Monday 31 October 2011 (Halloween!)

My conference started today at the American University of Rome.  The campus is on the summit of the Gianicolo, the hill right behind Trastevere.  It’s in a nice residential neighborhood, and tall, elegant 19th-century palazzi with gardens and courtyards line the streets. Even though tomorrow would be November there were flowers blooming everywhere. The view from the top of the hill is fantastic. You can see the Vatican and St. Peter’s huge dome to the north, and east the entire city is spread before you.  The weather was once again sunny and warm and I enjoyed it while it lasts, or until I leave Italy.  Although on paper the university is only about ten blocks from my apartment, it is straight up the Gianicolo, which is the highest and steepest hill in Roma (although it doesn’t technically count as one of the seven hills, being on the west side of the river).  I took a bus and arrived in a few minutes.

Since this is an international interdisciplinary conference there are scholars from every continent (well, not Antarctica that I could find) and in every discipline.  Engineers, anthropologists, historians, musicologists, clinical researchers, historians, and others are presenting on topics from contemporary Hebrew literature to human rights in emerging economies.  Most of the papers are highly interdisciplinary. I was particularly struck by home much current research combines philosophy, literature, history and other humanities fields with the applied sciences such as engineering and medicine.  Interdisciplinarity really is the future of academic research.

Today is Halloween in the United States. There doesn’t seem to be any acknowledgment of it in Roma though.  Tomorrow of course is November 1, All Saints’ Day, which is a national holiday in Italy.  In the afternoon after the conference sessions I walked down the hill back to Trastevere.  For dinner I decided on another traditional Roman dish, rigatoni alla coda di vaccinara, rigatoni with oxtails and celery.  If you’ve never had oxtail, you should definitely try it-sort of like the beef equivalent of chicken wings. 

After dinner the evening was clear and warm so I strolled around Trastevere and sat a few minutes on the steps of the fountain in front of the basilica before heading back. I wanted to make sure my slides were all ready for Tuesday, when I present my paper.