A View & The Opera
day six at seven in the evening

Alright, so I'm behind. Sorry about that. This whole blogging thing turned out to be a lot harder than I expected, but it's something that I really want to do – after all, there's no way I will remember everything a few days after it happens let alone a few months or years. So I am doing my best. Also, sleep is overrated. I've just accepted the fact that I won't be getting much sleep this month, but I really think that's how to get the most out of this experience.

Today we climbed to the Piazzale Michelangelo, experienced Florence at night and went to a performance of Italian opera.

Engineering of the Renaissance CAPA Center at ten in the morning
We had our first engineering course today in which Dr. Galdi gave us a general introduction to science and engineering during the Renaissance. As expected, the lecture was really intriguing. Before the Babylonians engaged in detailed observations of the sky, mankind practiced astrology in which celestial bodies were believed to have devine character. In fact, it was this belief that the stars could predict...
A View of Florence Piazzale Michelangelo at two in the afternoon
This afternoon, we had our second urban studies course with Adriano. We briefly reviewed the geography of Tuscany before bringing things into a historical context. If I have time in the near future, I will try to include some of those notes here. After the classroom lecture, we headed up to the Piazzale Michelangelo, a famous square that overlooks the city of Florence from a south mountain. The walk up the...
Italian Opera St. Mark's Church at nine in the evening
Tonight we all went over to St. Mark's Church on the south side of the river to hear some excerpts of Italian opera. On the way, I attempted to take some shots of the city at night, but it proved to be more difficult than I had anticipated – I'll definitely have to work on night techniques. The city looks and feels entirely different at night. Italians eat dinner late, so there are still a lot of people...