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Educational time in Italy for students
Buon giorno, Mamma!
It's Friday in Rome, and that can only mean one thing: it's educational module day. This morning, Sylvio and I are taking a group of 20 students to the Galleria Borghese to see famous Baroque works of art by Caravaggio, Bernini, and others. I'm stoked! The one part about this module that's unpopular is having to leave at 7:45 a.m. I'm not too crazy about it myself, but it takes about 50 minutes to get there and we have 9 a.m. tickets.
The Borghese has strict time and admission limits. You are limited to a two-hour entry time, and they will only allow 200 people in at any time block. The size limit is nice because it's never very crowded, but the strict time limit means you'd better not be late if you want to see everything.
We enjoyed looking around, and as I made a sweep through the gallery near the end of our block, I found Emma and Olivia standing in the Caravaggio room. Turns out Olivia is a huge fan of his work, and was very happy to be standing in a room surrounded by his paintings. That's how I feel when I'm looking at Bernini statues.
We left the gallery and took a short walk to Santa Maria della Vittoria to see one of Bernini's finest works, St. Theresa in Ecstasy. After that, the module was done. Students were asking for help to find the nearest metro station so we pulled out our maps and began to head toward the Barberini station. Well, we thought we were headed that way. We did a bit of block circling, but then absolutely found the right street the metro station was on. And promptly walked four blocks the opposite direction. These streets are so confusing, Mamma, I finally pulled out my cell phone and used the compass function to make sure we we going the right direction. Guess I should have done that to start with.
Most of the students went off for other adventures, but three of them were in no hurry and wanted to find a cheap place to eat. Cheap is, of course, a relative term here, but after some searching we did find one of the least expensive places to eat. It's a small cafe called Bar Barbin3ri, and yes the number three is in the name intentionally. I'm not exactly sure why, but I do know the Barbineri family crest has three bees on it, so I'm going with that explanation. The one thing they did have going for them was sandwiches starting at L2. For hungry students on a budget, it was a great deal.
I went back to the hotel to write a letter to you, Mamma, and was looking through my notes when Sylvio came down to the lobby and asked if I'd like to get out and find a coffee somewhere. Well, when in Rome ... don't sit in the lobby!
We walked to the piazza just a few blocks from our hotel and found a nice sidewalk cafe where we got a couple of cappuccinos and sat outside and watched the world walk by. A lot of the traffic was going into Vatican City, which was only a block away from where we sat. Once our coffee was finished, we decided to stroll into another country (the Vatican is an independent state) and take some pictures. I am so glad we did, because what was about to happen would be one of the coolest experiences of my travel adventures.
After buying stamps and postcards, we were out in St. Peter's Square when we saw a procession heading to the steps of the Basilica. Sylvio and I, cameras at the ready, followed them up. We squeezed between the television cameras (still lots of media to cover the new pope's election) and started taking photos as the group broke into song.
A woman approached us and told me, in broken English, that this group got together every Friday to say the Rosary, but because of the election of the new pope, they were also celebrating Pope Francis with songs and prayers and we were welcome to join in. I looked at Sylvio and he said, "You want to?" I said "Why not?"
We made our way into the crowd of nuns, priests and devout Catholics and participated in the singing and the reciting of the Rosary. The first song was in Italian, and we didn't know the words, but we caught onto the hand motions pretty quickly. Then we sang one everyone in the world knows, Kum Bah Ya.
After that there was the reciting of the Rosary. It was done responsively in different languages, but the responses were always in Latin. Fortunately, we had a sheet with the Latin on it, and after a bit we got pretty good at it. Now, Mamma, I don't want you to think we did this as a joke or ironically. I thought it was super cool to participate in this and I have nothing but respect for those who were up there worshipping God and offering congratulations to the new Pope. It was truly awesome to participate in an historic event like that, and it is something I will remember for the rest of my life.
Later that night, I joined a few of the other leaders for a quiet dinner and shared my experiences of the afternoon. We went to a neat little trattoria we found while walking about. We knew it was the place for us when we saw all the poster-size black and white photos from old Italian movies on the walls. Giuseppe had recommended that I try a traditional Italian dish called Cacio é Pepe before I left Italy and it was on the menu. It's a simple dish of pasta with sheep's milk cheese and pepper. I have to say, it was one of the best things I have eaten all week.
Another wonderful day has ended. Great art, fantastic memories of participating in an historic event, and a fabulous meal to end the day. Sono felice! (I am so happy!) Alla prossima,
Your loving son,
Steve