During the summer before my first year at Gettysburg, I browsed through the First Year Seminar booklet that we were sent in the mail and circled a few that interested me. I was originally going to sign up for one about linguistics, but it was canceled. Instead, I signed up for my second choice, which was called “Art, Money, and Power in Renaissance Florence.” The Florence seminar appealed to me because I wanted to learn more about Florence (as I had never studied it), I needed to take an art class that did not require any artistic ability (as I have none), and the description made the class seem very interesting. While I am sure the linguistics seminar would have been fine, I loved my Florence seminar with Professor Else from the Art Department and would take the class again if I could.
We learned all about Florence by studying the amazing art and learning about the key players in society at the time. Professor Else even arranged an Italian chef to come and show us how to make pizzas one night for dinner! While we were learning about Florence, I kept thinking about how much I wanted to go there and a few weekends ago I was able to. I put Florence on my list of trips for this semester and booked it earlier than I usually book weekend excursions to make sure that I would get there before it was too late in the term.
I have been to a handful of art museums from the Louvre in Paris to the Tate in London, but I was able to really appreciate and understand the work I saw in Florence much better, having studied it for a semester. I enjoyed being able to look around the Uffizi and see Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” and “La Primavera” and remember details we had learned in class about the different aspects of the painting. I walked through the Medici Chapel, thinking about the powerful family and the rich history of the city. And I was able to have breakfast while admiring the architecture of the Duomo and Baptistry.
Of course, I made sure to try the food as well and the pizza and pasta were delicious. I am proud to admit I had gelato seven times over four days and returned to campus with an increased motivation for going to the gym.
I went to Florence with one of my friends who had done the seminar with me and we met up with one of our other friends who was actually studying abroad in Florence and was in the seminar as well. As a tour guide, I usually highlight how great the First Year Seminar program is at Gettysburg. After this semester, I now have a story to tell of how my First Year Seminar inspired me to travel with some of my friends from the seminar to Florence and directly apply what I had learned. In a way, my Gettysburg experience has come full circle with the Italian city from my first semester to my second to last.