Morrisville(M), Marissa Doing of SUNY Fredonia(R) take on
the Arts of Italy study abroad program.
Photo courtesy of Marissa Doing.
Ever since my freshman year of college, one of my biggest goals was to study abroad at least once during my time here at Fredonia. Later on, I heard about the Arts of Italy trip through friends that previously went and through professor Peter Tucker. I became more and more interested in this trip as the years went on, and I started putting money aside so that I could make this dream come true.
To prepare for the trip I took two semesters worth of Elementary Italian. Learning the language wasn’t exactly necessary, but I still wanted to have a basis of the language before I went to the country.
Once I became serious about going on the trip I decided to share my excitement with my two best friends from my high school: Alexi Taranto, who goes to SUNY Morrisville and Amanda Hodge, who goes to SUNY Geneseo. They were really excited for me and, as I talked to them about the trip, they decided they wanted to have the same experience as me. And what better way to have this experience than with the people you love and grew up with? Alexi and Amanda ended up going through Fredonia’s study abroad program with me, and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. This is a trip we can look back at for the rest of our lives.
While in Italy we were able to see beautiful churches and cathedrals. Some of the cathedrals include the Duomo, Santa Maria Novella and The Baptistery of St. John. We were able to see famous works of art, including “The Birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli, “The David” by Michelangelo and “David” by Donatello. The list could go on and on with the amazing artwork that we saw — many of which you would only see in art history books if it wasn’t for this trip.
Along with seeing the art and cathedrals, we were able to go to different parts of Italy such as Florence, Arezzo, Siena, Fiesole and Cinque Terre. Being able to go to all of these different parts of the country was amazing because they were all special in their own unique ways.
One of my favorite parts of the trip was being exposed to all of the Italian dishes and gelato! What I would do to be able to have Italian gelato one more time! Italian food was so much different than American food. Every dish that Italy makes is made from all natural products, so everything they sold was always fresh. That alone made me love their food so much. If you ever get the chance to go I recommend trying their tiramisu — you won’t regret it!
To sum up my amazing trip to Italy, all I can say is studying abroad during the college experience is a once in a lifetime chance. You don’t want to live in the state of “What if?” If you have the chance to study abroad take it! You will only regret the chances you didn’t take. And if you do get the opportunity to go; go with your best friends, it’ll only make the experience better.
Photo courtesy of Marissa Doing.