A Crazy Past Two Weeks In Italy

It has been awhile since I last posted, but I will try and recall most of the important things that I have seen. Two weekends ago, My friend Hannah and I went to Vienna Austria and met up with our other friend Alassandra, who has been living in Italy for the past 3 years. The 11 hour train ride to Vienna was very smelly and disgusting, Europeans have a much more potent body order. Vienna itself though was beautiful. Our hostel was very clean and the staff was helpful. The German language was difficult to understand but there were several people that spoke English that gave us directions. We went to this Mozart museum that was very interactive and fun. Then that Saturday we took an hour bus ride to Bratislava, which is the capital of Slovakia. Bratislava was also very nice and the people were friendly. It was obvious that not many Americans visit the city so everyone was anxious to help us. The train ride back was much better and less smelly.

Then the week after that I began my internship at the ARCI. The ARCI is one of Italy’s oldest political organizations. It is left leaning, although is not affiliated with any political party, however many people in the organization are former communists. Communism is slightly different in Italy then in elsewhere but the history is much too complicated to explain. My boss, Maurizio, does not speak a word of English, but several of the younger Italian interns do speak some. They made it very well known how incredible it is to have American interns as twenty years ago, because of the relationship between the US and Italy, it would not have been possible. The ARCI has several departments but its main goal is to represent the disadvantaged (immigrants, minorities, homosexuals, and the poor). The department I am in is the Welfare department and my first project has been researching the Mafia and then translating my work from English into Italian. So far I have enjoyed working in the Italian culture as it is interesting to note the differences. Italians are never on time, they are more laid back, and rather disorganized. I really like working alongside younger Italians as I also learn a lot from them.

This past weekend I went to Rome on Friday. Although I only spent one day there we saw a lot, including the Forum, Capital, Coliseum, Pantheon, St. Peters, and the Vatican. St. Peters was very cool and there are many famous works of art inside. It was also a very sunny day, albeit freezing, so we got a great view of the city when we climbed St. Peters. I went along with the Michelangelo art history class so we got the privilege of spending roughly 2 hours in the Sistine Chapel, when in most cases tourists are hurried through in 15 minutes. It was incredible and I learned a lot because our teacher and TAs were there instructing. Then, that Saturday morning my friend Mike and I took a 6 AM flight to Venice. We met up with Hannah and Sam, slept for about an hour, and then walked into the city. The Carnivale celebration began that weekend so there were incredible costumes and we immediately bought masks. Venice is truly unlike any other city mostly because there are no streets but rather canals. There were a bunch of people from my school there as well so we all were able to meet up at night time to go out.

Classes are going great so far. I really like all of the site visits and field trips we are going on in my art history class. Just yesterday we went to Siena, which is about an hour away from Florence. It is one of my favorite Italian cities so far and the inside fo their Duomo is incredible. It is a very Italian city and there are not as many tourists compared to Florence. Next weekend I am going to Amsterdam and meeting up with some of my close friends from USC. I am pretty excited mostly for the Van Gogh museum and for the liberal laws regarding substances. Should be fun and I’ll make sure that take pictures.

Ciao