Easy Living in Florence

By Sydney Pogue
Photos by FUA Staf

Rising in spirals of marble and stone, Florence is a city known for its architecture, culture, and as being a cornerstone of the Renaissance, to say the least.
But amidst this place of ancient cobblestone and accented archways, lies a small gem no one would expect to see so far inland from the coast. Along the Arno, there is a place where stone turns to sand, volleyball nets and lounge chairs: Easy living. 

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Unprepared for the Florentine orchestra

By MacKenzie Gellner
Photo by Unspalshed

For the first time, I experienced a symphonic performance. It was held in St. Stephen Auditorium by the Orchestra da Camera Fiorentina, featuring violinists Marco Lorenzini and Kevin Mucaj. It may have had to do with it being a Florentine orchestra, but it was far more magical than what I had expected. Realistically, since having no previous experience to compare, I attempted to not have too high of expectations in case I got my hopes up. The only symphonies I’ve ever seen are in films (and I’m not really sure if that counts).

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A trip to distant stars by way of the Florentine hills

The ancient telescope at Arcetri observatory.

by Sydney Pogue
Photo by Alessandro Papi

Galileo, as many already may know, is one of the most iconic pioneers in the history of modern science, even being heralded by Albert Einstein as “the father of….modern science altogether”[1]. One of the fields most impacted by his intellectual prowess though, was that of Astronomy. In this subject, he ended up disproving Aristotle’s theory that the moon had a smooth and perfectly spherical surface, revealing how it was instead riddled with craters [2]. But his most famous discovery was what changed the scientific world; that instead of the Sun and celestial objects revolving around the Earth, the Earth instead revolved around the Sun⁠— a concept which is otherwise known as “heliocentrism”[2]. After sharing evidence supporting this new revelation to the public, the Roman Catholic Church condemned him to live out the rest of his years on house arrest in a small villa in Florence[3].

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The escapade to Ed

By MacKenzie Gellner
Photos by the Author

We knew it wouldn’t be easy, but we didn’t think it’d be so tough.
Under the hot Florentine sun and lack of water, we didn’t know if we’d make it. But we had to try. We had to make it to Firenze Rocks, the music festival running three days in Florence. But we  were only going to be there for one, so there was no room for mistakes.

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