Vista di Roma dal Gianicolo
The Janiculum (Gianicolo). Nine-thirty in the morning in front of the panoramic lane which overlooks the unsettling city. With its warm colours of painted stucco and brick buildings, baked-clay roof tiles in both the Portuguese and Roman styles, white facades made from marble shipped down from Carrara or yellowish travertine ones, bluish-grey domes and different shades of green coming from the Platanus trees along the Tibur or other species of plants speckled about the larger avenues or squares.
I arrive by car and get out to find a few couples sitting or leaning on a wall, the waiter of the make-shift coffee shop, some dog owners shuffling about with their dogs, and a small group of young people almost all of which are wearing hats and carrying over-sized notepads. Actually not one group but different little groups huddling together under the slow-baking sun that is not only rising in the sky but causing the temperature to increase notably.
This is my first group of students after many years of inactivity in the teaching field. I move closely trying not to seem too energetic or overly-excited to meet them. None of them seem to notice but I take advantage of the first person to look in my direction and say, ‘Rome Art Program?’
She nods her head as the other 4 or 5 in the group simultaneously stop chatting and turn their gazes in my direction. Their expressions are similar. You could say that there is a general lack of any recognizable emotion; mouths are closed and form straight lines across their jaws; eyes are searching yet the brows are either spread across their foreheads parallel to or maybe just a little inclined towards their noses. The body language remains limp and unassuming. They are all clutching those notebooks and different bags. I see one girl has brought a folding camping chair with her.
‘My name is Anthony and I am your teaching assistant.’ I say with a clear voice projecting loudly so as the nearby groups can overhear. ‘Pleased to meet you all.’
At that point some of their faces turn away from me and the conversation picks up where it was before my interruption. The girl next to me introduces herself and so do a couple of the others.
I don’t think I’ve made exactly an earth-shaking presentation to them but it doesn’t matter. We’ve got all month to get to know each other.
Anthony Lombardi, Teaching Assistant 2014
Image via Wikimediacommons