Wow, I can’t believe I am writing the final blog post of the semester. As I look back on the last four months, my mind gets caught in a tangled web of thoughts. Last night, I was sitting on the rooftop of Meet, a hostel in Garda, talking to a few people who were staying …
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Tour Reflection
Yesterday, we took a tour around the east side of Florence, where some of the students in our class were able to show us around their neighborhood. The theme of the tour was residential areas in Florence. The guides encouraged us to pay attention to the transition from the tourist areas to the more residential …
Traveling in Italy versus Walking in Florence
This week I read an article by Wolfgang Schivelbusch called Railroad Space and Railroad Time. The piece was all about how the creation of the railroad system annihilated space and time. More specifically, it discusses how, despite the fact that it opens up new places that were not accessible before, it also destroys the space …
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The Farnsworth House
This week I am writing my blog post in response to the article, People Who Live in Glass Houses by Alice Friedman. I chose this piece of writing after hearing about it last Monday in class. Not only did the architecture of the house spark my interest, but also the ways in which the owner …
Hearing Florence
This morning I decided to start my day with a run, so I laced up my tennis shoes, grabbed my headphones, and was out the door. One of my favorite things about running in Florence is the ability to cover more ground in a shorter period of time. I get to experience many aspects of …
Comfort Zone & Home
Home. This is a tricky word to define. Is home the house you grew up in? Is it the feeling you get when you are around your closest friends and family? Or is it simply a state of comfort? Section five of our textbook, The People, Place, and Space Reader, is entirely dedicated to the …
The Value of Travel
I wanted to dedicate my blog post this week to further the conversation of one of my classmates, Lizzie. Lizzie had previously posted a blog discussing her recent dérive experience. According to Guy Debord’s article, Theory of the Dérive and Definitions, a dérive is “an experimental mode of behavior linked to the conditions of urban …
Interior Spaces
One of the first things I noticed upon arriving to Florence was the difference in the architecture and design of buildings. Walking the streets, I am surrounded by varying shades of tan and gray, textures of stone and brick, and blurbs of bright colored shutters and doors. This is really different compared to back home …
Florence from Above
One of my classes while here in Italy is called Florence and the “Sense of Place.” The goal of this course is to understand the city of Florence from all perspectives and angles. The exploration is aimed to give us insight into the culture, identity, and history of this breath-taking place. During our first class …
Florence at First Glance
Before going abroad, I would regularly Google “Florence, Italy”, anticipating my arrival. Blog posts such as, “20 Best Things to Do in Florence” and “Florence Travel” would pop up (I linked some below if you are curious). Those sites were where I would find images of narrow cobblestone streets and big cathedrals, the tourist attractions …
Sense of Place 