Third to Last Week

This last week has been slow and good. Not much out of the ordinary had happened until this weekend. One of Jana’s friends from Wheaton came, and so they and Jake and I went to Il Vin Caffe for a little bit. Last Saturday the stone carving professor from Gordon, Jim Zignorelli (commonly known as “Z”) went out with a couple of us in the hopes of hearing live jazz; unfortunately, it was more like garage band “blues.”

Yesterday was a pretty good, unusual day, though. A group of us went to Lake Bolsena for the day and had a good time relaxing in the sun and cold water. Then, last evening, was the Pallio, the annual horse races in Piazza del Popolo. A straight earthen track was laid down along the length of the piazza, with a gate, and stands erected on either side. First came the timed, single races. A rider thundered up from the bottom of the track, reached up at the gate to clutch a hanging white strap of leather, and then belted for a small barrel a little farther down the track. The run was valid if the rider was able to drop the leather strap into the barrel. There were two teams, red and blue. I was standing on the red side, and at first we were the underdogs by a large margin. Suddenly, however, we seemed to make it up, and I think that we won. After this came the doubles races, which seemed to not be timed. The concept of the race was the same, but these took longer because it was difficult for two horses to cross the starting line at the same time. I left before these races ended because it was late; a good thing, too, because it started to rain soon after I got back inside.

The rain continued today, which was a shame because it’s Pentecost. A tall cupola of sorts had been erected on the steps of the Duomo earlier this week, and then at twelve today a dove in a clear plastic tube was slid down a zipline into the cupola, starting at the roof of another church. Fireworks went off, and the dove was paraded around for a little bit. Right after, Scott Cairns, the recently arrived Bruce Herman (Gordon's art department chair) and I went to get a coffee at Scarponi's. It was great meeting Bruce, since I've admired his work for a while (some of you will remember my dismay that his painting, my favorite at Messiah, was moved to Kim Phipps' house this year!), and he and Scott and I had a good time conversing. Both are very friendly and interesting, in addition to being knowledgeable and experts in their fields. I've also had some good talks with Z, who very easily mixes with us students. These last couple of weeks are shaping up to be a good, solid end.

I recently finished Steinbeck's masterpiece East of Eden. It is one of the best things I've ever read...700 pages flew by. It was hard to pick up something after that, but I decided on Ian McEwan's Atonement. It actually is pretty good writing, and I'm enjoying it.

Tomorrow, Penn and Grace, Jana, Jake and I are going to eat at what is supposed to be one of the (if not the) best restaurants in town, La Palomba.