The Most Studious Tuesday - St Peter and Paul's Day, Tuesday, June 29th

In Italy, each city has a holiday for its patron saints. Tuesday was St. Peter and Paul's Day here in Rome. This being a city-wide holiday, most shops were closed. As such, our schedule was modified and we cancelled our trip to the largely immigrant populated Piazza Vittorio.

Our only scheduled group meeting was for Professor Kasaba's Islam and Italian Cities class. We discussed the Renaissance and how the general perspective of a European "rebirth" is problematic, because it fails to identify Eastern (particularly Islamic and Arabic) influences that led to and are inherently incorporated with the Renaissance. We discussed a couple of paintings in particular that I'd like to make aware

.

The first was Holbein's "Ambassadors", which depicted two figures, Jean de Dinteville (French ambassador to the English court of Henry VIII) and Georges de Selve (Bishop of Lavaur), surrounded by items that were representative of the times. However, when looking deeper at the paintings, you notice items that point to discord between the perceived overarching positivity. The lute, and also the hymn book, represent the tensions with the Protestant movement. The Cross in the corner of the upper right hand corner of the portrait also demonstrates this, as well as the looming struggle for power of the Catholic Church. Another item to notice is the Turkish rug, representative of wealth and the strong eastern influence. What is important to recognize through a deeper interpretation of the portrait, is that the Renaissance was not solely a time of peace and prosperity that was attained without outside influence.

The second was St. Mark Preaching in Alexandria by Giovanni and Gentile Bellini. The portrait is supposed to take place in 79 AD but shows St. Mark, the patron saint of Venice, preaching to Muslims, which is problematic because Islam would not become a practiced religion for another 600 years. The significance of this portrait is St. Mark. Being the patron saint of Venice, which during the Renaissance was seen as the trading capital of Europe, St. Mark's preaching to a group of Muslims shows the importance of trade with the east, particularly between the Ottomans (represented by the Hagia Sophia in the background) and Venice. The interaction between the Europeans and Muslims in the picture solidifies this importance.

Later in the day, most people were busy working on other school projects, or reading either Trickster Travels for Professor Kasaba's class for Clash of Civilization Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio for Professor Friedman's class. I read Clash of Civilizations in its entirety over about a four hour period. Clash revolves around a group of immigrants who live in the mostly immigrant populated Piazza Vittorio, who share their perspectives on the other characters, the murder of one character, and the disappearance of the main character Amadeo. These perspectives are often biased, ignorant, racist, and stereotypical as characters know little about who their cohorts actually are or where they're from.

The evening concluded with a small group of us (David, Daniel, Molly, Katie, Yuting, Shurui, Rebecca, Maggie, and I) watching the World Cup second round match between Spain and Portugal at a local bar / coffee shop named Magnolia, located across from the guys' apartment in the Campo dei Fiori. The match was quite entertaining as we enjoyed our tiramisus, bar snacks, and Coca-Colas. Spain's David Villa scored the winning goal in the 63rd minute, as Portugal failed to capitalize on its star power (namely the world famous Ronaldo) and its high powered offense (which scored seven goals against North Korea in group play). Spain now faces Paraguay, who defeated Japan 5-3 on penalty kicks, in the quarterfinals.