Wednesday brought several great experiences. In the morning, we had class and more great discussions, but our plans for the afternoon had to change last minute. We had planned to visit a particular place called Refugee ScART, where refugees are working, but as it was the last day of Ramadan and many of the refugees are Muslim, we were notified that there would be little for us to see there.

Thus, we spent our afternoon scoping out various locations for our group presentations, which will occur next week. My group had been assigned to read the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, which is about several women in Afghanistan in the decades leading up to 9/11  and the time right after that. We have decided to focus our presentation on women and education, so we visited the very first Montessori school started by Maria Montessori as well as the University of Rome Medical School where Maria Montessori had been the first woman to study medicine in Italy.

University of Rome School of Medicine & Psychology

In the evening, we had a very special private after-hours tour of the Vatican Museums. I’d been there twice before, but this was really a unique experience. Two guards had to accompany us and our tour guide around, but otherwise, it was just us.

Practically alone in the Sistine Chapel

If you’ve ever been to the Vatican Museums, you know it ends with the Sistene Chapel, which is incredibly crowded and you are ushered through fairly quickly. We had the chapel all to ourselves and got to stay for over a half hour. Not only that we were actually allowed to take photos inside as long as we didn’t use a flash. Usually, you get kicked out if you try to take any photos.

Yummy profiteroles for a birthday dessert

We finished up around 9:00 p.m., and a few of us went out to eat and celebrate one of my classmate’s birthday.