Reflecting on Italy and the Scientific Revolutions
A Dialogue of Civilizations is a unique opportunity to travel, that allows you to spend more time than a typical vacation, but not as much time as a study abroad that most people do not have the space for in their schedule. Before coming, I was very excited to learn about the Scientific Revolutions, as well as some Italian, but I was most looking forward to the trip as a means to travel and explore Italy. I would absolutely recommend a dialogue for any student with a limited schedule who wants to study something new and interesting, while also being able to experience a new culture. However, a dialogue should not be seen as only an extended vacation; your first priority is to study – exploring new cities is simply an added bonus.
The past month flew by faster than I could have possibly imagined! The days seemed to blend together and I’m amazed at how much we were able to see and do while abroad. Four days of the week were packed full, with outings in the mornings to various museums, classes in the afternoon, make dinner in out apartments in the evening, and then work on our nightly reflections. The remaining day was a full day outing to a surrounding city – Vinci, Pisa, and Bologna. Our weekends were free, but we chose to book day trips to surrounding cities in order to explore more the country. My group did trips to Siena, Cinque Terre, and Chianti. The program oriented as well as our self-planned day trips may have been my favorite days of the dialogue because our focus was just exploring a new part of Italy.
Overall, the best part about the dialogue was being able to immerse yourself in a new culture with food, language, and history. I’ve learned more than I imagined about Italian culture, the history of different cities, and the interdependence of science, art, religion, and society. I have a new appreciation of renaissance art, and the development of a city center.
I met many new people, and feel much more comfortable traveling in a foreign country. After the dialogue is a perfect opportunity to travel to other countries, as it’s possible to push back your flight to a later date. I took advantage of this, and met my mom and my aunt in Athens. We will spend 5 days here, then fly to Naples and spend 5 days on the Amalfi Coast, and then end with 4 days in Rome, and fly back to Boston from there.
This trip has been unforgettable for so many reasons, and I’m already looking forward to travel again next summer and looking at other opportunities offered by GEO to do so.
