Classroom Italian Edition

Author: 
Angelina Colaianni, AIFS Florence Summer '22

I decided to take a painting course while studying abroad in Florence, Italy. I have always been interested in creating art, but I never felt like I had the opportunity to pursue it. My class was small—less than 20 students—and we were all on an introductory level. On the first day, the professor took us out of the studio and into the city to buy our own art supplies. While it is typical to purchase your own textbooks in college classes, it was a new experience to go out with my classmates and buy what we needed for the class; it almost felt like a field trip. Trips like this ended up being commonplace for the course. We spent very little time inside the art studio. Instead, we would go straight to the source for the subjects of our paintings: churches, gardens, and even the Ponte Vecchio. Our first painting was of the Basilica di Santo Spirito. Our professor led us to the square in front of the church, travel easels and canvases in hand, and we painted right in the middle of everything. Locals would stand behind us, looking over our shoulders and making various complimentary remarks as we worked on our projects. Some people would even take pictures of us and try to ask us questions about what we were doing. Doing classwork in a public setting and garnering so much attention for it was highly unusual for me as a student. In my eyes, I was just completing my coursework, but to the local Italians, I was doing something interesting and worth watching. People would stop what they were doing just to stand around and watch us paint. Our second painting was done in the Piazzale Michelangelo—a beautiful garden overlooking the city of Florence. To get to the garden, we had to walk about 20 minutes away from the school building and up a steep hill. It was more physical work than I was used to for a class, but the views made it all worth it. My favorite part of my classroom environment was that it was always changing. I was never in the same place for more than a couple of days, and the places that we would have class were always so breathtakingly beautiful. It was an adjustment from the regular classroom setting that I was used to, but I love the Florence gave me the opportunity to experience such a unique learning environment.

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