We had a day off from classes, so while my students stayed here furiously writing and rewriting, I went with the painters to see the Piero della Francescas scattered around here. Italian Renaissance art, sadly, is not something that has ever moved me. Sadly only because here, it's everywhere you turn; people who love this period are in heaven, with paintings and frescoes around every corner. For me, though, a day of Pieros threatened to be an overdose of heavy Catholic symbolism, in which my tribe doesn't make out so well. (Though the first series of frescoes we went to see, The Story of the True Cross, includes the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon and portrays them both in a positive light.) However, we had the great good fortune of being led by Ezio Genovese, who directs RISD's Rome program, and his wife Laura Graham. Ezio's specialty is iconography. My mind is always looking for narrative first, line and color second, and through his discussions of the works I found that iconography can be, for me, the bridge into a painting. So I had a great time, though I'll still never love this period of art.

And lunch -- soup, bruschetta not with tomatoes but mushrooms, fresh pasta, roast pork, salad, and local chianti -- wasn't bad either.