Introduzione

Ciao!  I've decided to start a blog to document my time in Italy.  This is partly as a keepsake of my thoughts and misadventures through the lands of Caesar, and the stomping grounds of the Medici.  It's also for my family and friends, who I think would appreciate reading up on a daily updated narrative about my time in Italy.  And if I could a way to handle an assignment, for the class which I owe coming to Italy, then more power to me.

I've already been to Rome, Herculaneum (around the Naples area),  and I'm just finishing up my time in Italy.  So, I won't be able to document all the happens when it happens.  That's just how things work when you get an idea to do something too late.  But I'm also determined to turn this obstacle into an opportunity.  I'm going to have two different "types" of posts on this blog.  A daily post to cover the events of the day.  And every now and then I'll post retrospectives on certain days, and these will allow me to do a more researched blog post with a semblance of a narrative.

There will be another post today, because I'd like to get started with the daily posts ASAP, but I'd also like to use this opportunity to give a little introduction.

I'm going to Northeastern University, transitioning to my 4th year (it's a 5 year program with some time thrown in for a few 6-month Coops)  The program I am travelling to Italy on is called a Dialogue of Civilizations.  And I am studying "Science and Culture Through the Ages".  That not only means that I'll be looking at the science of ancient Rome, or the Renaissance, but also the modern stuff.  I've already been to a neutrino observation facility and a nuclear fusion reactor.  There really is a lot to look at. with regards to Science old and new in Italy.  And though I'm an introverted Engineer, I'm really loving learning about the culture.

I'm here with 23 other students, for a total of 24 including myself.  That leads to a breakdown of 16 guys and 8 girls, which is frankly a pretty good gender split in the world of engineering.  The class is taught by Cary Rappaport, who specializes in electro-magnetics and ground scanning radar and Lauren Pouchak. And the trip is covering a lot of Italy.  We started in Rome, went to Abruzzi for a day trip, Naples area for a few days to climb Vesuvius and see ancient Roman ruins.  Now we are in Florence, and yesterday we took a day trip to Pisa, but we are leaving this city soon.  Tomorrow we are going to Parma, where we'll stay a couple of nights, we also stop by Bologna before going up to Milan, later Turin, and we wrap up in Venice.  In the end we'll be seeing what I consider to be a good cross-section of Italy.

All I can say is stay tuned.  Arrivederci!