Ragazzi Piccanti

Today was loaded with scores of amazingly fun activities! As usual on Tuesday, we started the day with Italian. The class was more intense and interactive than ever before. In class, Paola taught us two new verbs: sapere and conoscere. Cosa significa sapere e conoscere? Sapere, an irregular verb, means to know something. The verb usually is followed by: 1) a phrase, such as “Sai dove vanno in vacanza;” 2) a direct object, such as “So il francese;” 3) another verb in the infinite form, such as “Franco sa suonare il piano. Non lo so, which means “I don’t know” and is one of my favorite Italian phrases, is derived from the first person singular of sappere. Conoscere, a regular verb, which also means to know, is always used with a direct object, for example, “Conosco Seattle.” After learning these new verbs, we played an intense game of trivia. First, Paola split the class into two groups, the A-Team and the Ragazzi Piccanti. Then she had us listen to a dialogue in Italian. After listening through the dialogue a few times, each group constructed five questions for the opposing team to answer. Things got competitive between the two groups. Stacie and Jenna battled it out over points, but in the end, the A-Team barely squeaked by, earning 3.5 points to Ragazzi Piccanti’s 3 points.



After Italian we had a nice three hour break, in which most of us worked dexterously on our essays for History class. Art History class convened at 2:45 in Villa Borghese at the Galleria Borghese. At the museum, Maya gave her art presentation on four of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s sculptures: David (1623), Rape of Proserpine (1621-22), Goat Amalthea with Infant Jupiter and Faun (1615), and Apollo and Daphne (1622-25). Although, I enjoyed all of the statues, I found the Rape of Proserpine particularly intriguing as it vividly captures so many human emotions, as well as, vividly portraying the action of the moment. The details on the statue are absolutely mind-blowing, for example: the teardrop running down Proserpine’s face, the different textures of the characters skins, and finally, most impressive, was the impressions of Pluto’s two hands imprinted into Proserpine’s skin. After the presentation, we were free to enjoy and walk around the rest of the museum. Other interesting art pieces at the Galleria included: the statue of Pauline Bonaparte as Venus Victrix, Caravaggio’s St. Jerome, Sick Bacchus, and Raphael’s Entombment of Christ.



After looking around the Galleria for about an hour, we made our way to the Piazza Navona, where Jenna gave her art history presentation on Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers. The Fountain of the Four River’s depicts the allegorical figures of the Ganges in Asia, the Nile in Africa, the Rio de la Plata in America and the Danube in Europe. One of the most interesting facts that I learned from Jenna’s presentation was how Bernini got the commission for the statue. Originally, Bernini’s archrival Borromini, who had reconstructed the façade of the nearby Church of St. Agnus and designed the Acqua Felice, was assumed to be a shoe-in for the commission. However, after the pope saw a model of Bernini’s design, which had been dropped off inside the papal palace, he decided to pick Bernini, reportedly proclaimed, “the only way to resist executing his works is not to see them."



To cap off the day, we ate dinner at a restaurant in the Jewish Ghetto. We had fried artichokes, fish and zucchini leaves, all of which were delicious! The food was the perfect ending to another wonderful day in the Eternal City.