A short glimpse at “Nudes. The Female Universe”

Welcome back! Week 4 consisted of a super quick turnaround between coming home from Switzerland and leaving for spring break. Within those short four days, we were preparing for our first exam period since arriving. My week started with a visit to Museo Novecento during my class time, where my class and I attempted to analyze and understand not only the several different exhibitions at the museum but also the advertising strategies the museum uses as a whole to gain traction. The art was definitely super pretty, but I’m certainly no expert when it comes to understanding the artist’s desired meaning, despite my art minor! I particularly enjoyed one exhibition: “Nudes. The Female Universe”. The several artworks displayed focused on the female body, normalizing and appreciating the different forms, shapes and sizes of beauty found within women. The advertising practices for the museum, however, were qualified as “in need of improvement” by our class through our final presentations that we gave the next day.

(Something I’ve noticed with my classes is that there is much less time allotted for projects and homework. We are typically given 1 or 2 days to complete an assignment, hence the presentations following the visit the next day, which is a schedule I haven’t operated on since high school. It has definitely forced me to prioritize productivity and my school work, which is a secret blessing.)

Besides my final project, I also had my final exam for the same class on Thursday. As a project based major, it’s rare that I have to take a paper-and-pen, devote-time-to-study exam. Luckily, we were graced with sunshine and I was able to review my notecards outside at a bistro that provided a little escape from the city. It was so nice and warm out that I actually fell asleep mid-studying…. This whole “study” part of study abroad really wears you out… (kidding, kind of)

Other small adventures from the week include visiting the newly opened Cat Caffe, where cats run around while you enjoy a cappuccino. I definitely won’t be bringing my parents here… I already know they wouldn’t be a fan of both the smell and little felines crawling on the tables. I kind of liked it though, cats are slowly growing on me, but Lauren and Liv were more enthusiastic. We celebrated Fat Tuesday by making “dessert bowls”, where we tossed treats in a bowl instead of actually eating dinner. It was a lot of chocolate, I will admit, but my favorite part was using Krave cereal at the base. I don’t think anything could quite compare to my grandma’s homemade Pączki (Puhnch-kees) though ;)

We attended mass for Ash Wednesday at Santa Maria Novella, where we wrongfully thought it would be said in English… Instead of receiving the usual cross on our foreheads with ashes, the priests actually just sprinkled the ashes into our hair, which I’ve never experienced before. After some quick research, I learned the the cross on the forehead is actually an American tradition, the Italian churches follow the sprinkling on the crown of the head to recall the biblical method of wearing ashes as penance, instead of wearing them as a visual sign for others to see. This would explain why I didn’t see anyone with crosses on their foreheads!

My friends and I celebrated St. Valentine’s Day with a dinner at Osteria Pastella, famous for their cheese wheel truffle pasta. I opted for the “Tortelloni stuffed with ricotta cheese and spinach, butter and sage sauce and pecorino” instead, but it was super cool to watch the pasta be made in the cheese wheel. They bring out a huge “Grana Padano” cheese wheel and heat it up with some fire, melting the cheese for the pasta to be placed directly on top of it. They then mix the cheese and pasta together, topping it off with freshly grated truffle. Unfortunately, I’m not always the biggest truffle lover, so one bite of Lauren’s dish was enough for me. The tortelloni though…. Amazing.

I finished out the week by taking my exam, which I believe went very smoothly. It took all of 45 minutes, and then I was snuggled up in my favorite caffe with a cappuccino so I could write the previous week’s blog post (hey… that sounds a lot like what I’m doing right now!) My final task of the week was tackling the challenge that is packing for a ten day trip in just a backpack…

Don’t worry! You’ll read of that success and the spring break trip that followed in the next post. Thanks for reading and see you next week!