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My Favorite Places




















When I visited Europe with my dad a few summers ago, I thought my favorite country would be France. By the time we left, however, I found my new favorite country: Italy. I returned the next spring on a school trip and had a chance to see more cities throughout the country. On my first trip, I visited Rome and Venice; on the second, I returned to those cities and also got to see Florence, Assisi, and Ravenna. Although I can honestly say I love every place I've visited in Italy, the two cities that particularly stand out are Florence and Venice. "Firenze" and "Venezia" are both filled with history and culture, and yet they are vastly different from one another. I love them for very different reasons. Florence is filled with red brick buildings, random plazas, and Renaissance architecture. Venice, on the other hand, is filled with canals, bridges, and storefronts lining the small sidewalks. Thanks to my two trips to Europe, I have found my favorite country and favorite cities.


Image of Florence Duomo taken by Shawn Harquail. Source: Flickr

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  1. Laura GibbsAugust 23, 2018 at 3:20 PM

    I am such a fan of the cities of Italy too, Shea! I did my graduate degree with a professor who taught at the University of Siena and also at Berkeley (where I went to school)... which was a great excuse to go to Italy! And if you are interested, there are so many Italian possibilities for projects in this class... even a whole collection of legends about the city of Florence itself: Legends of Florence by Charles Godfrey Leland. That might be something fun to explore when you are brainstorming project topics next week! Here are some more Italian story resource books online too!

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  2. UnknownOctober 25, 2018 at 11:01 PM

    Italy is such a beautiful country. I’m glad that you had such a great time there! I just read your introduction and saw that you are minoring in Italian. It is great that you were able to visit a place and create such a passion for it that you wanted to study their language. That will definitely be beneficial the next time that you visit. Any plans in the near future for another visit?

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