

Following art history, we went for one last class gelato run, at the "church of gelato". I had pistacchio and lemon (a combo recommended by the shop - but honestly not one I'd recommend). Each flavor was tasty on its own, but they made for a strange combination.

For dinner I cooked the rest of my pasta, sauce, and chicken. I had a lot of food, so Katie and Rebecca came over to share the meal. I also ended up having leftovers for the next day's lunch. But I used up all of my food, save for one bottle of olive oil (which we'll donate to the next tenants).

One more day left in Rome. G'night, all.