Final Thoughts

Now that my semester is over and I am back in America with a couple days to be able to digest everything here are my final thoughts. Studying abroad is the greatest experience that I have ever had. I highly recommend it to anyone who has the chance to go. You learn something knew every day. You are constantly outside of your comfort zone and being pushed to new heights. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to pursue my endeavors, architecture and otherwise, in such a culturally diverse and rich place.

To sum up my trip, I spent the last three and a half months in Europe traveling to eleven countries in all. My favorite countries were Italy, Germany, and Spain in addition to Switzerland. My favorite cities were Zaragoza, Munich, Rome, Venice, and Prague. The only city that I visited that I didn't really care for was Porto. While I have no regrets and I'm glad for every place I visited, I wish I traveled to more countries/cities. There is always so much to do and see that it was going to be impossible to see everything.

Some of the things I already miss are the walkability of Riva San Vitale and the access to the park/lake. I miss the small town quaintness. I miss always seeing mountains every time I look out of my window. It is the little things that are always present that are missed the most.

Here's to being back in America and becoming a thesis student at Virginia Tech. The countdown to graduation is on.

Arrivederci Riva San Vitale

Today marks the end of my residency at the Villa Maderni in Riva San Vitale, Switzerland. It also marks my last day in Europe. I've had the time of my life these past four months. Sure there's been ups and downs but it has been a blast. I'm going to miss living in Europe and being surrounded by the Alps. I have learned so much this semester and wouldn't trade this semester for anything.

Villa Maderni

I going to miss the friends I've made and ones I've grown closer to. It was such a great experience. While there was so much that I got to do and so many places I got to go to there is still so much more out there. It will be nice to finally have a break from studio but I would still love to travel more. Until next time Europe.

One Last Hurrah

Today was our last day of travel. We made it a joint trip with PGS to go see the Church of San Giovanni Battista in Mogno, Switzerland. It was about 2 hours north of Riva San Vitale. The church was designed by Mario Botta and completed in 1996. It replaced a church from 1626 that was leveled by an avalanche in 1986. The church looks really nice or so I assume if it wasn't covered in scaffolding. Workers were in the process of renovating it while we were there but that didn't stop us from sneaking in. A handful of us got our pictures before being yelled at in Italian and kicked out. It was still nice to see though.

Interior view

The rest of the day was spent hiking between a couple villages. Daniela likes to take the Villa on this end of the year hike and today wasn't any different. It was a beautiful day to go too. We made our way through a series of houses made from rocks. They were very nicely made and we even go to go inside one. There was a sense of modern meets old construction. We were old they are vacation homes.

We finally made it to the end of the hike to see this gorgeous waterfall. It is called Foroglio Waterfall in the Bavona Valley. The water plunges 360 feet off the side of the cliff. It has been called the most beautiful in Ticino. There is also a restaurant near the base of the waterfall. We all got to relax a bit and take pictures of the waterfall. It was a nice way to end the semester.

I leave on Wednesday to go back home.