Un Educazione

It's like the difference between seeing a photo of your loved one and actually standing in front of him.

That's how my art history professor, Vera Fortunati, describes the importance of seeing great works of art in person.  Fortunately for us, we live in a city full of such things, and this afternoon we're skipping the classroom entirely and meeting instead at the gallery.  We'll also be taking an overnight trip to Rome later in the semester to see even more.

In archaeology, my one class at UniBo, stranieri outnumber actual Italians, but that works in my favor--Professoressa Porta speaks more slowly than she otherwise would.  We're learning about medieval churches, and our first trip is to Santo Stefano, the chiesa right down the street from our classroom. 

In Italian Cultural History, we're learning about youth culture from the 1950s to today through film, music, and magazine ads.  From the example set by my other professors, I'm half expecting the teacher to bring some "real Italian kids" to class so that we can learn about them first-hand.

Wednesday nights, I head over to Rita's apartment, where she teaches us how to make real Italian food from scratch in true Italian fashion--this means knowing how to properly set a table, using idiomatic expressions, and, of course, rolling your hips alluringingly while flattening out the pasta dough. 

In other words, I'm getting a true Italian education!