The First Week
This semester us students have five classes: Social History of Art in Italy, Italian Language and Culture, Urban Sketching, Design Studio, and Alabaster which is our sculpture course. However, even before our classes started we had opportunities to explore the town on the Saturday of arrival and the Sunday.
Every one of us took advantage of these two free days, whether it was getting settled in our room, experiencing our first meal here in Volterra, or simply getting a close look around town, the weekend was well spent.
On Sunday May 3rd, the day prior to classes beginning there was a flower festival in Volterra. There were floral decorations through the streets and a special flower decor exhibition in one of the town squares. Many small shop owners had market stands on certain streets with products varying from handmade journals and jewellery to crochet items and one of a kind purses, and even honey. So, the weekend of arrival was the perfect time for us to get a glimpse of what it is that Volterra has to offer us over our time here.
Now, our only class each Monday is Design Studio and unfortunately during the first week of classes, which started May 4th, our professor was unable to be in Italy due to previous commitments back in Detroit. But, there is no need to worry because we still had an assignment to complete, and professor Wladek Fuchs took care of us! This assignment required us to take ten pictures of how Volterra reaches the sky and the ground while also creating an extensive drawn map of our personal experience of the town. This was the exact thing we all needed in order to truly step into every corner and crevasse that we could. Our maps had to show where was pedestrian heavy, historic/significant buildings, and of course the things that made our experience unique. We then displayed our completed work on Tuesday May 12th, when our professor Dan Pitera finally arrived.
On the day that Dan arrived everybody went out to dinner together at a restaurant for pizza, among other things. During this outing Dan gifted us each with a handmade pencil that he made out of wood from a building in Detroit. Each one is like a little puzzle piece that together make up a big piece of wood. As developing architects this was the perfect gift to start the semester with! Not only are these pencils amazing for sketching, but they also have a built in sharpener and the pencil part can be exchanged for a pen insert as well. And so, they will be cherished by us students and used every chance we get.
For our other classes, our professors took us outside to walk around Volterra and tell us the history of each area we visited. Not only did we see multiple different kinds of architecture within this small town, but we were able to see how each layer of its past was built upon. We visited the old Etruscan gate, the medieval fortifying wall, the Roman Theatre, and saw each different kind of stone/brick that signified varying time periods in history. Overall, our first week was one for discovery and understanding the rich history that Volterra has to offer.
Until next time, ciao!!
– Scarlett Ambedian