Finals, Flying, and Friends

Always remember that during the Roman empire there really was no middle class. The class system either noted people as poor or very wealthy. As long as you remember this fact you could have passed our archeology class final with one sentence such as ¨There was no middle class in Rome.¨ Turns out that the six pages of knowledge that I wrote down about Roman emporers, living conditions, monuments, religion, and history were really unnecessary for our final yesterday. I just had to laugh when my professor for the class told us about the trick question, but I don´t think that I would have been gutsy enough to trust my one sentence answer anyway. He´ll still consider all of our responses, so there´s really no worry, and I kind of think it was a clever way to end the class that has been so fun and informative.

After our 8 am final on Thursday morning, I enjoyed one of my last mornings in the courtyard, just journaling and thanking the Lord for the things my eyes have seen. In the afternoon, my feelings met up with my physical presence as I soared in the clouds over the region of Tuscany. Paolo, our art professor, has had his pilot´s license for 22 years and has his own plane. He was so gracious to take a few of us up, one by one, to have an incredible view of the town we´ve been living in, the castle we hiked to, the fields of sunflowers, and my jogging path for the past six weeks. He treated us to pastries and peach tea under a shaded gazebo while we waited and then I got to be one of the first one´s up...and what do you know... I never even felt an ounce of motion sickness...I think he probably thought that the smile would never be wiped off of my face because I was so overjoyed with the sights and opportunity of seeing the beauty is such a rare way.

We went back to Florence for the last time today to tour the Uffizzi gallery. The Medicci family, the noble family who had great power in all of Italy, opened their office spaces as galleries to showcase some amazing works of art. They held five original pieces of Greek statues, three of the famous Madonna´s by Ciambue and his apprentice Giotto, the original Rembrandts, several works by Michelangelo, a few pieces by Rafeal, and the famous Venus and Primevera. The Primevera, a Renaissance piece that showcases three important Greek figures including Fertility, Venus as Love, and three figures representing Beauty showed how the Greeks viewed beauty as a thing of inner and outer adoration. I loved these works and our two hour tour in the gallery, but it was nice to get out into the markets and help the boys do a little shopping. I felt so honored to help these men pick out some attire since I have never had the joy of shopping with brothers. I must say, the linen shirts that we picked out will look mighty nice on these fellas.

Today was a holiday in Italy, so we got out of Florence fast before the traffic would make us miss our last really good meal at the center. It has been hot lately, but beautiful, and we will pack up tonight to head North for an opera in Verona, three days in Venice, and a couple of nights in the Dolomites. These are the moments that I remind myself to treasure every second...