Ciao for Now

School is kind of a drag, unless of course it's abroad. This summer I decided to take summer school in Italy. So, for two months I took Beginning Italian Language, with 21 other students from Colorado College. We took classes at a small language school in Ravenna, a tiny town on the east coast, and an hour outside of Bologna. We had about 4 hours of immersion Italian a day, and stayed with a host family who spoke minimal English, if any at all. So, it would have been difficult to not learn any Italian.

Ravenna is best known for its mosaics, some of which date back to the 6th century. We toured the most famous churches, my favorite being San Vitale.

During our free time, my friends and I made sure to spend lots of time at the beach, too. We would bike about 5 miles to get there and back, completely flat and scenic. But you could also get there by bus, which too about 15 minutes, and 2 euro.

We also spent a lot of time in Piazza del Popolo, the main square in town. It's a great place to sit, have a cappuccino, and log some serious people watching hours. And last, but certainly not least, I loved the shopping! All of the shops around the city were small boutiques, and Via Cavour had the best selection of lesser known Italian brand names.

During my stay in Italy we had a few free weekends, so I was lucky enough to visit Rome, Venice, Florence, and Bologna. Stay tuned, because I have lots to say about those cities!