Learn about art, fashion, and dad jokes in Florence with Spring 2022 student Emily Wange!
***This is an example of a student’s experience from Spring 2022. Specific programming and activities are subject to change semester by semester.
Being a Verto student has given me the opportunity for so many new experiences around the world that I never thought I would be able to check off my bucket list, especially so young. Even though I am here for school, my professors manage to make the classes fly by with interesting lectures both in and out of the classroom. The many walking tours that we’ve taken show us the historical sites that are peppered around all of Florence. Learning about the famous sites has helped us find our way around later too! Another set of tours I’ve loved is the museum tours I’ve been on for some of my classes. I’ve enjoyed certain artworks from afar but now had the opportunity to see them in person. Any time our professors take us to a museum, the admissions fee is always covered by Verto which is great for our student budgets.
In addition to the breathtaking museums and the historical cathedrals are the exciting trips from our intro to business class. We were given an in-depth explanation of coffee production from a high-end roastery in Florence and had a tasting with tiny classy sandwiches. I found it interesting to hear that they used coffee beans from Costa Rica which is where I spent my previous Verto Semester! Our class also learned about how high and low-end clothing brands market to their customers. I am obsessed with fashion and thrived during this exercise because of how interesting the beautiful store, Rinascente, is in the city center. I felt inspired walking out of that store from the avant-garde approach they had in their artistry that was nothing like anything I could see in America.
Art is another class I look forward to because of how fun and relaxing the professor makes the class. Professor T is always making us laugh with their self-acclaimed dad jokes. . In just a month and a half, I feel that I have already grown exponentially as an artist and have been shown techniques to use that are completely new to me. One day our class was learning about perspective and we were able to go down to the river and sketch while drawing inspiration from the beautiful Florentine architecture. I’ll never forget the weather that day; it was a beautiful sunny day and it felt so calm sipping my latte by the river with my friends sketching away at the Ponte Vecchio historic bridge. Overall, being a Verto student is amazing with the experiences I am exposed to on a daily basis. Yes, this is still school where at times I stay up late to study and write papers, but I am very glad that my small classes are also required to do more than sit stationary in a lecture hall all semester long.
