Trastevere and John Cabot University

John Cabot University is located Trastevere, which is right across the Tiber from the rest of Rome. In ancient Rome, it was the artisan district, but now it's just home to many restaurants, bars, shops, etc. It's a pretty cute section of the city though, very typical Italian in my opinion, the cobblestone streets are tiny and the buildings are all super close together. JCU is just one building, but there are several courtyards, so it seems a lot larger. There's a cafe (Cafe Sentimmiano) right across from the school, which is nice. Also we get a 15 minute coffee break during my class, so we all head over there to get a cappuccino - a concept I'm really fond of. I really like my class -The Innocents Abroad: Perspectives of Italy in Literature. My Professor is Canadian, she went to Oxford, but has lived in Rome for about six years. Apparently her husband is a writer, and this is where he finds his inspiration! Anyway, the class is cool - we are reading several accounts of travel to Italy, we have already read Goethe's Italian Journey. Its actually really cool to read about his experiences as I visit the same sights. We also read the letters home of this British guy. It was kind of funny because he had similar things to say about Italy as my roommate, such as the Pantheon is an "ugly, old building." Ill say I was equally annoyed when they both said it. It is fascinating to me that she has the same stereotypes and expectations as a British guy did in the eighteenth century... anyway, I think its really interesting to think about my experiences in relation to these authors. There are only 8 people in my class and we also take field trips! We went to Capitoline Hill to go to the museum and see some paintings we are reading about. There we saw the statue of Romulus and Remus under the wolf (like we have in Rome, GA) and a gigantic statue of Marcus Aurelius. Also, we saw Domenchinis Sibyl, which the book Corrine, or Italy by Madame de Stael, which we are reading now, was based on. Later we are visiting Palazzo Barberini and the Keats-Shelley house. Things to look forward to!