Rome is a bastion of religious sites. It’s a boon for teaching World Religions. We actually get to physically see the historic sites that reflect the formation, growth, and change of major Western religions, such as Christianity, Judaism, and even Islam. The images also show the global nature of our world — then and now … Continue reading Religion in Person
The Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions at St. Petersburg College, in partnership with the Global Action Coalition, is presenting a free forum on the Cuban trade embargo on June 30th from 6-8 p.m. at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg. The forum, titled “Cuba: Embargo or Not?”, will be moderated by John Wilson, former anchor … Continue reading “Cuba: Embargo or Not?” FREE Forum presented by SPC Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions
What a journey. I woke up to prepare for my travel at 730 am EST. I was up for a full 36 hours, without feeling completely drained. Every step in my travel I kept waiting for it to hit me; I was going to be in Spain. At Tampa International it didn’t hit me. In … Continue reading We’ve Arrived and I Never Want to Leave Spain!
Today we were able to visit the United Nations World Food Programme. We took a bus to get there since it was on a different side of Rome that was too far to walk, and I was a bit relieved for the break since we have walked almost everywhere, and we did climb the 551 steps … Continue reading Day 4: Visiting the UN FAO!
Today we climbed up St. Peters Basilica. That is roughly around 550 stairs. It was not as bad as I thought it would be but since we were constantly going in circles it got very repetitive. However, seeing the work of Michelangelo was worth it. The Basilica was beautiful. Its incredibly difficult to believe that … Continue reading My experience in Italy
St. Peter’s Basilica is simply a masterpiece of the Renaissance world. Walking up the 570 steps to the top of the dome is as if you were bringing yourself closer to God. The entirety of Vatican square could be seen from the top, which accentuates the perfect symmetry difficult to visualize from standing at its … Continue reading To the top of the Basilica and to the top of the Castle
Our third day started, as usual, with our World Religions and International Relations classes at Pontifica Universita Urbianiana. Today we had spirited discussions on current event and issues regarding the Abrahamic Religions and the role of gender in the study and development of International Relations. If you want the opportunity to go on one of … Continue reading Roma Giorno Tre
Well, our travels did get off to a bumpy start with a delay through JFK which put our schedule off by about six hours, but everyone remained in high spirits and took it as part of the adventure. Despite going for a solid 24hrs of flying and laying over, everyone’s energy was high for our … Continue reading There could be no better classroom!
Today was technically our second day in Rome, however, I am counting it as the first because it was the first full day. As in, we woke up today in a convent turned hotel, and started walking the streets of Rome, Italy. From 9 am to 12 pm we had our classes at the Vatican … Continue reading Everywhere you walk in Rome, you are connected to things that happened thousands of years ago!
Tuesday was the designated day to climb all 551 steps to the top of St. Peter’s Basilica. There was a lot of talk about it and I didn’t think it would be that hard. Boy, was I wrong. The first couple hundred steps were pretty easy, but soon after they started becoming progressively skinnier and the … Continue reading Day 3: Climbing the 551 steps to the top of St. Peter’s Basilica