After the great weather over the break, soccer Monday was unfortunately cancelled because of the rain. However, conversation exchange, movie night and game night were still on. Plus there was a Spring Break scavenger hunt presentation. Before we left you could choose to participate and got a list that included things like, “take a picture with a statue,” “a postcard” and “a ticket stub from a cultural institution.” So the presentation gave students the opportunity to show everything they collected off their list.
Friday we went on an excursion to a Medici Villa close to Prato. We got to go through and see the art and how the villa was set up. Then we went on a tour of a vineyard and got to do a wine and olive oil tasting. The vineyard for me was the highlight of the trip. We got to see the wine making process that they have been doing at this particular vineyard for centuries; from the collection of grapes, the room where they are kept for months, to the barrels where they are aged. They even had bottles of wine that dated back to 1925.We also got to see the machine they use to extract the olive oil at the vineyard, and it was all so interesting. We have heard about the process in the Food Quality class, but after seeing how the process works, it puts a picture to it and helps us understand it better.
After the first two stops we made one last stop at a place called Artimino, where there was yet another villa that we saw; this time from the outside. There were some cute little shops to look in, but the one thing that all these places have that we visit is the amazing view. They were all located on a mountain side so you could see so far over the mountain. The view was breathtaking, but impossible to describe and not a single picture shows how beautiful it really is.
This week we also took a trip to Florence for art history. The class got to go to the Uffizi and see a lot of the art work that we have been studying for the first half of the year. There is a big difference between seeing a picture of artwork and seeing it in person; it’s an entirely different experience and it evokes an entirely different emotional response. Some of the artwork is so much bigger than you’d imagine, and some of it is so much smaller.
Saturday the weather was beautiful again. The streets were packed with people shopping, talking, eating or just hanging out enjoying the company and the sun. There is a carousel in the Piazza, cotton candy was for sale, there were people fencing and cheering, and everyone was all hyped up. The sense of community here is so uplifting; you can’t just walk around alone, because people are going to include you and they are going to say hi. It is impossible to not be interested in what is going on around you, and just walking around Prato can lift the spirits of your worst mood. With all of this fun, it is sad to think about how we are more than halfway through our time here.
