Our day began with a 10am meeting at the portone, as usual. Joel introduced the aqueducts with a framed map as a visual. Before either of our two full presentations began, we headed over to La Chiesa Santa Maria della Pace, a small and peaceful church. Gabrielle gave us a short introduction about how Pope Sixtus IV commissioned the building of the church. We all looked around inside, and were delighted to discover paintings by Rafael.
Next, we headed over to the Piazza Navona, a familiar site. Brianna and Mark introduced the Pamphili family- they even brought portraits of important Pamphili to show the class, held up in the air by using various kitchen utensils as handles. Then, Mark proceeded to give us his presentation about the Piazza. Unfortunately, his presentation topic was Bernini’s Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers), which has been under renovation for awhile now. A huge scaffold and opaque temporary walling blocked our view of nearly the entire site. We could only peer through glass windows to see the magnificent fountain behind the wall. Even then, some sides were completely blocked off from view. Luckily, Mark had the foresight to print out handouts of the fountain. He also sent us on a quest to match each river’s name to its corresponding river god statue. After he completed his presentation, we followed Joel to our next destination.
We made a stop along the way for a coffee break at Sant Eustachio, a café recommended by Lisa. Our system of ordering coffee was more efficient this time than our first attempt! I had a cornetto (pastry) instead of coffee, but the students who tried the coffee said that it was delicious. A few even went back for more coffee later.
Our next stop was the piazza by the former papal summer residence and the huge obelisk Henry explained to us earlier in the week. Joel taught us about the aqueducts, and how the flow of water throughout Rome affected population growth at different points in history. Then, we walked a little distance to the Acqua Felice, the fountain and source of the water in all of the fountains throughout Rome. Joel told us a bit about the architecture and history of the Acqua Felice.The next few hours were free for students to spend as they pleased. We reconvened at 5:30 for our private tour of the Musei Vaticani (Vatican Museum) and Cappella Sistena (Sistene Chapel). We were joined by our guests for the evening, including a generous patron family and high members of the UW bureaucratic hierarchy. We headed to the Musei Vaticani, where solemn guards stood watch at the doorway. We were led into the museum. Everyone marveled at the magnificence of the artwork: paintings, tapestries, and sculptures. Lisa took the time to explain each of the major works to us, while Gabrielle seized the opportunity to present another piece of artwork related to her topic, Pope Sixtus IV.
After an hour of perusing the vast museum collections, we arrived at the Cappella Sistena. I had seen it once before, during the daytime, and I can definitely say that this experience in the chapel was far, far superior to my previous experience. It was just our group, alone in the chapel, with forty minutes to wander and write. I think most of us would agree that we could have stayed there for days. We were so fortunate to have been given this opportunity to see the Cappella Sistena in such freedom and silence!
Right when our two hours in the museum ended, we were ushered out of the Musei Vaticani. All of us- teachers, students, and guests- headed over to Dino and Tony’s, a friendly family restaurant. There, we were served plate after plate of antipasti, pasti, and dolci. We wolfed down the massive amounts of food and enjoyed hearty conversation with our respective table companions. It was the perfect ending to a long, eventful day.
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