A really amazing class with a really cool professor. Andrea's lectures were very engaging and fun to participate in. The readings varied from being pretty dense like Dante's inferno to light and funny like Boccacio's Decameron. Covered a good deal of Italian history as well. I would've liked to do Andrea's study abroad program in Rome last summer but COVID did not permit, obviously. Would definitely recommend as an easy and really fun GE.

Selling the course reader:
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I loved Professor Moudarres. He was super interesting and I actually enjoyed the content of this class. The readings were VERY heavy and long, but to be honest I did not do all of them and attended maybe 50% of lectures and still ended with an A. Discussion attendance is extremely important, as it thoroughly prepared me for exams.

I actually thought this class was pretty boring, the material and reading was suuuuper dry and there was kind of a lot of work for a lower div GE

I loved this class so much and the professor! I thought the class was extremely interesting. What I really appreciated about this class was that the lectures were always about the readings, so if the readings weren't clear, it was no problem because Professor Moudarres would guide us through them in lecture. The TAs were also awesome! My TA Kelly made sections very enjoyable. The quizzes were super easy and the 2 short papers were graded VERY easily. I'd take this class and professor again in a heartbeat!

Contrary to many other students, I did not enjoy this class as much as I thought I would. Although a few of the readings were rather funny, others were dull (in my opinion). I attended every lecture and did my best to remain attentive, but around halfway through the class I would find myself distracted. There were many names to remember that were critical for the quizzes. Professor Moudarres is a very nice guy who genuinely tried to keep everything engaging, but for whatever reason, it was not enough for me unfortunately. Magdalena was my TA and she is amazing! She always reinforced concepts in interactive ways and made us laugh. I highly recommend her to anyone taking the class.

Professor Moudarres is great! This class is engaging and he is a wonderful lecturer. If you come to class and take good notes, you really don't have to do the readings. That being said, if you only do the readings and don't come to class, you can still do really well. Discussion section is mandatory, but it's really helpful (especially if you don't do the readings). There are a lot of readings and sometimes they're a little boring, but a quick skim can guarantee you a high B on a quiz. There are there quizzes and two papers. You don't need to go ham on the papers; the prompts are clear and the TAs are easy graders.
This class is DEFINITELY worth it. Each class day comprised of us basically gossiping about old Catholic popes. If you have the option to take this class, first pass it! It's popular.
The materials are required (you need them for the essay) but there are PDFs floating around the internet. If you play your cards right, this class should cost you nothing. If Magdalena is still a TA, I recommend her! She's so sweet and works really hard to make discussion section engaging.