Summer Session II Field Trips - Fuori Roma!

Our Summer Session II students are about to take a trip away from Rome.
Considering how hot it’s been here, they are hoping to meet up with a bit more temperate weather, but it’s not likely as they first head South. The two-day trip will take them to Paestum, a Graeco-Roman city south of Naples with three amazingly preserved temples – a treat especially for architecture students but for art historians and artists of all inclinations as well. They might be able to sneak some time at the beach as the Hotel Calypso is located on the shore of the “Mare Tirreno”. Then our fortunate students will visit the unfortunate city of Pompeii where life had stopped abruptly on account of Mount Vesuvius’ eruption in 79 AD. There is a lot to contemplate as one walks through the excavated city where some houses are so well preserved – with walls painted magnificently and pottery unbroken - as if expecting the owners to come back.

After a night in Rome, our students will head North to the place where Renaissance was born – the city of Florence. The center – it’s urban form – has remained pretty much unchanged since Leonardo and Michelangelo walked its street, but there is just so much art work to pay attention to and absorb that the two day visit will not be enough. The students will most likely feel the need to come back again – and they should - but we are glad to facilitate at last this short introduction to the amazing artistic legacy of Florence.

The getaway trip from Rome will conclude in Venice. Again, the time will seem much too short in this enchanting city in the waters of the Adriatic Sea. Hopefully the students will find the time to take a boat excursion (there is no other transportation choice) throughout the Venetian Lagoon to get a sense of how this city was built and organized. For the photographer who likes to get to know a city by walking and getting lost - Venice is the ideal city! There is no doubt that even with a trusty map in their pocket – our students will get lost. And they should.

The Pantheon Institute “Vacanze Romane

The Roman Summer (Estate Romana)is here in full force (temperatures steadily get above 30°= 86F) and with it the start of our Summer session II at the Pantheon Institute. Fifteen students have arrived from Penn State to capture the beauty and essence of Rome - figuratively and literally speaking- for the next six weeks as they pursue a course on Italian Architecture and complement it by taking a Digital Photography class offered by the Integrative Arts Department of Penn State. The assignments given by their instructor, Katie Parizek, will send them exploring the many amazing sites of this eternal city. But besides the historical and monumental Rome, the students will be asked to pay close attention to the everyday life of the city and make a visual diary of their stay. Their eyes and their cameras will search out and record the joys and adventures of their quotidian existence in this ancient AND modern city, making observations that perhaps newcomers are best suited for. (Await a photo gallery and contests!)

The classes having started, the students are already busy working on their assignments. But it is not “all work and no play”. That’s not the Roman way! There’s been already a trip to the beach, a birthday celebration at a local “discoteca” and a movie night at the Pantheon Center showing “La Vita è Bella!”

It’s wonderful to spend the summer here in the city as the “Estate Romana” offers a rich program of music, dance and theater. The choices are plentiful and the settings for most performances are in lovely outdoor venues. We suspect and hope that most students will take full advantage of the offerings

Cooking with...engineers!

Even though the menu is always the same - pasta alla carbonara, Valerian salad with Parmesan cheese, pears and walnuts and tiramisu - our students never seem to have enough of our cooking classes!

The last cooking class we organized took place on June 1st at Navona and 10 students from the Architectural Engineering program took part in it.

These kids are very busy during the day: they have a very tight schedule and we thought that a relaxing cooking class with Simona could be a good way to give them a little break from their demanding classes… and we were right!

As usual, the first thing we prepared was the tiramisu: we broke the eggs and divided the yolks from the whites, we added the sugar and the mascarpone cheese, we whipped the egg whites (or at least we tried to!) and mixed all the ingredients together. In the meantime, we prepared some delicious caffè espresso and we finally assembled the cake.

We went on preparing the salad: we cut the pears and the Parmesan cheese into little pieces, we added the walnuts and then we dressed the salad with salt, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

After almost an hour of work, we all were very hungry and we could not wait for our dinner to be ready! That’s why everybody had a little piece of cheese while cooking…

The last thing we prepared was our great pasta alla carbonara: while bringing some salted water to a boil, we beat some eggs and added some black pepper and some grated Pecorino cheese to them and we cooked some bacon. Once the pasta was ready, we mixed all the ingredients together just being careful not to cook them too much to avoid getting scrambled eggs, instead of pasta alla carbonara! The result was just great!

Everything was delicious and the nice conversation we had while having dinner made our evening even more pleasant!

Italian Republic Day

June 2nd is the Republic Day in Italy: the country commemorates the day in 1946 when Italians voted in a referendum to abolish the monarchy and establish a republic. It is a national holiday and shops and offices are closed.

Yesterady morning at 9.30, the president of the republic Giorgio Napolitano presided over the traditional wreath laying ceremony at the tomb of the unknown soldier on the Vittoriano monument in Piazza Venezia. This was followed by a military parade along Via dei Fori Imperiali and an aerial display by the Italian air force’s “Frecce Tricolori” squadron, which leaves a trail of green, white and red smoke in the colors of the Italian flag.

In the afternoon, the gardens of the Quirinale palace, the official residence of the president of the Republic, were open to the public starting from 3pm and there were performances by military bands.

Lots of our students and some professors went to see the parade along Via dei Fori Imperiali: this was an exceptional occasion for them to know a little more about Italian history and culture!

The Pantheon Institute has new spaces!

The Pantheon Institute has always been proud of his unique location in Rome, being in the very heart of Rome and giving everybody the possibility of exploring the ancientest area of this marvellous city.

In particolar, our Center at via del Pantheon has always been a place where studente could stop for asking information, finding useful forms about Rome and Italy, or simply taking a break from their demanding classes….

Now the Student Office has a new space they can enjoy: our reading room, a comfortable and quiet place where they will find newspapers, magazines, brochures about Rome and Italy. A little hub to run away from the hustle and bustle of the hords of tourists who are litterally invading the Eternal City…

And this is not the only news we have: our Housing Office has just moved to vicolo S.Maria in Cappella in Trastevere, leaving the former seat at Piazza Navona. Look at the pictures we have taken and see that we will not miss the other space! It is really impossibile not to feel the charme of the gourgeous garden, with the smell of fruits and flowers, and the sunlight which makes all the colours so brightful…

The Housing Office has also a little studio in the same floor, although we guess it might be difficult to be concentrated in such a special space… Learning, but also feeling the magic of Rome – that’s the Pantheon Institute!

For more pictures, see also our photo album and website!

Our special cooking class

Cooking classes are definitely the extra-curricular activities that attract our students the most: they get to cook an entire meal and eat what they prepare for just as low as 5 euros! And everybody wants to participate…cooking classes are so much fun!

We organized a very special cooking class for the Penn state HDFS program students on Thursday, May 20th: we met at the Trastevere dorms in the morning and we went to the famous market of Testaccio for food shopping. This was a really unique experience for our students to immerse themselves in the genuine life of one of the most enchanting and old neighborhoods of the city. The HDFS girls had the chance to see what these people’s daily life is like and I think they really enjoyed spending the morning at the market.

Just after that, we decided to go to one of the best bakeries of the area: the students were literally amazed by the quantity and the variety of bread, pizza and desserts that were sold there…the closer we got to the bakery, the more we were attracted by the delicious smell of these home-made products!

So, we had a little snack before going back to the dorms of Santa Maria in Cappella and, as soon as we got there, we immediately started to work. I decided to divide the girls into 2 groups as a lot of people were participating , and the first thing we decided to prepare was the tiramisu. Everybody was doing something: some students were beating the eggs, some prepared espresso and some others whipped the egg whites.

And I have to admit that most of the girls seemed to be quite comfortable with cooking! We all had a great time preparing our menu: pasta alla carbonara - with eggs and bacon or with zucchini for vegetarian people - a very good salad with Parmesan cheese, pears and balsamic vinegar and finally, our famous tiramisu.

Everything was delicious and we all had a really good time together!

A trip to EUR

EUR (the Esposizione Universale Roma) is a large suburban area and business centre in the south of Rome. It was started in 1935 by Benito Mussolini and planned to open in 1942 to celebrate twenty years of Fascism. In urban planning terms, EUR was designed to direct the expansion of the city towards the south-west, connecting it to the sea. The planned exhibition never took place due to World War II.

Besides other attractions such as the Museum of Roman Civilization and the sports arena PalaEUR (now Palalottomatica) , designed by architects Pier Luigi Nervi and Marcello Piacentini for the 1960 Summer Olympics, we can’t forget to mention the big artificial lake that is found right in the center of this area.

And that’s just the place were we brought our students for a nice and relaxing ride on a little boat on Monday. After days and days of rain and cold wheater, the sun finally came out and it gave us the chance to see an area of Rome that visitors to Rome don’t usually go to...But our students really enjoyed this modern but, at the same time, extremely green neighborhood.

After the ride on the boat we all went to the Giolitti ice-cream shop for a delicious gelato! Giolitti is definitely one of the best places to get an ice-cream here in Rome...that’s probably the reason why our students were so fast in eating their cones!!!