After an eventful evening at the Convent and our last night in Bolsena, we were on a bus to Rome at 7 AM. Fortunately, this particular bus was huge (and was certainly preferable to the “Forever Bus”), so we all got a chance to stretch out, and many of us slept a bit on the two-hour drive. Upon arrival in Rome, we went straight to FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, where we listened to three very interesting presentations about women in agriculture, gender mainstreaming in disaster response, and the Committee for Food Security. Our visit to FAO was a really nice way to clarify and expand on some of the topics from our classes and farm visits. Since we had been focusing on keeping everything local, which was an easy thing to do in and around Bolsena, FAO helped us put our discussions about the gender issues related to food security into a global context.
We walked from FAO to our hotel, the Hotel Santa Prisca in the Testaccio area of Rome. Everyone got settled and grabbed a bite to eat, and around 2:30 we headed up to IFAD to learn about the International Land CoalitionWe heard from three very young members of the ILC team, and it was refreshing to see recent Master’s graduates so involved in such a big project.
The presentation they gave, and the discussions that we had, were fascinating, and most of the class remained really engaged, despite our early and long day. Fortunately, Nathan also had the foresight to bring some “Pocket Espresso” for all of us!
After IFAD, we all went our separate ways to explore Rome for a little while before dinner. Some people went to see La Basilica di San Pietro, some went shopping, and others chose to take a nap. We all met downstairs around 8 PM for dinner and walked to a nearby pizzeria (Remo’s) where we had delicious pizza and a few Morettis. After dinner, Nathan left us to our own devices, so we took off for a nearby bar, On the Rox, where we had a great time dancing!
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