Studiare Day 10

Today my classmates and I started our group facilitations. Each group was assigned a book to read and then create a group field trip and activity to go with it.

My group read A Thousand Splendid Suns about women in education in Afghanistan. I hadn’t known prior to reading this book that during the Communist control of Afghanistan women were allowed education, but that right was taken away by the Taliban.

For our location, we choose the first Montessori school, which was started by Maria Montessori here in Rome in 1907. I didn’t know earlier that she was also one of the first woman doctors in Italy. Her story is really interesting,and if I weren’t so tired right now, I’d tell you more.

Another group presented today, and they led us through a fun activity at Termini, the main train station.

In the afternoon, some classmates and my professor enjoyed a nice pizza lunch. Then we had the obligatory gelato snack. If my Italian classmate Bonita is reading this, she’ll be happy to know I went to Il Gelatone, and my banana and chocolate gelato was delicious.

Later, we were taken on a private tour of the rooms were St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits, lived and died here in Rome.

One of St. Ignatius’s old rooms

We also visited two key Jesuit churches. See my Facebook page for a video.

In the evening, I went with some other students at the Rome center for a Chinese dinner. How funny to see Chinese dishes written in Italian! Wish I had taken a pic of the menu, but the food was delicious!