Well we had our first day of class today, History 3444 (History of the Renaissance and Reformation). Our professor's name is Tony Marotta. He looks like the old man from Disney's movie "Up" ... but taller, and skinier. He has the sickest combover I have every seen on a man his age... I mean seriously that thing is good. Though his accent is clearly Italian, Chicago is his native town. He also speaks Polish (his wife is from Poland and they met in Canada), Italian, English and a little French and German. When he teaches he literally jumps all over the place, there is no systematic flow, but hey. I think we covered 1000 years of history the first day of class. Regardless, the subject material is intriguing and it will correlate well with our trips ... read more

Hey gang, Thought I would post a quick entry, I gotta be somewhere in about thirty minutes so my thoughts are going to be jumbled, but last night we got in and got acquainted with Verona. We went and had a bite to eat at a place in the town. We rode the bus with Martin our trip leader. He is about 80 years old, is missing a front tooth but is very helpful. He is has lived in Verona for 60 years now, came here when he was in the military. He met his wife when he was stationed here, he didn't speak Italian at the time, she didn't speak English either, one thing led to another and they have been married for 60 years now. Thankfully, they can communicate just fine now. The language ... read more