Friday, May 20th, Day 5
One of the most exciting parts about living in Genoa for two weeks is the amount of events and festivals the city throws that we get to attend! This week specifically, Genoa showcased their art world with their Design Week. We visited dozens of local galleries and exhibits ranging from furniture layouts to nautical displays where the concept of “space” was emphasized in every design. One gallery in particular hit home for us. Il Vicolo Galleria d’arte is owned by Ambra Guadenzi whose husband teaches at Clemson University’s School of Architecture here in Genoa. The gallery showcases art made by Emanuele Luzzati, a former resident of Castelleto near Clemson Architecture Foundation’s villa. All six of us were able to gather for lunch together where we continued to indulge in Italy’s fresh pasta, bread and gelato! Further exploring downtown Genoa, we stopped at a few shops to admire Italian fashion. We concluded our day with dinner cooked by our professor, Frances Ford, and fruit dessert prepared by Anna Gehring. As a fun bonus, we learned we absolutely love the whipped cream here! Italian food has yet to disappoint!
Saturday, May 21st, Day 6
Who knew coming to Italy that we’d get to experience other country’s culture traditions and festivals? Here in Genoa, on Saturday, May 21st, we had the opportunity to celebrate an annual festival dear to the town of Murcia, Spain. In fact, Murcia and Genoa are twin cities! Citizens from Murcia traveled over to their sister city to host the first international Burial of the Sardine, or Entierro de la Sardina. The people of Genoa and Murcia came together to throw a day of festivities, multiple of which we got to participate in. In the morning was the parade where over a million toys and pieces of jewelry were handed out to the children of Genoa, traditional Spanish and Italian cuisine was showcased in different piazzas throughout the day, and the night ended with the burning of a sardine sculpture and a beautiful fireworks display! Unfortunately, we were unable to attend the actual burning, although we tried! It happened to occur at 11:30 pm, and after a week of walking an average of 15-20k steps a day, we were too exhausted to stay out that late. Regardless, we were happy to celebrate all day long a fun festival alongside two countries! Bonus: we got to see fireworks from the terrace at our villa!
