by: Bret Lott
Ciao!
Day number two broke bright and early and gave us the view below of the fields sloping down into the Umbrian Valley. This was taken at 6:00, when the rooster next door got to work in earnest. It’s the same view as every time we are here, but different nonetheless, and always beautiful. We had classes in the morning, then walked for the first time into town for the annual tour of Spoleto with Luca, our guide, who seems never to get any older—he’s been leading us for eight years now. Students were suitably agog at the history, the architecture, the art and gelato (of course we stopped for gelato) of their new home for the next month. But, sadly, there was some evidence of the earthquakes (“terremoto” in Italian—a lovely and terrible word) last fall here in Umbria, including one building next to the library riddled with newly installed high-tech earthquake bolts and a metal support frame to keep it from falling down. Charleston has more in common with Spoleto than simply the international arts festivals they both stage each year. Both cities have a history of terremoti; earthquake bolts in Charleston are one of the architectural elements you’ll hear carriage tour guides point out, the same element Luca points out in the buildings here. Despite the recent earthquakes, Spoleto’s beauty and stateliness and charm remain intact, timeless characteristics the students appreciated all day long.
Creative Writing Professor Bret Lott is leading the summer, 2017, study abroad program in Spoleto, Italy.
A building next to the library, with earthquake bolts on two sides and metal support frame installed to hold it together (there are dozens of them to the left of the door).
Luca and the students looking out on Spoleto from the top of the town.
The gang and Luca at the duomo.
The view, yet again.