All Roads Lead to Rome....

Or at least I hope so, otherwise I will be helplessly lost! 

So this is my blog for my Italy trip with Michigan State University and James Madison College.  We are going to be going to Rome and then Florence for a total of 6 weeks to study Republicanism throughout history.  You might ask, does that have anything to do at all with any major that is relative to real life?  The answer is probably no, but I like to think it is!  As my major is Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy this would make some amount of sense for me to express this delusion.  In my major we study the works of major philosophers throughout history and look at what they say is the ideal human society, and other major subjects on life (e.g. Justice, government, morality, etc).  So with that in mind, it makes sense that I would think this applies to life. 

Any how, more details on the trip.  In Rome we will study THE Republic; that is the Roman Republic.  It will be a blast to be able to actually learn about something so pivotal to our history, in the actual place where it happened; I'm looking forward to it!  After that we shall take a pleasant 3 hour train ride through the beautiful landscape of Tuscany to the city of Florence.  There we will compare the American Republic to the European Union, using Machiavelli's blueprint of a Republic as our point of reference.  This part is essentially my dream class for a number of reasons.  1) I love the works of Machiavelli.  2) I like learning the intricacies of the EU.  3) We will be in Italy!  Also for this part of my trip we will be visiting Machiavelli's farm where he spent the end of his life and wrote most of his works.  SO STOKED!

So why do I think this applies to life in a practical way?  Ummm, good question!  I like to believe that studying the past will give us better clues about where we came from so we will be better able to understand where we are going. 

So, yeah that's my major and trip in a nutshell.  I hope to put more up soon.  I shall try and share all of the craziness of getting ready for traveling abroad with all of you!  And with that to try and get in the mindset of an ancient Roman

Pax, and may the Republic stand!