5-17-06

Today I was better able to navigate the route to the Sede from our apartment. And I left early enough that I was able to stop en route and purchase some fresh fruit from a little stand in the market on the way. It was the best fruit I have had in a long time. I picked up a couple of apples and some cherries for breakfast, and saved two of the apples and some of the cherries for later in the day.

After class we went on a walk to see some of the sights depicted in the Marble Faun. The Trevi Fountain is more impressive than Hawthorne describes, and I imagine that it is absolutely breathtaking under the moonlight. Hilda’s tower was also different than I had expected. I had envisioned a lone solitary tower in the midst of a small piazza. A square tower with the lamp in one of the upper windows and the shrine, much larger than the one that actually stands there, in the center of the roof. I had also hoped to see the doves Hawthorne speaks so much about. Instead, the tower was a part of a larger building; it was square, but the shrine, and presumably the light as well, where situated on top of the tower.

After seeing the tower I went with the TA’s and my two housemates out to lunch with Professor Benson. We went to a restaurant that served great salads. Professor Benson’s congeniality reminded me of dinners with my professors back at Hillsdale.