Art, Art, and Even More Art

This week involved our first normal week of the program and a weekend trip to Bologna and Ravenna. Monday was a typical day of class, lunch, and homework. We planned some more for fall break before supper. After supper we got together and watched Gladiator in the classroom. On Tuesday we headed to Tre Fontane for our class on early Christian Rome. Tre Fontane is believed to be the place where Saint Paul was killed. We checked out the various churches and then headed to see some more catacombs. We got a bus back to campus and rested for a bit before heading back into the city for one-euro tacos at Abbey Theater.

On Wednesday we woke up bright and early to catch our bus and metro to meet Dr. Lev for art history. We toured around Saint John Lateran, the first Christian church to be built in Rome after Christianity was legalized in 313. We also stopped by the church of Saint Clement where there are three levels of churches all from different time periods. Headed back to campus afterwards to do homework and prep for Convivium. Thursday marked one month in Rome! However, the day was fairly uneventful with class and eating leftovers before we headed out for the weekend.

On Friday we woke up supper early to catch our train to Bologna. We got vans from campus to the train station which was a nice refresh form a week of public transportation. We hopped on our high-speed train to Bologna and hit the ground running. We dropped off our bags at the hotel and headed into the city center for a quick tour of the church and the piazza. We grabbed a quick lunch and headed back to the train station for our next stop. Arriving in Ravenna we again hit the ground running by looking at tons of mosaics. Ravenna is famous for their mosaic art. We had a quick break where some of us got piadines which are like Italian quesadillas. We hit up a few more churches and mosaics before heading back to Bologna for supper. I ordered tortellini which was invented in Bologna.

Saturday was another class day starting with the Tomb of Saint Dominic. We stopped at the Basilica of Santo Stefano and many other churches looking at and discussing their art. We visted the old anatomy theater of the University of Bologna and had a break for lunch. After lunch we hit up a few more churches before getting some free time to explore. We where on our own for dinner and a few of us decided to go to Ristorante Bolognese where I got more tortellini.

Sunday, we went to mass as a group at San Petronio and then climbed the tallest tower in Bologna. The tower is taller than the ND state capital building, has 498 steps, and was build over 1,000 years ago. The views from the top off the tower where insane and worth the climb. We where then free to explore the town on our own. Some of us went to the medieval museum. A group of us went for lunch to a local restaurant and I got lasagna, another traditional dish from Bologna. We then caught our train back to Rome. After arriving back in Rome, we had a quick supper and started to study for our art history quiz the next day.

Ciao, Ann