Buonasera amici!
This past weekend I had the opportunity to travel with Syracuse University to Assisi, Italy. The ride took about two hours via bus. As we were arriving, we had to look up to see the town, as it sits on high ground with a wall surrounding it. Although the town is relatively small, with narrow winding streets and views of the countryside, Assisi is the birthplace of Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of Italy.
During my visit, I spent hours inside the Basilica di San Francesco learning about all of the beautiful frescos depicting the life of Francis and I was even able to go see his tomb. It was a moving experience, especially seeing how important it was for so many people to be there. In my art history class we are learning about frescos and techniques used to create them, so it was neat to be able to connect what I learned in class to what I had just seen in person. I look forward to more site visits like this one.
On Sunday, my Urban Sustainability professor took the class on a bike ride outside of Florence. I didn’t know what to expect when he first told us about it. Turns out we ended up biking from 9am to 5:30pm, and when we weren’t biking we were taking a short break for lunch or walking around. It was definitely a good workout. One of the places we biked to was a WWF Oasis, a conservation site where animals (mostly birds and amphibians) can rest away from civilization. As I looked out at one of the ponds from the observatory, I saw some cool looking birds and a flamingo!
This Saturday, my Sustainability class will be going to Milan and I think we are biking again. Hopefully no one gets lost or breaks a bike this time. I’ll let you know how that goes in next weeks post!
Ciao Ciao,
Stephanie