Ciao!

Last weekend, we took another break from traveling, and, instead, just hung out in Prato, and by hung out, I mean we recuperated from our previous weeks of travel. The past week has been constant studying, as it was midterm week for us here in Italy. To take a break from studying, our Italian professor, Piero, took us on a mini field trip to the University of Florence in Prato. We got to see what a university looks like here as compared to home and, let me tell you, it is not the same as America.

We had to do a scavenger hunt in the school, which was not that difficult because the whole university was only one building. Piero really pushed us out of our comfort zones and made us have a conversation in Italian with some of the students at the school. Then we got to go to the radio station at the school and go on air. The radio is only aired on line and they usually only have about 30 listeners, but it was still fun. Since we have limited knowledge of the Italian language, we just kept saying random things about our life. We even all sang the chorus of a song we learned called “Mi Piace.” I enjoyed talking on the radio, though, and, maybe with a little more preparation, I could do a short radio show for my final project in Italian class.

Another field trip that we participated in was for my “Art & Science in Renaissance Italy” class. One Wednesday afternoon, the entire class took a field trip to Florence to visit the museum that is next to the Duomo of Santa Marie de Fiore. After the museum, we got to climb over 400 steps to the very top of the Cathedral. The dome of the Cathedral was built by Brunelleschi in 1418 and we got to walk on top of it! Once we reached the top of the dome, we could see all of Florence. It was beautiful. It is nice to have a break from the learning and the studying, sometimes, to take a step back and look at the world around you. I can’t wait to adventure to other parts of Europe and see what they behold. Until next time!