Submitted by Julie Dumont on the 2019 winter session study abroad program in Italy sponsored by the Department of Philosophy…
Today marks our second week here in Italy and so far we have visited the city of Florence and we arrived in Volterra yesterday. Florence was beautiful and a very different city from Rome. Florence is smaller than Rome and there were a lot less people. It was a more ascetically pleasing city with more art and medieval architecture. The first day we toured the Uffizi and Accamadia. Below are photos of one of the most famous paintings in the Uffizi and the original David statue done by Michelangelo. Something I learned about the Uffizi Museum is that “uffizi” means offices and the building of the museum was originally the offices of the Medici Palace. Another interesting thing we did in Florence was visit the leather markets. It was a very unique experience because there are so many carts and everyone is begging you to buy from them. Also, they let you negotiate prices so you can get really good deals. It was cool to see all of the leather products because Florence is known for them. We also went to see Galileo’s home and museum. It was especially cool to see his house because we talk about him a lot in our PHIL 344 class that we are taking while we are here. The house in the picture is the house that he was on house arrest in for the later part of his life when he was found guilty of heresy for his helio-centric view of the universe which went against the church of the time.
Yesterday, we arrived here in Volterra, where we will spend eight days. This city is drastically different than Rome or Florence. It is a small hill town in Tuscany and it is out in the country. It is a bit more culture shock here because barely anyone speaks English so it is harder to communicate. So far, we have not seen much of the city, but we are going to spend more time in the classroom. I will check in next week with the rest of our adventures!
