Of all the places we have stayed in Italy, Rome was our longest stay (two weeks). You would think, in two weeks, we would see all that there is to see. Unfortunately, we weren’t even close. We did get to see all the big, renowned monuments and museums but, as a group, we missed one of the things that I was most looking forward to in Rome: two of Caravaggio’s famous paintings in the Santa Maria del Popolo church. Before leaving for Italy, while we were still back on campus, I had done a presentation in Dr. Letteri’s Communication Studies class on Italian public spaces. My presentation was an introduction to Baroque art, with a focus on architecture by Bernini and painting by Caravaggio. This presentation introduced me to Baroque art as well and after doing the research, I became extremely interested and amazed by Caravaggio’s paintings.
Santa Maria del Popolo was on our itinerary for our tour with our guide multiple times. Every time we tried to visit it, however, it was closed. On our last day in Rome, we got done touring pretty early so we had some free time on our own before dinner. Fortunately, our hotel in Rome was only about a 10-minute walk from the Piazza del Popolo, where the church was located. I decided that I would be very disappointed if I had come all the way to Rome, stayed in a hotel less than 10 minutes from the paintings, and still didn’t see them. So Brett and I went to visit Santa Maria del Popolo, one of Rome’s first Renaissance churches. That extra trip down there was definitely worth it. The two unbelievably realistic paintings (The Conversion of St. Paul and The Crucifixion of St. Peter) looked even more real and intense in person. It also was very meaningful to see the paintings that I had read all about in our texts and informed the class about just one month earlier back at Furman. I am very disappointed that they did not allow photography in the church, but I think that makes it even more worth it since I got to see it in person. I love that we have been able to learn about specific places or subjects, develop a genuine interest for them, and then actually get to visit and enjoy them over here in Italy. It makes everything we learned back at Furman so much more relevant and fascinating.
-Kacie Schoen
Italy 2012