Group on last day.
Nicole, Jess, and I chowing down on our first kebabs in Perugia.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Travel Break
So I may not post much in these couple of months due to the fact I have no plans of traveling and need to make some money before the semester starts. If I take any day trips or any other outings somewhere I will make a post. Besides these little posts here and there I don't have any real travel plans, but I hear there's another pharmacy trip! There are rumors of a China/Japan pharmacy trip during the summer semester again, so that's always an option. Well that's all for now. But to reminisce here is a group picture of our Italy group on our last day in Riva del Garda and one of my favorite goofy pictures.
Group on last day.
Nicole, Jess, and I chowing down on our first kebabs in Perugia.
Group on last day.
Nicole, Jess, and I chowing down on our first kebabs in Perugia.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Last day of the Trip
Our day started out by my group leaving at 8am to head down to Riva del Garda to catch a boat to a small town called Malcesine. When we got down to Riva, Dr. Iannarelli was waiting for us to purchase our tickets for the boat trip to our town. So we boarded a boat right away and figured we were heading to Malcesine, but stopping in Limone first. We get to the port at Limone and mostly everyone de-boards and we are still sitting on the boat and a crewman comes over to us and says Limone and we look at him and so no Malcesine and he walks away. He comes back a few minutes later and asks for our tickets and then says No Limone get off boat. So we are thinking our whole project is screwed up now because we aren't going to the right city. What Dr. Iannarelli failed to mention to us was that she was switching the towns each group was going to, which would have been nice to know before we got on the boat. So we ended up walking around Limone shopping and later stopped for some lunch. We headed back on the boat at 1:15 to get back to Riva to work on our final presentation at a hotel there.
So we get to the hotel and see the other group already back working on their project and they left an hour later than us and are back way before us which didn't make much sense. So we sat and worked on our presentation for about 2 hours or may less before we said thats good enough and we would present what we had. While we waited until 6:30 to give our presentations we all had our last gelato before we left Italy. So when it came time to present Dr. Iannarelli brought with her alumni from the University, local Italians and Jerry and his wife who we had interviewed days before to judge our presentations. To make a long story short my group won unexpectedly and we each got a bee puppet, the bee is the school's mascot. We figured we had no chance to win considering we didn't seem to care as much as the other group and the other group worked on their presentation prolly for twice the time we had done.
After the presentations we all had dinner together at the hotel there and eventually went back to the hotel to hang out by the lake for the last time on our trip. We all pretty much stayed up all night hanging out/packing before we had to leave the next morning at 430am.
Getting to the airport was a hassle and we almost missed our flight back to the States. We had to bring another girl to the Verona airport on the way to the Milan airport, which if you look at a map is not on the way, but according to Dr. Iannarelli we would be there in plenty of time. However, we got there probably an hour before our flight left and well we were pretty much checking in when our flight was boarding. But we all made it on the flight and made it home safely.
Below are some pictures of Limone.
A view from a piazza in Limone
Buildings in Limone
View of the coast of Limone
So we get to the hotel and see the other group already back working on their project and they left an hour later than us and are back way before us which didn't make much sense. So we sat and worked on our presentation for about 2 hours or may less before we said thats good enough and we would present what we had. While we waited until 6:30 to give our presentations we all had our last gelato before we left Italy. So when it came time to present Dr. Iannarelli brought with her alumni from the University, local Italians and Jerry and his wife who we had interviewed days before to judge our presentations. To make a long story short my group won unexpectedly and we each got a bee puppet, the bee is the school's mascot. We figured we had no chance to win considering we didn't seem to care as much as the other group and the other group worked on their presentation prolly for twice the time we had done.
After the presentations we all had dinner together at the hotel there and eventually went back to the hotel to hang out by the lake for the last time on our trip. We all pretty much stayed up all night hanging out/packing before we had to leave the next morning at 430am.
Getting to the airport was a hassle and we almost missed our flight back to the States. We had to bring another girl to the Verona airport on the way to the Milan airport, which if you look at a map is not on the way, but according to Dr. Iannarelli we would be there in plenty of time. However, we got there probably an hour before our flight left and well we were pretty much checking in when our flight was boarding. But we all made it on the flight and made it home safely.
Below are some pictures of Limone.
A view from a piazza in Limone
Buildings in Limone
View of the coast of Limone
Saturday, July 4, 2009
A beautiful day in Tenno, but couldn't enjoy it
Our second to last day on the trip, 6/14, started off by walking to a local church to attend mass. We walked through the streets of the small town to get to the little church perched on the side of the mountain. We arrived earlier due to the fact that we were told the wrong time for mass, but we got to hang around and meet some of the locals who lived there. We met one old man who was immediately drawn to our group and all the young girls for him to talk to even though he spoke no English. During mass one of the girls in our group was asked to read the gospel in English for us to understand.
Later after mass we got bused to a location and were told to walk up this hill to a building, but none of knew where we were going, but unfortunately we found the building that was part of Bernelli University. While we were there we got a 2 hour introductory lecture of the whole program that was offered at Bernelli and what exactly our assignments would entail. We broke after the lecture for some pizza and later interviewed an Alumni for one of our assignments as part of our final presentation. After this interview we were taken on a quick tour of the town of Tenno where we saw some great views and an art gallery in a small building.
The tour didn't last too long before we were heading back to the building for more work to do. We sat in our groups and worked on our paper on our pharmacy visit and also got prepared for the next exercise which was to interview locals who couldn't speak English that well, but wanted to try their English skills. I don't believe this went exactly as how the professor had planned, but it was interesting but also a little awkward at times. After basically sitting inside all day and missing out on the beautiful day to see the area we were in we finally got a break from work.
We were suppose to go on a planned tour of some castle by JonCarlo, but none of us really wanted to go and neither did JonCarlo. So instead we just pretended this is what we were doing and just went down to Riva del Garda for dinner and some shopping. We walked around for a bit before heading back up to our bed and bar to hang out and go to the lake.
Our walk to the church
The small church we went to mass in
The streets up to Bernelli University
A view from our quick tour during the day
A Piazza in Riva del Garda
Night picture of Riva del Garda
Later after mass we got bused to a location and were told to walk up this hill to a building, but none of knew where we were going, but unfortunately we found the building that was part of Bernelli University. While we were there we got a 2 hour introductory lecture of the whole program that was offered at Bernelli and what exactly our assignments would entail. We broke after the lecture for some pizza and later interviewed an Alumni for one of our assignments as part of our final presentation. After this interview we were taken on a quick tour of the town of Tenno where we saw some great views and an art gallery in a small building.
The tour didn't last too long before we were heading back to the building for more work to do. We sat in our groups and worked on our paper on our pharmacy visit and also got prepared for the next exercise which was to interview locals who couldn't speak English that well, but wanted to try their English skills. I don't believe this went exactly as how the professor had planned, but it was interesting but also a little awkward at times. After basically sitting inside all day and missing out on the beautiful day to see the area we were in we finally got a break from work.
We were suppose to go on a planned tour of some castle by JonCarlo, but none of us really wanted to go and neither did JonCarlo. So instead we just pretended this is what we were doing and just went down to Riva del Garda for dinner and some shopping. We walked around for a bit before heading back up to our bed and bar to hang out and go to the lake.
Our walk to the church
The small church we went to mass in
The streets up to Bernelli University
A view from our quick tour during the day
A Piazza in Riva del Garda
Night picture of Riva del Garda
Friday, July 3, 2009
Starting our visit in Lake Garda region
On 6/13 is when we no longer had our normal bus/tour guide anymore and now we were under the control of Bernelli University. We got picked up by the University at our hotel in Verona to start our trek to Lake Garda. However the bus they brought had just enough seats for all of us, and may I say absolutely no leg room, and the luggage had to be crammed into a small trunk. Well the luggage was overflowing into the seating area and overall the ride there was not very comfortable. But what lacked in comfort was made up in by the amazing views of mountains and tiny towns nestled in the valleys. The bus dropped us off in a town called Arco where immediately we were split up into two groups and told to do work. Half of us went to hear a lecture about what we were going to be doing in the 3 days and form a plan for the team where the other half went to a local pharmacy to interview the pharmacist and take a look around.
My group, which consisted of Angela, Jessica, Nicole and Ashley, went to the pharmacy first called Farmacia Bettinazini to do our interview. While we were there the pharmacist gave all the girls a compounded cosmetic that he had made and gave the Dean and I an elixir called Elixir di China which from what I could understand from the whole thing has a lot of alcohol in it and is made from ladybugs. After our pharmacy encounter we had time to grab some lunch before our next part of the day. We walked around town looking for an Osteria, or a place that serves local cuisine, but we stopped at a kebab resturant instead. After lunch we shopped around for a bit before having to head back to the bus.
The bus took us out to Riva del Garda and a beach near the city there. They dropped us off and told us to enjoy the beach, however none of us knew we were going to the beach, nor could we get our stuff to go swimming. So this made us all pretty mad and we even considered trying to convince the Dean that on our last 3 days of the trip we wanted to enjoy them and not be doing all the schoolwork that this Professor had planned for us. But we decided to push on and just make the best of it, or basically not really care about the work. So after our short beach break we then had to do the lecture thing and the other team went to a pharmacy. My team stayed at the beach and came up with a team name and so forth and decided to lay out our papers organization so we didn't have to do it later.
After doing all of this we finally were on our way to our bed and breakfast, or should I say bed and bar up in Tenno. We boarded the bus and we had to go up 26 hairpin turns to get to the top of the mountain where we were staying. Once we arrived we all claimed our rooms and immediately went swimming at the lake behind another hotel up there. While we were at the lake some of us swam out to a little island in the middle of the lake. After swimming it was time for dinner, which we ate at a hotel across the street. At dinner we met the Professor's son JonCarlo. After dinner we hung out on our patio outside our bed and breakfast and later went down to the lake for some star gazing.
a picture I took while on the bus
A small town on Lake Garda
A street in Arco
View from the beach in Riva del Garda
The lake that we swam at in the evening
Our little bed and bar
My group, which consisted of Angela, Jessica, Nicole and Ashley, went to the pharmacy first called Farmacia Bettinazini to do our interview. While we were there the pharmacist gave all the girls a compounded cosmetic that he had made and gave the Dean and I an elixir called Elixir di China which from what I could understand from the whole thing has a lot of alcohol in it and is made from ladybugs. After our pharmacy encounter we had time to grab some lunch before our next part of the day. We walked around town looking for an Osteria, or a place that serves local cuisine, but we stopped at a kebab resturant instead. After lunch we shopped around for a bit before having to head back to the bus.
The bus took us out to Riva del Garda and a beach near the city there. They dropped us off and told us to enjoy the beach, however none of us knew we were going to the beach, nor could we get our stuff to go swimming. So this made us all pretty mad and we even considered trying to convince the Dean that on our last 3 days of the trip we wanted to enjoy them and not be doing all the schoolwork that this Professor had planned for us. But we decided to push on and just make the best of it, or basically not really care about the work. So after our short beach break we then had to do the lecture thing and the other team went to a pharmacy. My team stayed at the beach and came up with a team name and so forth and decided to lay out our papers organization so we didn't have to do it later.
After doing all of this we finally were on our way to our bed and breakfast, or should I say bed and bar up in Tenno. We boarded the bus and we had to go up 26 hairpin turns to get to the top of the mountain where we were staying. Once we arrived we all claimed our rooms and immediately went swimming at the lake behind another hotel up there. While we were at the lake some of us swam out to a little island in the middle of the lake. After swimming it was time for dinner, which we ate at a hotel across the street. At dinner we met the Professor's son JonCarlo. After dinner we hung out on our patio outside our bed and breakfast and later went down to the lake for some star gazing.
a picture I took while on the bus
A small town on Lake Garda
A street in Arco
View from the beach in Riva del Garda
The lake that we swam at in the evening
Our little bed and bar
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
A Day in Verona
Our first and only full day in Verona on 6/12 started by visiting the local hospital for another tour. When we arrived at the hospital we got a presentation from one of the pharmacists that worked there and then we got a quick tour of the hospital. During the tour we saw some labs, pharmacy rooms and the outpatient pharmacy. After our short stay at the hospital we got bused to the town center where we met up with Dr. Iannerelli a professor at Bernelli University where we would be our last 3 days of the trip. She talked to us about where exactly we would be staying and what we would be doing while we stayed in the mountains. At first is all sounded very overwhelming and we were not fond of the idea considering it was our last 3 days of the trip and we would be doing all this school work and not truely enjoying the gorgeous area we would be staying. However more on this to come. After our short meeting we had some free time and we went out in Verona for some lunch near the Anfiteatro Arena.
After lunch some of us went into the Arena while others wanted to go shopping instead. The arena was surprisingly well intact and is acutally still used to this day for concerts and plays. After our visit to the Arena we went and stopped at Juliet's House and the famous balcony. The walls around the area were completely covered in graffti from people leaving love notes. So much so that they started putting a white cover over the graffti and people were writing all over the new cover. We took the opportunity to leave our groups mark on the fresh new white cover. While we were there we each took our turn posing with the Juliet statue that stands in the courtyard next to the balcony.
We spent the remainder of our afternoon looking around the streets and market area. We walked along the river at one point and stopped in one church for a quick break from walking. By this time it was time to head back for dinner in the garden of our hotel. After dinner we headed back to the town center to hang out by the small park near the Arena. We sat and drank wine and Alyssa and Nicole decided to join the protest group that was there to prevent a road to be built through the park. We didn't stay out very late this particular night because we had plans to watch the Penguins game.
In order to watch the game that night we had purchased an internet card for 2 hours and planned on getting up at 3:30 am to catch the last period of the game to get a chance to see if the Penguins would win the Stanley Cup. Surprisingly 7 out of 8 students came to Josh and my room to watch the game along with one of the professors. So in total there were 10 people in our room at 3:30 in the morning to watch the Pens. Well to make a long story short the Pens won and we made a ton of noise and got 2 noise complaints, but we didn't care because we were checking out of the hotel the next morning or should I say 2 and a half hours by the time the game got over.
Streets of Verona
Anfiteatro Arena
Piazza in Verona
Juliet's Balcony and the Juliet statue in the background
A view off of the Adige River
Inside Cattedrale di Verona
Another view off of the Adige River
After lunch some of us went into the Arena while others wanted to go shopping instead. The arena was surprisingly well intact and is acutally still used to this day for concerts and plays. After our visit to the Arena we went and stopped at Juliet's House and the famous balcony. The walls around the area were completely covered in graffti from people leaving love notes. So much so that they started putting a white cover over the graffti and people were writing all over the new cover. We took the opportunity to leave our groups mark on the fresh new white cover. While we were there we each took our turn posing with the Juliet statue that stands in the courtyard next to the balcony.
We spent the remainder of our afternoon looking around the streets and market area. We walked along the river at one point and stopped in one church for a quick break from walking. By this time it was time to head back for dinner in the garden of our hotel. After dinner we headed back to the town center to hang out by the small park near the Arena. We sat and drank wine and Alyssa and Nicole decided to join the protest group that was there to prevent a road to be built through the park. We didn't stay out very late this particular night because we had plans to watch the Penguins game.
In order to watch the game that night we had purchased an internet card for 2 hours and planned on getting up at 3:30 am to catch the last period of the game to get a chance to see if the Penguins would win the Stanley Cup. Surprisingly 7 out of 8 students came to Josh and my room to watch the game along with one of the professors. So in total there were 10 people in our room at 3:30 in the morning to watch the Pens. Well to make a long story short the Pens won and we made a ton of noise and got 2 noise complaints, but we didn't care because we were checking out of the hotel the next morning or should I say 2 and a half hours by the time the game got over.
Streets of Verona
Anfiteatro Arena
Piazza in Verona
Juliet's Balcony and the Juliet statue in the background
A view off of the Adige River
Inside Cattedrale di Verona
Another view off of the Adige River
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Our short day in Venice
We started out our day on 6/11 by being bused from Florence to Venice, which was quite a long drive from what I remember. After we got to a dock on the mainland/industrial part of Venice we all got on a boat to take us to the town center. The boat let us off a few blocks from Piazza San Marco, so we had to walk along the sea for a little while before we got to the main square. Along the way our guide, Isabella, pointed out a tower in the background that was leaning and she called it the leaning tower of Venice. Once we arrived in the square we had some time to get some money and grab a quick lunch before our tour of the palace and church in Piazza San Marco.
We met back at the entrance of the palace in Piazza San Marco around 2 pm for the tour inside and the church attached to the palace. I had been to Venice previously when I went in high school, however we never attached went inside this palace or church so it was a first for me. The palace was interesting to see the court rooms, golden hallways and to learn about the Venetian Empire. After this tour we had a couple hours to roam around Venice and shop before we had to head back on the water taxi. Our first stop was a glass company in the center of Venice which we got a short demonstration of glass blowing and later got to see all the products you can buy. Along the way we went to the Rialto for a quick photo-op over the Grand Canal. As soon as we got there we pretty much had to turn around and head back to Piazza San Marco to catch our boat back to the dock where our bus left us earlier.
When we arrived at the dock we were expecting to hop right on our bus and head to Verona, however our driver had left and was late in returning to pick us up so we had to stand there for about 15 minutes before he came back. Once he arrived we drove to Verona and got dropped off at our hotel to check in. We had dinner at the hotel and for once we stayed in that night and caught up on some sleep.
Where we got dropped off on the boat
Gondolas in a small canal
The courtyard inside the Palace in Piazza San Marco
Our glass making demonstration
Just a small amount of the glass products you could purchase
View of the Grand Canal from the Rialto
We met back at the entrance of the palace in Piazza San Marco around 2 pm for the tour inside and the church attached to the palace. I had been to Venice previously when I went in high school, however we never attached went inside this palace or church so it was a first for me. The palace was interesting to see the court rooms, golden hallways and to learn about the Venetian Empire. After this tour we had a couple hours to roam around Venice and shop before we had to head back on the water taxi. Our first stop was a glass company in the center of Venice which we got a short demonstration of glass blowing and later got to see all the products you can buy. Along the way we went to the Rialto for a quick photo-op over the Grand Canal. As soon as we got there we pretty much had to turn around and head back to Piazza San Marco to catch our boat back to the dock where our bus left us earlier.
When we arrived at the dock we were expecting to hop right on our bus and head to Verona, however our driver had left and was late in returning to pick us up so we had to stand there for about 15 minutes before he came back. Once he arrived we drove to Verona and got dropped off at our hotel to check in. We had dinner at the hotel and for once we stayed in that night and caught up on some sleep.
Where we got dropped off on the boat
Gondolas in a small canal
The courtyard inside the Palace in Piazza San Marco
Our glass making demonstration
Just a small amount of the glass products you could purchase
View of the Grand Canal from the Rialto
Florence Day 2
6/10 started out like all days, meeting in the hotel lobby to head out on our scheduled tours/sight-seeing. The first stop of our day was an antique pharmacy museum near the center of Florence which was the pharmacy for Santa Maria Novella. As soon as we walked in the first thing that hit us were the many fragrances. The first room had many perfumes and it was extremely strong once you were in the room, so much so that my head started to hurt after being in there for a couple minutes. It was funny because one of the Professors we were with said, these smells are suppose to be becoming to men, right now they make my head hurt and want to leave. I definitely agreed with that. After we moved from that room we saw some old pharmacy tools of the trade and some frescoes that had been painted in the building. After the tour of the pharmacy museum we actually had the rest of the day to ourselves.
We decided to climb the cupola of the Duomo to get a view of Florence. The views were pretty amazing and I don't know if this is true or not, but I felt like this dome was higher than the St. Peters dome and I didn't like walking on the narrow pathways completely open around the dome inside the basilica. After our climb up and the view we climbed down and got some lunch before basically shopping the rest of the day. We shopped until like 6 or 7 and I bought some gifts for the family and myself. Along the way we stopped on the Ponte Vecchio, the bridge with all the jelwery shops.
After a day of shopping and seeing Florence our bus took us out into the countryside of Florence for a dinner at a place that made its own wine and olive oil. The dinner was really good and there was live music throughout the night. After dinner we went out back to the place along the river, however near this place was a small sandy area with some Tiki hut things that we hung out in and drank some wine. Although we didn't have a lot planned for the day we still had a fun day.
Some of the Pharmacy antiques
A wall of Frescoes in the museum
View from the top of il Duomo
Another view from the top of il Duomo
Ponte Vecchio
We decided to climb the cupola of the Duomo to get a view of Florence. The views were pretty amazing and I don't know if this is true or not, but I felt like this dome was higher than the St. Peters dome and I didn't like walking on the narrow pathways completely open around the dome inside the basilica. After our climb up and the view we climbed down and got some lunch before basically shopping the rest of the day. We shopped until like 6 or 7 and I bought some gifts for the family and myself. Along the way we stopped on the Ponte Vecchio, the bridge with all the jelwery shops.
After a day of shopping and seeing Florence our bus took us out into the countryside of Florence for a dinner at a place that made its own wine and olive oil. The dinner was really good and there was live music throughout the night. After dinner we went out back to the place along the river, however near this place was a small sandy area with some Tiki hut things that we hung out in and drank some wine. Although we didn't have a lot planned for the day we still had a fun day.
Some of the Pharmacy antiques
A wall of Frescoes in the museum
View from the top of il Duomo
Another view from the top of il Duomo
Ponte Vecchio
Monday, June 29, 2009
Firenze: Florence
On 6/9 we started our morning by loading all of our luggage onto our bus for our ride over to Florence. We were told to be on time because we had reservations at the Galleria dell' Accademia, the museum where David is located. So we took off on the bus and we were making decent time when we ran into a traffic jam. The traffic didn't move for the longest time due to a multiple car accident. While we were on the bus our tour guide was frantically calling to try and change our time of our reservation so that we could still get in. We missed our original time, but were still able to get in an hour later than what our ticket said. Before we entered again we got radios with headphones for another tour of the museum and a little bit around Florence. While in the museum we saw David and some of the unfinished sculptures of Michelangelo, but that is all we looked at before moving on. We stopped at il Duomo, Palazzo Vecchio and Santa Croce along the way, but never went into the two churches I just named. After our tour we went out to have some lunch before meeting back up to go to another hospital.
Our next destination was Careggi hospital where we got another quick tour of the place and got a lecture, which was quite long, of the healthcare at the hospital. After the hospital visit we were finally able to go to our hotel to drop our bags off and get settled in to our new rooms. After resting for a bit we headed out to dinner and then I think for the first time everyone went out that night. We walked around Florence at night for a bit before asking were to go for some good nightlife from some people and they pointed us to the direction of the Arno River and probably a 30 minute walk to find where a lot of locals hand out. The place was just to little buildings that served drinks along the river which was pretty cool. We hung out there for a bit before we couldn't handle getting eaten alive by the bugs anymore, plus we were all kinda tired from our day. So we headed back to the hotel after that.
Golden doors of the Baptistry near il Duomo
il Duomo
Some of the sculptures in Palazzo Vecchio, I believe they are all copies
More sculptures in the Palazzo and the copy of David on the left.
Streets of Florence
Santa Croce
Ponte Vecchio at night
Our next destination was Careggi hospital where we got another quick tour of the place and got a lecture, which was quite long, of the healthcare at the hospital. After the hospital visit we were finally able to go to our hotel to drop our bags off and get settled in to our new rooms. After resting for a bit we headed out to dinner and then I think for the first time everyone went out that night. We walked around Florence at night for a bit before asking were to go for some good nightlife from some people and they pointed us to the direction of the Arno River and probably a 30 minute walk to find where a lot of locals hand out. The place was just to little buildings that served drinks along the river which was pretty cool. We hung out there for a bit before we couldn't handle getting eaten alive by the bugs anymore, plus we were all kinda tired from our day. So we headed back to the hotel after that.
Golden doors of the Baptistry near il Duomo
il Duomo
Some of the sculptures in Palazzo Vecchio, I believe they are all copies
More sculptures in the Palazzo and the copy of David on the left.
Streets of Florence
Santa Croce
Ponte Vecchio at night
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Perugia Day 2
Our second day in Perugia, on 6/8, we started our day off by meeting up with a girl from England that was a student at the University of Perugia who was to show us around a little bit before meeting up with Dean Rossi, the Dean of the Pharmacy School at the University. On our little tour she told us about the University of Perugia and also told us about the University for Foreigners where you can take classes to learn Italian. Along the way we walked over the aqueduct in the city and then into a building of the University which had walls covered in excavated Etruscan carvings.
After our quick tour we meet up with Dean Rossi and he brought us into a lecture room there in the Pharmacy School where he and a couple professors presented some information about the Italian pharmacy school requirements and what the University offers as well as giving us some information about pharmacy in Italian healthcare. After the presentations some of us asked questions to the professors and dean that we had. When our time was up there they presented each of us with a bag with some keepsakes in them. From there our professors went up with the Dean to finalize and sign a pharmacy rotation Duquesne students could do at the University of Perugia and vice versa, while us the students went around with Stefano another professor and a friend of Paolo and he showed us some of the labs and talked to us about the school and exams and such.
From here we were treated to a lunch from the Dean at a restaurant near the school which was very good. After lunch we were taken to a local pharmacy where the pharmacist showed us around and presented some information to us about his pharmacy. There we were again treated to some food and gather more information. One thing we found pretty shocking was that pharmacies in Italy do not put any type of labels on the drugs they give out to patients. That means no patient name, no directions, nothing, they just hand them the box of drugs they were prescribed.
At this point of the day it's pretty late and we are ending this part of our day extremely behind schedule. We went back to the hotel for a bit, but then were bused to Dean Rossi's house for a dinner provided by him. Well little did we know we were going to a mansion in the hills of Perugia that had an amazing view and an even more impressive spread with 3 waiters. I think we were all in awe when we saw it and didn't feel worthy to be a part of this party he had. There was a famous artist from Canada I believe was where she was from and all the professors were there and then us the Duquesne students. But the night was amazing and really good food as well. After dinner we went back to the hotel and some of us ventured out again with Paolo for our last night in Perugia.
I don't have many pictures from this day due to the fact we were basically doing school work the whole day, but I have a couple pictures of the view from Dean Rossi's house.
Some of the buildings of the University of Perugia
The view from Dean Rossi's backyard
Our dinner spread
More of what we enjoyed that night
After our quick tour we meet up with Dean Rossi and he brought us into a lecture room there in the Pharmacy School where he and a couple professors presented some information about the Italian pharmacy school requirements and what the University offers as well as giving us some information about pharmacy in Italian healthcare. After the presentations some of us asked questions to the professors and dean that we had. When our time was up there they presented each of us with a bag with some keepsakes in them. From there our professors went up with the Dean to finalize and sign a pharmacy rotation Duquesne students could do at the University of Perugia and vice versa, while us the students went around with Stefano another professor and a friend of Paolo and he showed us some of the labs and talked to us about the school and exams and such.
From here we were treated to a lunch from the Dean at a restaurant near the school which was very good. After lunch we were taken to a local pharmacy where the pharmacist showed us around and presented some information to us about his pharmacy. There we were again treated to some food and gather more information. One thing we found pretty shocking was that pharmacies in Italy do not put any type of labels on the drugs they give out to patients. That means no patient name, no directions, nothing, they just hand them the box of drugs they were prescribed.
At this point of the day it's pretty late and we are ending this part of our day extremely behind schedule. We went back to the hotel for a bit, but then were bused to Dean Rossi's house for a dinner provided by him. Well little did we know we were going to a mansion in the hills of Perugia that had an amazing view and an even more impressive spread with 3 waiters. I think we were all in awe when we saw it and didn't feel worthy to be a part of this party he had. There was a famous artist from Canada I believe was where she was from and all the professors were there and then us the Duquesne students. But the night was amazing and really good food as well. After dinner we went back to the hotel and some of us ventured out again with Paolo for our last night in Perugia.
I don't have many pictures from this day due to the fact we were basically doing school work the whole day, but I have a couple pictures of the view from Dean Rossi's house.
Some of the buildings of the University of Perugia
The view from Dean Rossi's backyard
Our dinner spread
More of what we enjoyed that night
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Day Trip to Assisi
On 6/7 our group took a day trip to a small town outside of Perugia on a small mountain called Assisi. We all boarded the bus and took the short drive to Assisi. On the way our bus driver stopped and let us take some pictures of Assisi when we were at the base of the small mountain. After a quick photo-op and the drive up the hill we were dropped off near the lower part of town and had to walk up a couple streets to get to the church we were going to attend that morning. We got there a little bit early and had some time to walk around, but eventually we all headed into the church for mass in Italian. The church we went to was called San Francesco d'Assisi and was completely painted in frescos. The mass was nice, though I didn't understand it, but was able to basically follow along. When mass ended we were going to head out to grab some lunch before our guided tour, however it started to downpour extremely hard and we were trapped in the church. It started to let up a bit so we figured we could walk briskly to the nearest restaurant before getting soaked, but as soon as we stepped foot outside it came down harder and we were soaked. After a wet lunch it stopped raining and we all met up for a tour of the city.
We went on the tour and many of us wanted to stop at the many terrances overlooking the city and go in stores along the way and not go on the tour. So we would sort of just stop whenever we wanted and go into places as we pleased, to the dismay of the guide. I loved the cty, it was small perched up on a hill with narrow streets and picturesque views, but our time there was limited.
We headed back to Perugia that evening for dinner in our hotel again. After dinner we headed back out to the town center with Paolo to play cards and drink wine. Paolo showed us a cool little place where if you whispered in one corner you could hear it perfectly on the other side. He also showed us a tower that did the opposite of what you would expect when you got closer and further away. Normally as you get closer to a building it would get bigger and the further you got the smaller, but this tower did the complete opposite and was pretty neat to see. After another packed day we called it a night.
Our first view of Assisi from the road
San Francesco d'Assisi
The view from one of the roads
A street in Assisi
A neighborhood
We went on the tour and many of us wanted to stop at the many terrances overlooking the city and go in stores along the way and not go on the tour. So we would sort of just stop whenever we wanted and go into places as we pleased, to the dismay of the guide. I loved the cty, it was small perched up on a hill with narrow streets and picturesque views, but our time there was limited.
We headed back to Perugia that evening for dinner in our hotel again. After dinner we headed back out to the town center with Paolo to play cards and drink wine. Paolo showed us a cool little place where if you whispered in one corner you could hear it perfectly on the other side. He also showed us a tower that did the opposite of what you would expect when you got closer and further away. Normally as you get closer to a building it would get bigger and the further you got the smaller, but this tower did the complete opposite and was pretty neat to see. After another packed day we called it a night.
Our first view of Assisi from the road
San Francesco d'Assisi
The view from one of the roads
A street in Assisi
A neighborhood
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