Ciao,

Italy is one of the most beautiful places on earth; that’s pretty much all I was thinking as I looking out the plane window. We were greeted at the airport by the staff of the Prato campus. It was such a surreal experience.

From the airport we were taken to our dorm rooms; my room is in the building next to the school.  The school is in this cute building right next to a church. The building is set up kind of strange through so I know I’m going to get lost a few times. We are right in a square and only a few blocks away is the Duomo, which is the cathedral in Prato and you can get to pretty much anything from that square. The train is only a few blocks from there and then all the restaurants, shops and cafés are all around that square. I’m terrible with directions so I know it’s going to take me a while to get used to where everything is.

The first few days the staff took us around Prato and we all had a really amazing five-course dinner. The food here is so much better than I could have even imagined. The tough part though is figuring out what you’re ordering. A lot of the waiters know some English so they can translate it for you but sometimes, it’s a mix of Italian and English as they try to explain it and I usually only catch every other word.  The good thing is you can’t ever really go wrong when ordering food though.

During the orientation period, I went on a walking tour of some of the most famous places in Prato. It was really cool to learn about the history of the city; for instance, the patron saint of Prato is Saint Steven and he is depicted in paintings and statues all over Prato. Also, the Duomo is famous for having the Virgin Mary’s belt. I found it all really interesting and the history surrounding Prato is so fascinating. I also got to go inside the castle in Prato. The castle was never finished but Mussolini and Hitler both visited the castle as it was being constructed. It’s so crazy to think they walked through the same halls we are now walking through.

We also went to Florence for a day. We walked on the Ponte Vecchio Bridge. The view of the river from there is so beautiful. The only shops on the bridge are jewelry shops and they sell mostly gold, so it’s known as the Bridge of Gold. We start class soon, which I was looking forward to but now that I’m here I would much rather it just be a vacation. I am really excited for what’s to come from these next few months, though.

Tanti saluti da,

Jess Sullivan