Category: Europe

Weekend Trip to Capri and Sorrento (Part 1)

Published on by lhnevarezLeave a comment

I was able to go on a school-sponsored weekend trip to Pompei, the Sorrento Coast, and a nice visit to the island city of Capri. This is covering the first day of my three-day, two-night trip.

To start off, I had to wake up early to meet at Piazza Trilussa at 8:30 AM to get on the 4-hour bus ride to start the weekend off with a visit to Pompei. It was a surreal experience walking through the preserved city. It was essentially the same size as some of the other cities I’ve visited but yet it was literally a ghost town lost to time. Our tour guide would point out the markets and the food stalls that used to line the streets, as we walked on the walking stones that would allow room for the carriages and the horses to do their business without causing the citizens to step on the horse’s personal business. We walked through a few houses and were able to get an amazing view of the city of Pompei from on top of a hill made to allow archeologists to survey the land as they unearthed more and more structures. It provided such a wonderful view of the expanse of the city and really allowed you to just appreciate the decades of work people have put into slowly and carefully uncovering a city buried in ash and dust. After we were done exploring the ruins, we had a delicious lunch just outside before heading off to our next location.

We toured a small family-owned pasta-making business, Pasta Cuomo, in Gragnano. One of the owners, Alfonso Cuomo, was incredibly passionate about his craft because he had the chance to reopen and reinvent his family’s business that began in the 1820s. He told us about the way that the city was once built entirely around pasta and how so much of the current block that he resides on used to be a part of the larger structure to help make the pasta for the city. He showed us the way that they used to make pasta and how the old machines used to function and work together to provide the proper foundation needed for creating the pasta. He was a wonderful host, and his passion was very evident in every word he said. Their company also works as a cooking class, bistro, museum, and BNB. I highly recommend checking them out and maybe ordering some pasta from them to help support and maintain a family business that started in the 1820s.

Once we were done there, we arrived at the 4-star hotel that was booked for us and set our stuff down before eating a 3-course Italian meal paired with dessert and more bread than we could handle. The people at the hotel were truly kind and made sure that we had enough water and food to allow us to just relax before we got to rest before our day in Capri.

The Classroom Experience at Lorenzo De Medici

Published on by Claudia CutlerLeave a comment

I have officially reached my fourth week of classes, and – no offense to my previous education – I have never felt so excited to learn! This is mostly because I’m strictly taking classes that I am passionate about, but there are also other elements to it. Before I get into them, I want to mention I am taking four classes: Yoga, Meditation & Spirituality, Advanced Filmmaking, Digital Sketchbook, and World Religions. I am a film major, and the rest are personal interests. Also, if you didn’t know, I am studying at Lorenzo De Medici in Florence, Italy.

All of my professors are born and raised Italians, and they speak English well as most in Florence do. I’ve found that having Italian professors has been helpful in understanding the culture because they will more often than not connect the subject matter to Italian influence. In my digital sketchbook class, we learn how to create art using Adobe Photoshop, but in every other class we spend half of our time exploring the city to sketch statues or architecture (we incorporate our work later at the computer lab). Before my professor lets us spread out and find a spot to sketch, he’ll explain romantic lore about the widow of war waiting in a specific window above the Piazza of the Annunziata. He’ll finish his stories with an emphasis that the truth is up to interpretation – as it is just Italian folklore – and we don’t have to draw that if we don’t want to. He then proceeds to light up a cigarette and disappear to a cafe. The next day I have my film class inside of the Franco Zeffirelli museum, which is a grand display of a renounced Italian filmmaker’s work. To find the bathroom, first I have to get lost in the exhibits of Zeffirelli’s set design masterpieces and life-size mannequins wearing his character’s larger-than-life gowns. I’ll even sit down in the mini theater for a moment and catch a glimpse of whichever one of his films is playing at the moment! Lastly, my yoga professor happens to also be my religion professor, and she is always giving the best museum suggestions to seek out manifestations of what we’re learning in class. I’ve quickly come to the realization that it makes a huge difference to take classes in a location that is full of rich history!

One of the best parts of going to class is how compassionate yet casual my professors are. My digital sketchbook professor has no problem giving me the same advice in different words (I really don’t know how to draw), and it won’t be until I succeed that he admits, “Ah! I was really getting worried but now I am not!”. My film professor is hilarious and not afraid to roast his students’ work, but I prefer it to other teaching approaches because I learn faster. To give an accurate description of his style, in one class he goes, “Okay we’re going to watch a movie now. It is pretty lighthearted, but I want you to pay attention to the cinematography”. He proceeds to put on the Korean film “Old Boy”, leaving everyone in the class appalled and speechless. If you don’t know the movie, just understand there was a unanimous agreement that it is the most disturbing movie we’ve ever watched in our lifetime. However, the screenwriting and cinematography were out of this world, and now I’m inspired to push my filmmaking limits more than ever.

The last point I’ll make about studying in this program is how interesting it is to hear perspectives from international students. Especially in my World Religions class. Half of the class is from outside of America, so their perceptions of popular religions and stigmas are fascinating to compare my own experiences with. All in all, I feel like I’m learning a lot more than I would if I took the same classes in America. It’s pretty amazing!