Assignment #6

 Review the Rione assignment guidelines.  Interview a few residents in your Rione. You must interview at least one resident of the rione and one visitor to the rione (you may interview more than two).  Through both your lens and your interviewees’ lens, write about what you have learned so far about your Rione; write your initial observations. You may use the Rione guidelines to help you structure this writing assignment. More detailed guidelines on interview questions will be discussed in class. 

For now things to consider:
-For this assignment, you need only focus on one street, or even one street corner, of your Rione.
-As you get to know your neighborhood and its community, utilize and weave in your insights gained from the program thus far. See your Rione as a text and, like a text, engage it, and insert yourself into the pages of the neighborhood. Think about what you don't understand as you go out and observe, engage, and interact with your Rione. Be humble and let the place and people, sounds and rhythms of the area, tell you its story. Listen, look, and be open to discovery, and to the unpredictable and predictable reactions that the neighborhood evokes. 

The rione of Sant’Eustachio is a very small neighborhood nestled between two beautiful famous landmarks the Pantheon and Piazza Navona.  The neighborhood was named after the Saint St. Eustachius.  The crest of Sant’ Eustachio is the saint between the horns of a deer.  The story behind the crest is the soldier, Placidus from the 2^nd century, was hunting and saw a deer.  However, when he went to kill the deer a cross appeared between his horns.  After seeing this he decided to convert to Christianity and his family soon followed. Placidus then changed his name to Eustachius.  “But following his conversion they were persecuted, imprisoned and in the end they faced martyrdom.  In older versions of this coat of arms, a cross appears between the animal's horns, in place of the saint”.  

       When Brittany and I walked to Sant’Eustachio we were excited to go to the whats said to be the best coffee place in Rome.   Sant’ Eustachio Il Café was packed of locals, tourists, businessmen, and youth.  All mixed into one small café to get “the best coffee”.  We can now say that we’ve had the best and strongest coffee in Rome.   After our cappuccinos we walked across the street to the church.  As we walked in the organ was being played and the church had only a few people in it. But it was a beautiful church and wonderfully serene. 

Brittany and I started with asking a children’s clothing clerk if she lived in Sant’Eustachio, with a confused look she said no.  We asked her how she felt about the neighborhood and if she liked it.  She commented that it was a nice neighborhood but she couldn’t really say anything else about it.  She said it was just “okay”.  We then went to ask the man working at the magazine stand down the street.  After asking him if he spoke any English, he smirked and said he spoke a little. We asked him if he lived in the area and he said yes and he thought that the neighborhood had nothing that great to offer except a way to see the magnificent Pantheon.  He said that’s the only thing great about the area.  After this we decided to go into cute clothing store and asked a young woman what she felt about the neighborhood.  She replied, “its an okay neighborhood, there is nothing special about the area, except that its cute”.  For our visitors we stopped and talked to a couple on the street near the café.  After we explained our assignment to the couple and said we were American students from the University of Washington, the couple mentioned they were from England, and they were on their way to the Pantheon.  We asked them about the neighborhood, and they had no idea what area they were in and did not know any of its history. 

As a result of this activity and hearing what the local people have to say, I have learned that the Rione of Sant’Eustachio really doesn’t have all that much to offer.  However, the neighborhood is cute, has a beautiful quant church, and if you want a cappuccino from the best café in Rome, Sant’Eustachio is the place you need to stroll through.