Submitted by Adam Richards on the 2018 winter session program in Italy sponsored by the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics and the Department of English…
This past week was one of the most exciting weeks of my life. I have never left the country before or been on a plane for more than three hours. Like anyone would be, I was not only excited, but I was very nervous. Flying and taking connecting flights was a great experience. When we landed, we got on a bus and headed to our first destination, Volterra, Italy. We are currently staying on a campus called SIAF (Scuola Internazionale di Alta Formazione) which is a campus for international college students. Our first tour was of the city we are staying in – Volterra. Volterra is one of the oldest cities in Italy and was great to see, it was such a change of pace. Stone and narrow streets, fascinating views, and ancient artifacts.
Our next day trip was to the tourist attraction, the leaning tower of Pisa. We toured the cathedral and climbed the tower so we could see the entire city. The cathedral was the biggest stand out to me so far. The structure, the decoration and the overall size of the cathedral was amazing. The ceilings were solid gold. It was mesmerizing. We learned that Galileo experimented in both the cathedral and the leaning tower. On our way back to Volterra from Pisa, we stopped at the Piaggio Museum, which was a museum filled with motorcycles: the first Vespa, different special additions, the timeline of Piaggio and how the Vespa was developed over the years.
Our latest trip of the week was to Siena, which included a tour of the city, free time to explore museums and climb towers, and concluded with a group dinner. We visited Sienna on a Italian holiday where there was a show in the center of the city “del campo”. Our meal at the end of the night was delicious, just like our first night in Volterra. We had appetizers which included bread, prosciutto, salami, and cheese, then followed by two courses of pasta (Ravioli and homemade noodles), then a serving of duck, and finished up with an incredible Italian dessert.
