Pre-session Summer 2018
(May 16-May 30) 
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Author: madison.pilk
It was our last full day in Italy and the group had the choice of staying in Milan or going to Lake Como. I chose to go to Lake Como. Our departure there was a little stressful. We all walked to the metro together and rode it to Milano Centrale. In Milano Centrale, we bought train tickets to Varenna. By the time everyone that was going had bought their ticket, it was 8:06 and our train would depart at 8:20. This is where things got a little stressful. We all raced upstairs to look at the departing trains to find our platform. The tickets we buy usually have a train number on them, but since this was one of the local trains, we didn’t have the luxury of figuring it out by train number. We had to look for where each local train would go. Thankfully, we had Dr. Permenter with us because she was the one that was able to find out which train we needed to be on and we all hopped on, just in the nick of time. We were almost at our stop, Varenna, when we were starting to see the Swiss Alps and some of Lake Como. We had finally arrived at our destination and started walking towards the ferry. Once we were close to the ferry, we saw beautiful Lake Como and the Swiss Alps. We stayed in Varenna for a bit doing a little shopping and having photo sessions. Our next stop was Bellagio. When getting off the ferry and into the town, I noticed some steps that lead into the water and told my group that we should sit there for a while, they all agreed. We all sat there enjoying the views and taking our last looks of Italy in. After about an hour or two, we went to a restaurant for some lunch. I had to try their minestrone soup, mostly because I was a little chilly, but it was a must try while in Italy, because they have a yellow broth instead of a brown broth like America does. It had to have been the best soup that I have ever tasted in my life. After lunch, we all decided to move onto our next destination, Como. We had barely made the boat to Como. When we got on, we saw that the entire group was already on the boat. It took about an hour to get to Como from Bellagio. When we arrived, we all decided to find out where the train station was so that we could get our tickets back to Milan. After buying our tickets we went to a park by the Tempio Voltiano. We sat and watched the swans for the last few hours. It was kind of bittersweet at the end of the day because we had seen some breathtaking views of Lake Como from three different towns and it was also our last full day here. We will miss you Italy and we...
Milan is known for being the city of fashion. However, I do not keep up with fashion and I am definitely not a fashionista. So, instead of looking at the next clothing item to buy, I did a spire walk. It was quite interesting to walk up a spiral staircase with hundred sixty nine steps to get to the edge of the roof of the Duomo di Milano. We had an amazing view of the spires from the moment we walked out of the door of the staircase. I think it was even better that we were able to walk up another seventy one steps to be sitting on top of the roof. The view from up here was absolutely breathtaking! Nothing could have made the city more gorgeous, except maybe the removal of all the construction work being done of the Duomo and the buildings nearby. While I didn’t get to go up in the Duomo di Santa Maria and see the entire city of Florence, I was able to climb the Duomo di Milano and see the entire city of fashion. When in Milan, you should visit the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele and spin the balls of Taurus the Bull. Spinning on his balls three times is said to bring one good luck. This has actually created a divot in the floor. Also, if you are able to do one complete spin without touching your other foot to the ground in this very divot, it is said that you will return to Milan one day. I might not have spun around in the divot three times, I was able to do a complete spin on my right foot without my left touching the ground.
...Poppi is a small town with little to no tourists. But in saying that it was largely connected to Dante. Especially Castello di Romena and Castello di Poppi. Castello di Romena used to have two different walls. An internal and an external. The external wall contained the warning tower. Which was used in order to warn the castles nearby that they were under attack or to communicate with each other. The people contained within the external wall were allowed to come into the internal circle for protection. In order for those people to get into the internal wall they had to pass through essentially the protection tower. As you walk through this tower and look upwards you can see murder hole. These were used to throw oil and spears down at the enemy in hopes to kill them. Once inside of the internal wall, we have the castle and the prison tower. Dante was actually imprisoned here. He was invited to Castello di Romena to counterfeit Florentine coins. Dante refused to counterfeit the coins and he was imprisoned in this tower. While there he was forced to counterfeit the coins. The prison tower was arranged by levels of crime. The worst being at the bottom. Here, he was inspired to write the inferno with the worst of sins at the bottom. Castello di Poppi is close to where he fought in battle with the Guelfs against the Ghebellines.
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Much of Venice is a Fish is about guiding the typical tourist to experience the best parts of Venice. All you have to do is listen, ask, see, or get lost. In order to be found, you must first be lost. This can be taken in a multitude of ways. It could mean that you are lost in the streets and you can find the areas that no tourist knows about. Or it could mean that you can find out who you are while you are here. I have done both. I got lost walking to AND from the San Marco Basilica. In doing so, I had found a piazza that was filled with children screaming and running around playing futbol, or what we call soccer. Just standing there and listening to the sounds of the piazza and watching the Venetians walk around was such a wonderful experience. It’s one of the many things I will never be able to forget about of this trip. In the way of finding out who you are. I have found that I am learning and gaining so much from this trip. If you couldn’t tell from my last blog or through the one you are currently reading. I never thought I would connect the readings to Italy or to myself on this trip. But it’s happening. This trip is changing who I am and in this trip changing me, I am finding myself. Another thing I learned while in Venice is that I should have brought my moleskin with me on the gondola. Which was amazing! It had such breathtaking views. However, what I really wanted to have it for was so that I could write down all the information and history that our gondolier was feeding us. The one time I had actually wanted my moleskin, I didn’t have it. I wanted it because our gondolier told us that the water was salt water, Venice was hand built from the water up, and it contains four hundred some odd bridges and one hundred some odd churches. He would tell us about what things were, especially churches. There was one that was from the 15th century. I wanted my moleskin so that I could get the exact number he said but sadly I didn’t have it. I really wish I had it with me! Everything was a beautiful site and every turn was worth a picture. From the views off the bridges to the first site of the grand canal when one walks out of the train station and to each and every turn you make in the city. One of my favorite sites, besides the gondola of course, was San Marcos Basilica. The entire ceiling was gold but my favorite spot was on top of the roof. While I did have to pay 5 euros to get up there, it had such a beautiful view of the piazza and the water. Definitely worth the 5 euro! It was an amazing “free” day...
Firenze is a wonderful city here in Italy. It is Dante’s hometown and we have been learning so much about him. We have seen his house, his church, the baptistery in which he was baptized, and much more. It’s all starting to come together. In the Dante class, we have begun to connect why we are here in Italy and reading Dante’s Inferno. Dante was brought up Catholic. The Catholics have what is known as the Holy Trinity. God, the son, and the Holy Spirit. In the Pantheon, we noticed that there were circles and squares present everywhere. In the dome, the floor and the walls. One represents God and the other represents the son or his people. The Holy Trinity is the combination of both the circles and squares. Where as in Catholicism it is the representation of god in all people. With the combination of circles and squares in the Pantheon we have a sense of balance between the two, which gives a sense of lightness to the mind and body. Another thing that has connected being here in Italy to Dante is moving from city to city. As he did after he was exiled by his own people. All because the Pope was power hungry. We might have only been to two cities so far but I still have four or five cities left to visit. One of which being Poppi, where his presents was great. While here in Florence, I have seen and learned so many things. My favorite had to have been Michelangelo’s sculpture of David. Just seeing David’s veins and muscles depicted in the sculpture was amazing. How can one guy create such a detailed sculpture to where it has veins? Everyone before Michelangelo couldn’t get the imperfect piece of marble to be a good sculpture of David. All the artist before him wanted to depict David after his victory but Michelangelo decided to depict David before. So Michelangelo was able to turn an imperfect piece of marble into something with perfection and grave detail. Even David is surrounded by circles and squares.
...Well, not the first night but it was our first night out on the town, site seeing and learning. Today was beautiful and I couldn’t have chosen a favorite monument from today. Not only did we get to see the Colosseum, we got to see the Roman Forum, the Arch di Constantine, the “Wedding Cake,” Trajan’s column, the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius, and so much more but we were also able to attend a lecture at the University of Rome. We received a wonderful lecture about the impact of American Literature on Italian culture and people from Professor Mariani. I learned that Italy loved American literature because it was modernized and wasn’t regulated by the government. Much of today was a great learning experience, we all learned so much about the Roman Colosseo. While we did learn a lot, I think the coolest part of today’s learning experience was that if the gladiators that fought in the Colosseo were good fighters, they were able to teach the younger gladiators and were paid to do so. When the Colosseo was in its prime, it could hold 70,000 Romans. Although, it held 70,000 people, only 50,000 had seats. The rest had to stand. The people who had to stand were the poor and women. The lower you were in the Colosseo the richer you were. Being on the top floor of the Colosseo made it hard to see and you had to stand up on the third level. The stairs in the Colosseo are very steep and the higher you got in the Colosseo the closer the steps were. This was to save space. I also learned that gelato is way better than ice cream and pigeons like whipped cream. Who knew!
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