Submitted by Kendall Barger on the 2014 winter session program in Italy sponsored by the Department of Philosophy…
Our group is having a blast exploring Italy! We left Rome and moved on to the beautiful city of Florence. This was a truly special place to visit, as there are many important sites associated with Galileo, who is the main subject of our science and religion class. We took a hike to find the observatory he used, explored the Galileo Museum, and saw the house owned by his son where he lived for one year. That was neat to see–the house still had the family’s coat of arms on the walls and a portrait of Galileo above the door. We had spent a lot of class time throughout the first week of the trip talking about Galileo, so to get to see pieces of his history in Florence really brought the class to life. In addition, we visited the Uffizi and the Academy. Both museums were filled with incredible artwork and showed how significant the city was to the growth of the Renaissance and Italy’s cultural history. We also walked along the Ponte Vecchio, the only bridge in Florence to have survived World War II. It’s filled with shops and vendors and overlooks the Arno River, providing some beautiful views.
One of the best parts of this program is that we get to see so many different places throughout Italy. It’s fascinating to compare our experiences in Rome with those in Florence. Rome is a giant city that is always busy and filled with people, whereas Florence is much smaller and more intimate. Today we have traveled from Florence to Volterra, a small town in Tuscany. It will certainly be nice to see a different side of Italy and we can’t wait to see what this piece of the program has in store! Ciao!