Today was a little different from the others so far, because we basically had our while schedule pre planned (Not a complaint, just a description). We started off by going to the Leonardo Da Vinci Science and Technology Museum. The museum showcased many of the ideas and inventions of Da Vinci by displaying blown up pictures and diagrams from his notebook and then displaying the replicated models next to them. It was crazy seeing how much Da Vinci accomplished in is lifetime. I couldn't even imagine being so talented that I could excel in multiple fields like he did. His contributions to society have applications in the arts, botany, anatomy, mechanics, and engineering. He did so much that the museum couldn't fit all the models into one area; the museum stretched over multiple buildings. I think my favorite exhibit was the building with the ships and planes. Since I will be joining the Navy after college, it was cool to see where the technologies I will one day be working with got their start.
After a few hours at the museum, we had lunch and a restaurant called Bebel. The food was almost overwhelming, because we didn't realize what was considered an appetizer and an entree. We ate two different kinds of pizza (shrimp and veggie), octopus, shrimp and cantaloupe salad, and risotto with pumpkin leaves. The pizza was actually an appetizer! After I finished my meal, I tried my first cappuccino. My first taste was a little too bitter so I ended up added a packet of sugar to it (like the American I am).
After lunch, we were given a tour of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, the largest Catholic university in Europe. Our tour guide, Gloria, started off by talking the statistics of the university. Average tuition is a little less that 7 thousand euros, and textbooks only cost around 20 euros! Then we walked through the beautiful courtyard in the heart of campus. The grass was so green because nobody is allowed to step on the grass. The way tat students are deterred from stepping on it is that it is believed that stepping on te grass brings ad luck. The only time the are allowed to step of the grass is on graduation day. We also got a glimpse of te largest classroom on campus, which looked more like a UN meeting room because of the desks rising high above the front with multiple people sitting at a table in the front. Also, the girls were allowed to explore a literal "girls only" courtyard/garden, where boys would get kicked out by campus police if they were found there.
After the tour of the campus finished, we met up with actual students of the university to talk and mingle. We ate dinner together at a buffet style restaurant, where I loaded up my plate with carbs. Most of the students were upperclassmen and we exchanged conversation about our lives in the different countries and what our impressions were of the other country. One guy said that when he thinks of America, the first thing he thinks of is skyscrapers. It was very interesting to learn about life for college kids in other countries and get a primary source for the day of a young adult in Italy.
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