Field Trip in Italy

Last Wednesday at 6:30AM five of us girls took off to Venice for our backpacking through Italy adventure. Now being back and thinking about all of the paintings and sculpture we saw, I feel that all of my history and humanities classes prepared me for what I saw this trip. Here is a quick play by play of all of humanities highlights of our trip.

Day One: Venice
St. Marks Square, which includes Doge's Palace and the Basilica's campanile.

Day 2 Florence.
We started off in Florence in the Academia to see the David!! Next was the Uffizi where we saw paintings including the Birth of Venus and Martin Luther.


Day 3 Rome
Our first day in Rome we spent exploring the history of the Roman Empire. The first thing we did was go to the Coliseum. After the Coliseum we made our way across the street to Palatine Hill and the Form. I could not help but think what it would have been like to live in Rome 2,000 years ago when the Coliseum was still white marble with statues in every window. We finished the day visiting Capital Hill, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps. The Trevi Fountain we ended up visiting 3 times by the end of our two-day trip, needless to say we liked it and the surrounding atmosphere.


Day 4 Vatican city

Probably the highlight of the Vatican City, especially from the humanities point of view, the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. AMAZING! We are learning about “The Creation of Adam” in our humanities 202 class. It is an amazing painting but unreal to see live!! In the Vatican we also saw The School of Athens by Raphael, which we are also studying in our 202 classes.

Preston or Priest's Town

We started off our tour in Preston where it was way colder than I imagined. Peter Fagg (our guide) took us to an exhibit of what Preston looked like in 1827. I learned how the cotton industry was the main industry at the time. Lancaster had the largest cotton factory in all of England. It consisted of 42 mills in working operation. A large majority of the first converts worked in these Mills. Probably one of the coolest things we saw was the Oblique where the first Missionaries of the Church preached, including President Gordon B. Hinckley. It was so cool to see that and picture President Hinckley standing there in 1933 as a scared little boy preaching to the town of Preston, England.
We walked by the dental office of Brigham young and Joseph Smith. Their dentist was one of the first to record the First Vision and recorded that Jesus Christ had blue eyes and that Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father were dressed in white robes.
On Wilfred Street lies the house where the first group of missionaries lived when they first arrived in England. This is the house where the evil spirits appeared. After Joseph Smith learned of this he said that he knew the Gospel was about to take root.
Avenham Park is not only beautiful but it is a very important part of England’s church history. The Japanese gardens were shown of Sister Hinckley walking in them. The video played at her funeral. The park is also home to the Ribble River where the 8 saints were baptized during the first mission. Thousands gathered to watch these new members of the church be baptized.
The Church received the nickname the dippers for the way they baptized. I really liked the oak tree that was a dedication to all missionaries that have served, are serving and that will ever serve.
We also learned about Wilfred Woodruff's fly-fished and is said to have made fly fishing large in the West.
We visited the Church of St. Wilfred. The minister of the Church at the time of Heber C. Kimball’s mission appeared in Kimball’s dream. This dream was about the good field that was Britain and the Church of England which was the lost crop. The bull stomping on the good crop represented the Church of England.