The Chicken-Liver Cheese Administration

You not only have a right to be an individual. You have a responsibility. Eleanor Roosevelt ✈︎ I have been hungry since the moment my international flight from Philly to Rome disgraced Coco Chanel on the runway (and, I thought Italy was the fashion capital of the world). My stomach’s demanding growls mimic the rumbling […]

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9 Places in Florence You Have to Go!

In 1302, Dante Alighieri was exiled from Florence. His exile was a result of his work to separate the city of Florence from the papacy. Dante did not support the political endeavors of the Catholic Church, as he believed the church was meant to be a community, not an institution. While in exile, Dante wrote […]

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The Savior of Strangers – Final Portfolio

As we uncrowd the stuffy bus, I’m flooded with a newfound confidence for the day ahead—an unexpected feeling 4,840 miles from certainty. This confidence propels my heavy but eager body up the remarkably gentle incline to the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi. After only a few days in Spoleto, my knees, calves, and lungs […]

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Statua di Niccolo Machiavelli – Final Portfolio

Rusting, disintegrating, burn my skin, once ornate family crest My hand, soft and stubby hand malnourished child beseeching Silk, porcelain, spices sends East delicacies imported embroidered shredded sack of gold coins, adorn my feeble wrist, lifesavings a bloody lamb wool warming Never praised in centuries passed: Merchants artists harden, starving. God forbid an idol be […]

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Basilica (Final Portfolio)

It smells like old wood, first-grade memories gone stale. Like soft pages under fingertips, like candle flames flickering. Soft, white wax dripping, melting onto the psalms of my hands. There is no stained glass here, but centuries-old paintings framed by spider-web cracks, where the earthquake tore through it, then signed its autograph. The tile floors […]

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Today’s Artists of Florence: A Hidden Renaissance (Final Portfolio)

If I had thought traveling from Charleston, South Carolina, to Spoleto, Italy, had been a culture shock, nothing could have prepared me for traveling from Spoleto to Florence. Upon first arriving in the birthplace of the Renaissance, I wandered the streets of Firenze starry-eyed with wonder. Street vendors on every corner, selling handmade leather bags, […]

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To Lift One Up

Eating was a chore for me as a kid. It was also a chore for everyone else involved. I was the stubborn parental nightmare that insisted on stopping by McDonald’s for a Happy Meal before everyone sits down to eat at the Mexican restaurant the family frequents. On the occasion that I did eat what […]

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Spoleto: A City Outside of Time (Final Portfolio)

For foreign travelers and tourists, smaller European cities and towns—like many of those in Italy’s Umbria region—can seem mystifying and mundane all at once. As I explored the Umbrian town of Spoleto, I found myself walking from ancient stone walls to local cellphone stores, from cobblestone piazzas to moving sidewalks and escalators. There is a […]

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The “Naive” in “Native”

There are many things you can do to expose your position as a tourist when visiting Florence. You can take too many pictures or you could fall for one of those guys handing out bracelets or you could be too loud when scolding your wife or father-in-law or cousin for getting you sparkling water instead […]

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