| For those of you who don't know, I've been living in Firenze, Italia since the beginning of this year. It's different here, to say the least. Stores close down for hours midday for a big lunch (followed by a nap).. you bag your own groceries when you stand in line.. eating dinner at 9pm is the norm.. the food, pace of life and the people are all foreign and I'm still just learning how to adjust to it (as well as the unconditional love for electronic/house music).
Italy isn't all about food, wine and soccer (though many would disagree). I am here to study, after all. However, my midterms begin next Monday, and I'm surprised to feel like they've suddenly creeped up on me! Despite the amazing classroom sessions and the learning done by simply living in Florence, I still get that rush of panic as the testing season approaches. My classes though, are beyond comparison.
I won't bore you with trivial details.. but my favorite class of all? Dante's Divine Comedy.. after all, who couldn't love the Italian poet that has created, from his own mind, the divine and universal imagery of Inferno? I admit, my own reason for taking the course is that I've always had a bizarre fascination with Dante.. I carry a mental image of a feeble old man, hunched over his desk, giggling at all the allegories and imagery that hundreds of generations to come will be distraught over. We are Dante's immortality; he places people in categories of Hell, he categorizes his own place in history and he shapes how he wants to be seen. Because of my own desire to write, how could I not admire The Commedia? How could I resist escaping into a complex world of Dante's creation?
The easiest to do in Italy is to escape. With all the art, literature and culture at your fingertips, it becomes understandable - and maybe even forgivable - that one would prefer a walk down the street and around The Duomo to seminars confined in a classroom. In Italy, learning is definitely a hands-on experience that is difficult to beat.
...and ya'll know how much I love to learn.
Villa La Pietra.. one of the 5 villas that make up my "campus" in Italy.. =)
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