Reflections In Florence 2008

The Last Day (6/10)

Our last day in Florence was so much fun that we hardly had a moment to feel sad about our imminent departure and the end of our trip.

We spent the morning listening to each other give five minute presentations (in groups of four) about the artwork we've seen during our time in Italy and its place in the controversy surrounding art of the Renaissance or, indeed, art in general.

Each group chose one aspect of this controversy to focus on and the topics were: depictions of the Last Supper, Madonna, and Christ; one-point perspective (for which the group members composed a song to the tune of "Oh, What a Night"); and Florentine patronage of the arts. It was amazing to see how much knowledge all of us had amassed over a period of only seventeen days!

Afterwards, we shared the drawings and sketches we have all been working on during the trip. Even the students who are not art majors, who had never really drawn before this class, had some impressive things to show. Jen is a wonderful teacher, and her steady chorus of "draw what you see, not what you know" helped us all surprise ourselves with what we could do. She's made us love drawing and understand it, so that more than a few of us intend to keep a sketchbook from now on.

The big fun came later, though, during our dinner at a Chianti vineyard about a half hour outside of Florence. We began our evening with a brief tour of the winery to learn how Chianti and Chianti Classico are made. Then we went inside for an aperitif and a wonderful dinner. The wine was so good that we all bought bottles to bring home to our family, but most delicious was the company. Tom, Adam, and Jen all made speeches about how happy they were with the way this year's trip turned out, and we assured them that the feeling was mutual.

Sitting over dinner, and later singing karaoke on the bus ride home (yeah, really), there was a palpable sense of our cohesion as a group. For seventeen days, we have been one another's family, friends, roommates; for this brief space, we have been one another's whole worlds. Upon our arrival in JFK, and departure from Adelphi in Florence, there was a sense of loss but also a huge sense of what we have all gained: a deeper knowledge of the Florentine Renaissance, a broader sense of the world around us, and new and lasting friendships.