Dream Trip 2009

Great Travel Moment

A semester spent in Florence with a host family gave me new appreciation for the term "trial by fire." My classmates and I had studied Italian for about a semester before, but as soon as we were dropped off at our home-stays, one needed to become fluent, and fast! Our classes convened in the Villa Rossa facing Piazza Savonarola, and every day as I walked home at sunset through the city center, I was comforted by the statue of Girolamo Savonarola whose presence in Florence set the citizens aflame with passion and rage; eventually he was burned at the stake for his beliefs. Having studied and lived in a city like Florence, I can almost understand his book-burning tendencies - one learns just as much in the streets as in the classrooms!