Farewell to Florence
by Ema Rosen
I find that it’s always in the last few weeks of a time spent living somewhere that you notice the captivating beauty all around you. So it goes with Florence. As we prepared to leave for our last two weeks of the semester in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Florence nostalgia was real. I had yet to leave and yet I missed it already. It’s the walk to school, passing the Duomo and watching the sun hit it just right, it’s the lazy afternoons spent lounging in the grass on the banks of the Arno, it’s the coffee shop where they relay my order to me before I even speak, it’s the restaurant where they know my allergies by heart. It’s the streets that are bursting with quiet historical significance. And it’s the wonderful people we’ve met at the Florence School of Fine Arts, Charles and Melania and Antonio. I’m not an artist — I’ve always wielded a pen better than a brush — but as Charles often told us, the tools we were given in Florence we can use for the rest of our lives.
Getting to see the fruits of my classmates’ labor in the form of their final prints and videos was a testament to their hard work and the skills they’ve painstakingly acquired. I miss the way the school smelled like fresh clay and the light layer of residue I would often find on my shoes. I miss the musical accents all around us, Melania’s Italian and Charles’ Boston. We were lucky to have a team around us who cared about not only our daily wellbeing but what would happen to us after this semester. I know if I ever have the privilege to find myself in Florence once again there are people who would help me in whatever way they could. LIU Global is as much about the education as it is about the people you meet, and in a way, “collect” along the way. We all add these people to our toolbox as well as the skills they teach us. If it is truly about “who you know.” I’m glad we know these people.
My first bite of pasta outside of Italy tastes devoid of something. The right spices, yes, and something else I can’t quite place. I miss the authenticity of Florence. Not the carts full of identical souvenirs of course, but the people and their passion for the city, the country, and of course the food. I am traveling to different places post-semester and in each cathedral and art-centric place I go I miss the immense insight of my art history class. I find myself comparing the architecture I see in England to the Renaissance behemoths of Florence. I miss the cobblestone streets, though not when I’m wheeling my suitcase around.
I am beyond excited for my upcoming fall semester in Australia, and I feel lucky to miss a place as excellent as Florence. In terms of academics, the flow of what we learn moves nicely from semester to semester, country to country, and the courses in Florence certainly have me ready to move forward and expand upon the subjects we have already started to delve into, including economics, international relations, human rights, and the environment. Italy itself, and certainly the people and culture, will forever be missed, but it’s not addio, it’s arrivederci.
