The city of Bologna was a very interesting place. When navigating the streets you see a bunch of modern influences like graffiti or high end shops showcasing their newest merchandise. But when you turn the corner, seemingly out of nowhere a medieval tower that belonged to a high ranking noble rises into view. You can climb all 498 steps of these historic monumental tower to the top where you can see the modern day city at its finest. If history isn’t the subject for you, there’s also the influence of science and literature available to satisfy your educational needs. Bologna’s university is the oldest of the western world, and is where the reanimation of corpses with electricity first took place. Science enthusiasts: you are sated. This also inspired one of the most famous classic literary works, Frankenstein. English enthusiasts: you’re covered. Add the beautiful frescos throughout the university’s halls, and the art enthusiasts need not complain. If you still aren’t interested, might I suggest visiting their library to see the thousands of books available on display. If none of this sounds interesting to you, then you must hate fun. After seeing many of the historic sights available to the public, you can fulfill all of your excessive spending needs by shopping at the high end retailers along the surrounding piazzas. Bologna truly is a mixture of old and new, and the resulting culture is unlike anything you’ve ever seen. Bologna is truly a sight that people of varying interests can appreciate for the unique sights it has to offer its visitors. 

“When you grow up, you should join the covent!” My father would somewhat jokingly tell my sister and me when we were growing up. Well boy would he be shocked to learn that his delusion would come to life in Poppi. What the town is lacking in hotels and population, it is made up for in hospitality. The store owners (who did not speak any English) and our guides were nice beyond compare, but the group of people who stuck out the most were the wonderfully kind Sisters of Poppi. While in Poppi, the students of Slippery Rock University had the experience of overnighting in a wifi free convent. You may think this weird, but it was honestly one of the coolest experiences I’ve had. The women were extremely kind, the nuns have a free single serve coffee vending machine, and the view from our room was to die for. Let’s tackle this in order. The kindness and hospitality of the nuns: they prepared us breakfast, they constantly conversed with us, and when there was an unexpected rain storm and all of us left our windows open they made the room rounds and shut all of them. Second: the coffee machine. I want one for my house. You could choose one of twelve beverage options, and it would make you the perfect cup of choice. Third: the view. Imagine terra cotta roofs, small gardens, and far off photogenic mountains. Add in a surplus of silence (Slippery Rock students not included) and you have yourself the perfect rural atmosphere.  I’m not one for medieval castles, but the view from both the Romena and Poppi castles was gorgeous. Add in rooms fully decked out in frescos, and you could paint me impressed. The detail and precision of these frescos seemed too perfect to be hand painted. The hike to these castles took a toll on all of us, but the view made the shortness of breath and burning calves worth it.

For my free day, I decided to go to the wonderful city of Venezia. After arrival we got off to a rough start. The weather was cold and rainy, the streets were filled with puddles, and of course we couldn’t find our hotel. All of this was being done without an umbrella (which I coincidentally left in Firenze) , so as you can imagine, we were soaked. Later Becca and I broke off from the group to go exploring or what I like to call “getting lost on purpose.” We somehow made it to San Marco, and took in all of its beauty. We then navigated the backstreets back to our hotel to take a quick break. We eventually got hungry and asked the concierge at the front desk his favorite restaurant. He told us the name of the establishment and even mapped out all the turns to take on our map. But that would prove to not be enough of a navigation tool because we, yet again, got lost. After wandering for about 30 minutes, we stopped in a tie shop to ask for directions. Turns out, the restaurant was right down the street behind us. We made our way over, and it ended up being a delicious meal.  At this time it was around ten, so we decided to leave in order to find our way back to the hotel. Fun fact: streets look way different at night. We ended up wandering around for about an hour and stopped to ask three different groups of people for directions. Thankfully we got back to the hotel around eleven, safe and sound. At this point I accepted the fact that I did not quite enjoy Venezia, and was all to ready to head back to Firenze. But, the next morning we hopped in a gondola for a ride. This experience helped sway Venezia back to the good side, but what really did the trick was reading Inferno on a set of steps facing the river. This improvement is due to my love of bodies of water and reading. Just sitting there admiring the landscape while reading over the complexities of Dante’s work seemed to anchor me. In that moment I felt my first connection to the Italian landscape and lifestyle, and I truly came to appreciate the opportunity I had been given to be in such a wonderful culture and country. 

Have you ever had that moment in life where you suddenly find that your knowledge from school has benefitted you? Well, I had one of those moments yesterday, when seeing David by Michelangelo. This past year was my first year in the pre-PT program, and in this program we had to take applied anatomy. Applied anatomy consisted of identifying muscles and what movements are involved with each muscle. So when seeing David, the muscle structure and groupings immediately caught my eye. The definition and shadows of the muscles were not only correctly placed anatomically, but also activated in the body’s proper position. It was astounding seeing the mix of art and science at work, and the size of the statue itself drew attention to the detail. Michaelangelo must have extensively studied the human body and muscle groupings to make David as accurate as he did. Only someone with extensive knowledge on the human body would have been able to accomplish such a feat. After admiring the statue for about an hour more, a couple of the other students in the group and I decided to get gelato. We went to a place called “La Strega Nocciola” (or the naughty witch, for all you English speakers). On the way there we just so happened to pass an elderly man with an accordion strapped to his back. As luck would have it, just as he passed behind us, he let out the loudest fart I have ever heard. Due to the decibel of the noise, we were all able to hear it and proceeded to make eye contact with each other. Unable to contain our ourselves, we all erupted in laughter. 

You know that feeling when you are extremely sleep deprived, but need to do work, so you keep going? That is how I felt after arriving in Rome. I had gotten an hour of sleep on the plane, and slept horribly the night before, so I felt like a zombie walking. After a while  we decided to take a break from our small bout of sightseeing, and stop for gelato. As we walked to our destination, the famous Giolitti’s, Drs. Permenter and O’Connor discussed the process of purchasing and ordering gelato. I was pretty confident in my ability to order in Italian, so when I got to the counter I started to order. Midway through my order the man serving me behind the counter asked, “Deutsch?” which made me stop and consider what he meant by that. After about thirty seconds, I realized that I had been speaking German! I had taken five years of German, and due to either sleep deprivation or automatic response, had automatically started speaking it. I then proceeded to start apologizing (again) and got so frustrated with my inability to properly function that I yelled “shiße!” (aka shit) also in German. I eventually gave up and just apologized to the server in English, while he was laughing at me and saying “shiße” multiple times. After the initial embarrassment, I can honestly say I am probably the only American to have spoken German in Italy, and that I probably gave that server an interesting story to tell others.