Florence: Day trip to Siena, home-cooked dinner

On our third day of our stay in Florence, we took a day trip to Siena, a nearby city in Tuscany.















Siena has many beautiful streets, and students were invited to divide up into small groups and take some time to explore the center of the town.



The cathedral of Siena was magnificent both outside and inside!  The exterior facade was ornate, and we compared it to Florence's similar cathedral.

Inside, Siena's cathedral is a remarkable example of medieval Christian Hebraism, with many scenes from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament adorning its walls and floor.  Zach and I looked through the map of the cathedral and identified the many Hebraic references in it.





















Many students chose to climb to a panoramic view of Siena.  They persevered even though it had begun to rain, and were rewarded with remarkable views of the city!

After we returned to Florence, each room of students was randomly assigned a course of dinner--antipasti, primi piatti, dolci, etc.  For instance, Max, Roarke, and Zach made bruschetta as an antipasto.

Students worked together to prepare any dish of their choice that fit into that course, and we ate the dishes all together in the courtyard of our residence, as a potluck.

At the potluck, we shared stories of what we did when we split up into small groups earlier in Siena.  JJ had bought some masks, and we took turns trying them on.  If there's an Abbey Road masquerade in our future, we'll be ready!

Florence: Accademia, Uffizi, Duomo, pool party

We are now in Florence!  In Florence, we are staying in a residence, rather than hotel rooms--each rooming group of students has a small apartment, complete with a kitchen.  Check back for posts about our first home-cooked dinner here in Florence!

In the meantime, I want to recap our first two days in Florence.  We arrived in Florence on the afternoon of July 22.  Florence is a beautiful city, often recognized for its heritage in the Italian Renaissance.  In addition, it has an important contemporary visual and performing arts scene, a deep ancient history, and a complex web of relationships with other cities in Tuscany that dates back to the medieval period.  We are exploring and learning about all those things during our stay.















After taking a little bit of time to settle into the apartments, we visited the Accademia, which is where Michelangelo's David is housed, along with many other beautiful pieces of art.  There was an exhibit of early musical instruments, such as harpsichords, which was particularly attractive to our musicians in the group--Roarke, Griffin, and Cora.

We had planned to walk around the city, over the Ponte Vecchio (pictured above), and try gelato at a few different places.  But shortly after we left the Accademia, a heavy thunderstorm began.  We took shelter in a marketplace/food court where the students from Abbey Road's Florence program were having small group dinners, and we broke into small groups.  It was a big place, and it was hard for the groups to find each other, but some of our Western Civilization students did encounter students from the Florence group and got acquainted, which was good preparation for the next evening's plans.

The next day, July 23, we began our day at the Uffizi, one of the world's great art museums.  The Uffizi has incredible collections of a variety of types, and it's where some of the great Renaissance works such as Botticelli's The Birth of Venus are housed.

As we often do in museums, students are encouraged to explore, document their findings, and bring back findings and ideas for discussion.

Renaissance art is a passion of JJ's--he has expressed this at several moments during this trip--and we could hardly pull him away from the collections when it was time to go!



After some exploration, students paused to discuss what they had seen.  The Uffizi has seating in a long corridor decorated with statues, with beautiful natural light.  This created a wonderful environment for discussing the art.





















In the afternoon, about half the students decided to join our optional activity, climbing the Duomo.  It's a pretty physically intense activity--lots of steep stairs and narrow passageways--but you are rewarded with an amazing view of Florence.

We continued making connections with the Abbey Road program resident in Florence.  We joined up again with the students in that program for a pool party at a beautiful park a little outside the city center, complete with electronic music performances.  Many of our students made good connections with the Florence program's students, and exchanged information.  We will encounter them again when we visit Cinque Terre in a few days.  

Although our first night in Florence was rainy, the weather was perfect on this, our second night.  The sky was mesmerizing!

 Photos by Hannah Welch

Guest blogging: Roarke

Several students have been keeping their own journals of the trip.  Their reflections take a variety of forms, and a few students have encouraged me to share their narratives here on our blog.

Roarke has enjoyed reflecting on each city as we conclude our time there.  In considering Rome, he wrote:

Rome was a very interesting and cool city. It was filled with history in every corner. With so many important sites to see from the Pantheon to the Forum to the Spanish Steps, my favorite was the Coliseum. It was a spectacular site and was very interesting. Made during the Flavian Dynasty, it was used for public executions, feeding discriminated Christians to lions, bears, water battles and more. In the morning, executions would take place then the battles. It could seat thousands of people and even slaves were allowed to watch but with their own part of the seats. After the "bread and circuses" era stopped, it was taken over by nature and homeless people. It was then eventually made to a site for the people.

Roarke has expressed himself in a wide variety of ways in this trip so far, from asking penetrating questions to helping with logistics, and from reflective writing to playing at the beach!  Here, he and Justyna, our coordinator, are paddling away at Glyfada beach near Athens.

Photos by Hannah Welch

Rome: The Vatican, churches around Rome

Today's post is a special one.  Hannah Welch, our staff photographer, has been giving advice to a few students who are avid photographers, and the student photographers have grown and developed their skills significantly in only a few weeks.  Just for the day, Hannah passed the torch to Claire Blood-Cheney, one of our students who has been photographing the trip avidly, and so Claire's photos illustrate this blog post.  (If you're following Hannah's photos, don't worry, you'll see more of her work in the next post.)

This is Claire in a rare moment in front of the camera rather than behind it.

On our final day in Rome, we visited the Vatican museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter's.  The Vatican museums house many beautiful objects.  As we have done in previous museums, students were given options--they could follow us instructors and hear our perspectives, they could explore on their own, or they could mix those approaches.  We saw amazing tapestries, frescoes, and other pieces of art.  Max has been particularly attentive to ceilings, and the Vatican offered him many ceilings to photograph and inquire about.



One pleasant surprise in the Vatican museums was the modern and contemporary art collection we encountered near the end.  Zhouyi enjoyed considering the Vatican's contemporary art pieces.

Although the Vatican museums were pretty crowded, as they often are, we still had a few opportunities to stop and contemplate the significance and beauty of the place, as Alex is doing in this picture.




After we returned to Rome, students had free time to explore, with an optional tour of a few key churches in Rome in the late afternoon.  This was also a day when a number of students used a portion of free time to develop and discuss their final projects.  Each student has been invited to construct a project exploring a theme that we have encountered in our travels that is of interest to them.  The project can take a variety of forms of media--photo essay, written essay, video, fiction writing, and many more.  Alexis and Alex each took some time to consider and research ideas for their final projects, and they have both proposed very promising projects!

 Photos by Claire Blood-Cheney

Rome: Da Vinci Museum, Spanish Steps, Pantheon, Aventine

On our fifth day in Rome, July 20, we had a few optional activities in the first part of the day.  Some students chose to visit the Da Vinci Museum exhibit, a hands-on exhibit conveniently located near our hotel.  Also, many students chose to visit the Spanish Steps.  Some students did both!  

Later that day, we gathered as a whole group to visit the Pantheon.  It was built in the early generations of the Roman Empire, and is important architecturally and historically.  It has served many purposes over the the last (nearly) two thousand years.

Before we entered the building we paused to briefly make observations and guesses about the building, and we had a short lesson on the story of its construction.

Once inside, we spent time walking around independently.  Students could choose to follow one or more of the instructors around the Pantheon, and as instructors we each offered a different perspective and different facts, stories, and analytical contributions.  They could also explore on their own.  Most students combined those approaches.

The dome of the Pantheon is massive--a tremendous feat of engineering.  JJ and Griffin, both of whom have expressed strong interests in architecture, were most impressed.

After visiting the Pantheon, we went to a park in the Aventine.  Justyna, our coordinator, had invited Max, Nila, and Emila to help to select and gather items for a picnic dinner in the park.  They brought delicious traditional Roman foods, including the artichokes which Rome is famous for, and they even brought a game to play.

 It was a perfect night for a picnic, and the park we visited was beautifully situated, with a view of much of the city of Rome.  After working hard to prepare the picnic, Nila and Emila enjoyed the view with Chloe.

Cora, Claire, Alex, and Alexis also enjoyed the scenery, and chatted animatedly together about the trip so far.

 The park not only had a great view, it had a special secret nearby.  The "Aventine keyhole," located in the entrance of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, is cunningly placed to offer a beautifully framed view of the dome of St. Peter's.  If you look through the keyhole, this is what you see.

It's difficult to get a picture that captures the view through the keyhole, but Hannah, our staff photographer, managed it!  She was able to give tips to some of our avid student photographers, who also tried to get pictures through the keyhole.  I think Claire succeeded!

Photos by Hannah Welch

Rome: Borghese Gallery, Capuchin Crypt, Forum

On July 19, our fourth day in Rome, we had an eclectic and full day of experiential learning.  We began in the Borghese Gallery.  Each student was randomly assigned one significant artwork, and was asked to find it and spend at least five minutes with it.  This is a technique of close looking that can aid in deepening both analysis and experience of an artifact.

Along with locating and considering their single assigned work, students had time in the gallery to connect with pieces they admired.  Many of us--staff and students alike--were affected intellectually and aesthetically by Bernini's sculpture of Apollo and Daphne.  We had learned about the story of Daphne in Athens, and seeing Bernini's all too realistic version of this fantastical story was amazing.

After taking a long lunch break to explore the grounds of the Villa Borghese, we went to a very different site of art.  The Capuchin Crypt, also known as the Bone Church, was awe-inspiring.  The crypt is a multi-room monument to mortality.  In the 18th century, parts from over 3,000 skeletons were used to make an extraordinary art installation.  It's a remarkable place, and it's also a place where photography is prohibited.  The rule against photography meant that students looked at the crypt only with their own eyes, and fully experienced the aesthetic and spiritual elements of the crypt.  It was a very special day for many of us.

We ended the day with a walk through the Roman Forum.  In Athens, we had looked at the use of public space in the Agora and other spaces; we continued that thematic thread in our analysis of the Roman Forum, learning about political rhetoric, market practice, and sacred space.

Standing on the very ground where the ancient Romans stood was truly powerful.

Photos by Hannah Welch

Rome: Capitoline Museums, Colosseum

On our third day in Rome, we visited the Capitoline Museums in the morning.  The Capitoline Museums are a vast and rich collection of artifacts from the history of Rome.

The Museums were built originally to house a few critically important bronze sculptures.  One of them depicted a moment in one of the founding legends of Rome: when a she-wolf found the abandoned Romulus and Remus, and raised them as her own.

Later on, we studied the uniqueness and the commonness of the Colosseum, and observed how it compared to other theaters and public spaces we had seen in Athens.  Claire has been documenting the formation of national identity (a potential final project?) and considered the Colosseum carefully in relation to the ways Romans constructed their identities.

We learned about gladiator fights and other public entertainments that took place in the Colosseum.  Max, Griffin, JJ, Roarke, and Zach practiced deciding a gladiator's fate!

Photos by Hannah Welch

Rome: Naples and Pompeii

The day after we arrived in Rome, we took a day trip to visit Naples and Pompeii.

Once we reached Naples, we visited the Naples Archaeological Museum.  Students divided into small groups and each group agreed on a theme to provide a thread to follow through the museum--they could choose any theme they wanted.  Themes included facial expressions in ancient art, comparisons between Greek and Roman statues, and sexuality in the ancient world (the museum has a famous collection related to sexual expression).

Griffin, JJ, and Paris traveled through the museum rapidly and thoroughly!

Claire explored the museum with her camera, documenting evidence for her group.

After walking through the museum and studying their chosen theme as represented in the museum's collections, we reconvened as a larger group and discussed and reported on what we found.  

The students observed that some of their themes related well to other groups' themes, and took note of how they were able to get a clearer whole picture of the ancient Roman world by integrating multiple groups' findings.  For many students, this was good practice and inspiration for their individual, customized final projects!

At lunch, we celebrated a very important day: Cora's 16th birthday!  

We sang her "Happy birthday" in Italian, and briefly talked about the evidence that ancient Roman women celebrated their birthdays too!

Later on, we explored Pompeii.  It was magnificent in its ordinariness!  One of our favorite spots was the baths, where we were able to really imagine ancient Pompeiians socializing, working out, and washing up.

Photos by Hannah Welch

Rome: Arriving and Exploring

On July 16, we arrived in Rome.  Although we had had a long travel day, we still wanted to spend some time exploring the city where we had newly arrived, so we took a walk.  We began in the Campo de' Fiori, which is perhaps a two minute walk from our hotel.

From there, our stalwart navigators, Griffin, JJ, and Zach, studied their maps and led us around some nearby places in Rome.

We went to a bridge over the Tiber River.  We all enjoyed the beautiful views of the river from the bridge.  Claire and Alex, both enthusiastic student photographers, remarked on the loveliness of the light nearby--it was almost sunset.

We tried our first (first of many!) gelato, at a shop near Campo de' Fiori.  They had a wide variety of flavors.  Some, like chocolate and strawberry, were familiar to most of us, while others, like fior di latte (milk) and straciatella, were more unusual.

After gelato, some students felt tired, and so they went back to the hotel.  Other students wanted to explore more, so we visited Piazza Navona.  Piazza Navona has a number of important pieces of public art, including the Fountain of the Four Rivers by Bernini.

In the coming days, we would see many more pieces by Bernini, so this was a good introduction to his work, and to Rome in general.

Photos by Hannah Welch

Farewell, Athens!

From Rome, I'm reflecting now on our final couple of days in Athens.  In our second to last day in Athens, one group of students went to the beach, and a smaller group of students stayed in the city to explore the agora, the Library of Hadrian, and other sites.  We also spent some time as a group on our rooftop--we reflected on the program so far, distributed anonymous feedback forms to the students, played a game, and enjoyed the outstanding views!  Many of the students enjoyed posing for photos with the sunset, including Alexis, Chloe, Nila, Alex, and Emila.

On our last day in Athens, students broke into small groups to explore the Plaka and Monasteraki neighborhoods independently.  They returned to sights they had enjoyed, shopped, people-watched, and generally soaked up the atmosphere of the city.  That night, we had a traditional Greek dinner on the rooftop terrace of a restaurant.  Students told stories and showed each other the results of their small-group explorations--their purchases of traditional Greek products like sandals and worry beads, and many, many selfies!

Then, we went to the Dora Stratou Dance Theater to learn some Greek folk dancing together!

Paris and Claire even got to try on traditional costumes!

Photos by Hannah Welch