Hello, Firenze!

Posted on August 2, 2017 By Joe Hardenbrook

Summer has flown by! Part of the reason it went so fast is that I spent most of June in Florence, Italy.

It wasn’t a vacation per se. It was work. I spent three weeks chaperoning a group of college students for the university where I work. Managing twenty college students–yep, that’s work all right!

Students were taking their required cultural experience course. They had a lot of options and places to choose from, but how could you not resist this one?: Italy and Travel Writing.

Arno River

I met the group of students at O’Hare airport. We flew Swiss International Air Lines to Zurich and then caught a flight to Florence where the professor was waiting to meet us.

As a cultural experience course, we got to the survey the best of Florence and the surrounding areas–soaking up the culture, the food, and yes…the wine!

Florence is an amazing city, from the magnificent Duomo, to the world renowned galleries like the Uffizi and Accademia, to fun squares and markets.

View of the Duomo

Over the next few blog posts, I’ll share some info and tips from our travels–food tips, customs and norms, must visit sites and a few off-the-beaten path things!

For now, here are a few pics from beautiful Firenze (Florence).