Midterms Week
Up until this point, the only image that would come to my mind when I thought "midterms week" would be one of me sitting in a library, 3 in the morning, hunched over a notebook with a large Dunkin Donuts coffee loyally by my side. But this time around, it was different. This time around, I was in Florence.
Now, don't get me wrong, I was still in the Lorenzo de Medici library until the wee hours of the morning. However, most of my studying was not done in a library - it was done through "hands on" exploration of Florence; that's the magnificent thing about taking these classes in Italy, in Florence - you not only get to look at pretty pictures in textbooks and read about timeless masterpieces, but you get to see them with your own eyes, experience the atmosphere the artists were in when they created their artwork, and even see how and where they lived!
My "Renaissance Art" class, taught fully in Italian, focused on Florence as the "Cradle of the Renaissance," the place where it all began. We focused on the Medici family and their long legacy, thoroughly studying the artists who began as private painters and sculptors for the Medici family, such as Michelangelo and Boticelli. We learned the architectural history of the hundreds of churches and palaces of Florence, including the famous Duomo, Santa Maria del Fiore, the Pitti palace, Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella and dozens of others. We took a class trip to the Uffizi Gallery, located in the historical heart of Florence, right on the Arno river. Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" and "La Primavera," Fra Filippo Lippi's "Madonna with Child and Two Angels," Raphael's "Madonna del Cardellino," Michelangelo's "Tondo Doni," all honored the walls of this magnificent gallery. We visited dozens of churches and art exhibits, and grave sites of Da Vinci and Michelangelo.
My most distinct memory, however, was at the Accademia Gallery (located about 5 blocks from our apartment - imagine living in the birthplace of the Renaissance?) There are thousands, if not millions of replicas of Michelangelo's "David" all around the world. However, there is nothing that compares to the real sculpture. Upon entering the Accademia Gallery with my "Renaissance Art" class, I noticed two giant paintings of people, tourists it seemed, all looking up in wonder and admiration; our professor later told us that these are just photographs of people looking at the David. We walked through two smaller halls and into a large, white, well-lit hall, leading to a giant room; from my peripheral vision I saw the statue, and I froze in my steps - no book that I ever read was even close to describing this majestic masterpiece. It was big, and when I say big I mean huge. I, along with every other person in my class, could not take our eyes off of David! Daniele, our professor, let us enjoy our minute of shock and admiration, and then went into an hour lecture about the statue. One of my favorite parts of the lecture was one about Michelangelo saying he did not sculpt the statue out of the giant piece of marble - he simply cleaned off excess marble off of David, who already existed within the rock. Poetic and brilliant, I know.
"Italian Cinema" was another class I studied which was taught fully in Italian. When registering for the class, I pictured myself in a movie theater-like room, watching Italian comedies once a week for three hours. Was I wrong. The first month of the class our professor focused on early Italian history, ancient Rome and numerous wars. We watched black and white clips without sound, having to quickly adjust to reading Italian subscripts. The second month was focused on the early 1900's, when some of the first short films were actually made. Then came World War I and II, a high focus on fascism and on movies depicting the hardships Italy faced during the war and post-war period. Roberto Rossellini's "Roma Citta` Aperta," (Rome, the Open City), was a tragic film about the suffering family and friends went through trying to cover up anti-fascism activity of a loved one. Then came neorealist classics like Vittorio De Sica's "The Bicycle Thief" and "Umberto D." and Luchino Visconti's "Obsession" and "The Postman Always Rings Twice." Our professor stressed the importance of film in understanding history, for a picture truly is worth a thousand words. Even though the class was probably one of the hardest classes I had taken in college thus far, alongside my Renaissance Art course, it was worth every all-nighter and every missed night out, for it painted vivid images of ever-changing Italy in my head, teaching me of the hardships this happy-go-lucky nation faced prior to my arrival.
My "Advanced Italian" course met for two hours every day, but I certainly knew the learning of class material did not stop once I left the Lorenzo de Medici building. Twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, I was surrounded by the Italian language, learning new vocabulary, grammar rules, conjugations and popular expressions. My new Italian friends were more than eager to assist in my learning process, kindly correcting my mistakes and explaining why what I say does not make sense. There is something about not being under the pressure of being graded that makes learning a lot easier - perhaps the lack of stress? My brain was a sponge for Italian knowledge, and it soaked up every last bit of the language, culture, and history material it could find.
Getting back to my description of a Florentine midterms week, a lot of studying time was spent re-visiting the beautiful churches and monuments, re-watching Italian films, going over Italian grammar rules while watching the sunset over the beautiful Arno river, and simply conversing with my Italian friends for language practice - beats sitting in a library until five in the morning, don't you think?
Up until this point, the only image that would come to my mind when I thought "midterms week" would be one of me sitting in a library, 3 in the morning, hunched over a notebook with a large Dunkin Donuts coffee loyally by my side. But this time around, it was different. This time around, I was in Florence.
Now, don't get me wrong, I was still in the Lorenzo de Medici library until the wee hours of the morning. However, most of my studying was not done in a library - it was done through "hands on" exploration of Florence; that's the magnificent thing about taking these classes in Italy, in Florence - you not only get to look at pretty pictures in textbooks and read about timeless masterpieces, but you get to see them with your own eyes, experience the atmosphere the artists were in when they created their artwork, and even see how and where they lived!
My "Renaissance Art" class, taught fully in Italian, focused on Florence as the "Cradle of the Renaissance," the place where it all began. We focused on the Medici family and their long legacy, thoroughly studying the artists who began as private painters and sculptors for the Medici family, such as Michelangelo and Boticelli. We learned the architectural history of the hundreds of churches and palaces of Florence, including the famous Duomo, Santa Maria del Fiore, the Pitti palace, Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella and dozens of others. We took a class trip to the Uffizi Gallery, located in the historical heart of Florence, right on the Arno river. Botticelli's "Birth of Venus" and "La Primavera," Fra Filippo Lippi's "Madonna with Child and Two Angels," Raphael's "Madonna del Cardellino," Michelangelo's "Tondo Doni," all honored the walls of this magnificent gallery. We visited dozens of churches and art exhibits, and grave sites of Da Vinci and Michelangelo.
My most distinct memory, however, was at the Accademia Gallery (located about 5 blocks from our apartment - imagine living in the birthplace of the Renaissance?) There are thousands, if not millions of replicas of Michelangelo's "David" all around the world. However, there is nothing that compares to the real sculpture. Upon entering the Accademia Gallery with my "Renaissance Art" class, I noticed two giant paintings of people, tourists it seemed, all looking up in wonder and admiration; our professor later told us that these are just photographs of people looking at the David. We walked through two smaller halls and into a large, white, well-lit hall, leading to a giant room; from my peripheral vision I saw the statue, and I froze in my steps - no book that I ever read was even close to describing this majestic masterpiece. It was big, and when I say big I mean huge. I, along with every other person in my class, could not take our eyes off of David! Daniele, our professor, let us enjoy our minute of shock and admiration, and then went into an hour lecture about the statue. One of my favorite parts of the lecture was one about Michelangelo saying he did not sculpt the statue out of the giant piece of marble - he simply cleaned off excess marble off of David, who already existed within the rock. Poetic and brilliant, I know.
"Italian Cinema" was another class I studied which was taught fully in Italian. When registering for the class, I pictured myself in a movie theater-like room, watching Italian comedies once a week for three hours. Was I wrong. The first month of the class our professor focused on early Italian history, ancient Rome and numerous wars. We watched black and white clips without sound, having to quickly adjust to reading Italian subscripts. The second month was focused on the early 1900's, when some of the first short films were actually made. Then came World War I and II, a high focus on fascism and on movies depicting the hardships Italy faced during the war and post-war period. Roberto Rossellini's "Roma Citta` Aperta," (Rome, the Open City), was a tragic film about the suffering family and friends went through trying to cover up anti-fascism activity of a loved one. Then came neorealist classics like Vittorio De Sica's "The Bicycle Thief" and "Umberto D." and Luchino Visconti's "Obsession" and "The Postman Always Rings Twice." Our professor stressed the importance of film in understanding history, for a picture truly is worth a thousand words. Even though the class was probably one of the hardest classes I had taken in college thus far, alongside my Renaissance Art course, it was worth every all-nighter and every missed night out, for it painted vivid images of ever-changing Italy in my head, teaching me of the hardships this happy-go-lucky nation faced prior to my arrival.
My "Advanced Italian" course met for two hours every day, but I certainly knew the learning of class material did not stop once I left the Lorenzo de Medici building. Twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, I was surrounded by the Italian language, learning new vocabulary, grammar rules, conjugations and popular expressions. My new Italian friends were more than eager to assist in my learning process, kindly correcting my mistakes and explaining why what I say does not make sense. There is something about not being under the pressure of being graded that makes learning a lot easier - perhaps the lack of stress? My brain was a sponge for Italian knowledge, and it soaked up every last bit of the language, culture, and history material it could find.
Getting back to my description of a Florentine midterms week, a lot of studying time was spent re-visiting the beautiful churches and monuments, re-watching Italian films, going over Italian grammar rules while watching the sunset over the beautiful Arno river, and simply conversing with my Italian friends for language practice - beats sitting in a library until five in the morning, don't you think?
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