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My Summer in Italy

Brian Tholl

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• In the summer of 2011, I had the opportunity

to study abroad in Italy for about two months.

The program was based in Todi, but I had theopportunity to travel to Rome, Florence,

Venice, and many other cities.

View from my first

hotel in Rome

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Rome

• Rome was the perfect place to start our trip.

We were able to start out slowly without

experiencing total culture shock while

enjoying the beauty of an ancient city.

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View from the Vatican

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Florence• Florence was very relaxing and was my favorite city on the

trip. It was interesting to see the intersection between “old”

and “new” Italy that is prominent here. 

View from the Duomo

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Below is St. John’s Baptistery. We learned a

lot about this baptistery in our art history

class in Todi and it was exciting to see it in

real life.

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Venice

• Venice was amazing and even more beautiful than I expected.

We took advantage of the beauty of the city and painted with

watercolors during our art class.

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In Venice, we also had the opportunity to visit the Biennale,

which is a contemporary art exhibition which takes place every

other year. It was great to see the contrast between the classic

pieces of art we had been seeing the whole trip and these

contemporary works in Venice.

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This was by far the best piece of art at the Biennale. It was a wax

sculpture that had candles placed throughout it. So, the sculpture

burned the whole summer and essentially looked different as time

went on.

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Todi

• Todi was my home for the majority of the trip. We had the

opportunity to stay with host families, which is unique to this

specific Penn State program. Below is the main Piazza.

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Living with a host family allowed me to improve my Italian tremendously. My

family didn’t speak any English so it was a rewarding and exciting challenge to live

with them during my trip. Below is a picture of me with my host family.

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Views from my Balcony in Todi

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Santa Maria della Consolazione, Todi’s most famous church

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Cinque Terre and Sicily

• I also had the opportunity to travel independently after the program

ended. Two very amazing places I visited were Cinque Terre and Sicily.

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I was able to trace my family’s roots back to Termini Imerese, and while I wasin Sicily I had the opportunity to visit the town.

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Overall, my experience in Italy was amazing. I was able to improve my skills in

Italian while living with my host family and chatting with locals. I learned so much

about the history and the culture in general of Italy that I would not have been able

to learn without the help of Tom and Karen Flad. Their donation allowed me to

have a truly unique experience and I really appreciate the opportunity they havegiven me. This experience has brought me closer to my goal of one day becoming a

professor of Italian, and I cannot express my gratitude enough for the things the

Flads have done and are doing for the Italian Department at Penn State.

Brian Tholl