In Italy to…Study?
Right before leaving for my Easter break, I had to take a final for my “Arte e Società tra Medioevo a Rinascimento” class. In an intense 3 months of lessons with our strangely art-passionate professor, we covered every page and every picture in our textbook of the art and architecture in Italy and the history behind it from year 200 to the 1500’s.
To study for finals, we asked him what was really important. He said to know everything. Normally I could narrow things down myself based on what I thought was important or what he emphasized, but he is the type of professor that would ask you something that was mentioned as a side reference in passing. So, beginning 3 weeks in advance, I tried to memorize the textbook (lolz).
Two weeks before the exam, the Hannah’s, my great friends here, were leaving for a long trip and asked if I could housesit for them and watch their dog… it couldn’t have worked out better. So, I went MIA for two weeks, studying every hour or hanging out with the most precious dog, Preacher. Their house is high up and their balcony overlooks the beautiful rooftops. On both sides of their home every night God put on a spectacular art show with a sunset, and i would run back and forth between the balconies to get two different views of it. It gave me some hope (sidenote: God’s art > Giotto’art) to get through my work. I also ate all the food in their house, and had unlimited AMERICAN coffee (grazie, famiglia di Hannah!), which served my studying well.
Then, it was time for the exam. It was terrible. Imagine: we all sit down, and Professore Benevolo enters the room carrying the exams above his head like he was in a Catholic Church procession at the beginning of mass, meanwhile he began humming a funeral hymn. It went downhill form there. He explained that the pile of folders were to be taken, and inside would be two photos. Just two. After the thousands of photos I memorized, based on the luck of the draw I would know the photos, or I wouldn’t.
Unexpectedly, our crazy prof threw the folders on the front table and said “Venite, ragazzi!”. Then, all of the students left their seats and rushed to the center table to grab a lucky folder, pushing other students. It was insane, I grabbed three and then threw the other 2 folders in the air, hoping that I picked well. We all sat with our folders in front of us and I couldn’t stop laughing in unbelief of what had just happened, it was like the stampede in the Lion King. Luckily I received the architecture of Sant’Andrea and I contrasted it again Santa Maria Novella. Unfortunately my second photo was the Polittico di Giotto a Bologna… which no one wanted because it was what he wrote his own thesis on – so basically anything I said was going to be wrong in some way. Anyways, I wrote for the 2.5 hours, then left, and kept studying.
The next time I saw Benevolo was 2 days later for my oral exam, of which I would draw once again a random page from the text book and have to explain what the picture was, without preparation and in complete misery of my bad on-the-spot Italian grammar. I also prepared something in advance from a work of my choice, I did Antonio Vincenzo’s San Petronio a Bologna, because it has amazing architectural features and is my favorite spot to get in the word in Bologna. I prepared really well for this, and I killed it. All he could say was “Bravissima, Erin, hai imparato molto! “ I improved a lot since my midterm, where he told me “Gravissima, Erin” (the B and the G make a big difference). So, very subjectively (just like the rest of the course- as a future teacher, I do not approve), he gave me the grade of a … 27!!! Seem low? No, a 27 is a B+! Furthermore, I am done with my first class in Bologna! I left the oral exam so happy with my grade, and ready to burn that textbook!