Classes and More!

As we have been getting settled back to Arezzo, our home for the new few months, we have also been keeping ourselves very busy with the start of classes and further exploring everything that the most warm and quaint Tuscan city has to offer us! Starting with a concert for the people of Arezzo at the city’s beautiful cathedral, which included grand choir singing, and live playing of both the guitar and the cathedral’s organ. It was a truly amazing experience to attend and the first of many spring concerts in the Tuscan region of Italy.

Come Monday, regular lectures in the Italian language began! Learning a new language most definitely has its challenges, but out experiences with the teachers at Accademia BRitannica in Arezzo, have been nothing but positive! With eight hours on in0class language lessons a week, we have high hopes to be much better Italian language students by the end of the program. Tandem language sessions have also been arranged through the school, where we students of Italian are able to speak with Italian students who are studying English.

In addition to Italian lessons and eating lunch at all of our now favorite local spots, Art History and the Observational Documentary classes have also officially begun in the classroom! Alternating every other day we are continuing to learn about various pieces of art within the city of Arezzo, much more of the history of the greater Tuscan region, and the beginning stages of shooting and production knowledge for our own eventual created documentary about the Lisio program! This past sunny Friday, involved an art walk of the city of Arezzo, seeing many original art works.

Something that is very special to all of the students and which we are all grateful for, are the weekly dinner and movie nights at the home of Professors Logan and Sinascalco. Each week will be a different student’s chance to cook a fabulous homemade Tuscan meal with Donna Logan, our program director, and then enjoy the wonderful food with the rest of the students and Professor Siniscalco. This week was out first dinner, in which an authentic multiple-course Tuscan meal and delicious homemade tiramisu was joyfully prepared and served. Trust me, everyone was begging for another serving! After dinner, as part of the Observational Documentary course, there is a film for us to watch and eventually discuss later in class about the techniques and story messages behind the work. This past week, we watched the 1954 film, Journey to Italy, which was a black and white, neo-realism film directed by Roberto Rossellini.

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Another super exciting aspect of this past week was a day trip to Florence on Saturday, to attend an Italian soccer match! We students took the train (which I think we have the hang of now!) to Florence in the morning for some time to explore and walk around the city. We walked along the Arno River and also visited the Renaissance architectural style Pitti Place. After already walking many miles, we made our way over to the soccer stadium in Florence to watch Fiorentina play against Atlanta. When Fiorentina scored the first goal, the stadium burst into immediate cheering and pure joyful support for the love of their team. Unfortunately, Fiorentina did not win against Atalanta, yet it still was a great match and the support for the Fiorentina soccer team was made quite obvious to all. If possible, we were hoping to try and return for another game later in the season! After coming back to Arezzo that night, for dinner, we went to an Italian aperitivo at a cafe in the heart of the city-center for a lovely ending to a great day!

More updates to come, from the city where truly, “Life is Beautiful”!