Day 14: Italy Day

The day at sea between Spain and Italy is known as "Italy Day" because Italy is all we talk about.  There are no classes but a bunch of sessions on all things Italian: history, culture, tourist stuff, etc.  They even serve Italian food which isn't real popular because nobody wants fake Italian food when we get to have the real stuff the next day.

I got up early and hit the gym before attending a mandatory session on "intercultural misunderstandings."  It was basically a presentation of how ignorant and pompous Americans are.  They might have well just had us look around the room for a few minutes and it would have been equally effective.  The next one was a session on Italian folk music.  It was pretty interesting how much difference there is between Northern and Southern Italy.  Finally I went to a session by an inter-port Italian student with some general info about the culture, lifestyle, where to eat, best gelato, and so on.  Overall there was some good information.

The rest of the day I was starting to contemplate some of the papers for FDPs I'll have to produce as well as an upcoming Global Studies midterm that most people are pretending doesn't exist because life is happier that way.  I guess I'll allow a little homework between ports.  I'm also working with a few others to figure out the logistics for an independent trip to Venice.  We have some inside info and are hopefully able to snag a pretty good deal.  Even though I was there two years ago it was one of my highlights and would love to do it again.  That's all for now, we're off to Civitavecchia, the Port of Rome.