It has been over a month since we finished the LIBS 100 trip to Italy. I landed at Heathrow Airport with five assignments ahead waiting for me, therefore, I dropped my feelings there. However, something inside keeps urging me to take it up and now it’s here. Yes, better late than never!
If you have ever heard about Italy, I doubt it would be about the glamorous Milan, the historic Rome or the romantic Venice. However, I want to show you something else about Italy that is more of “life” through the lens of a person who first time visits European countries.
To start, the LIBS 100 are trips to other countries funded by Lincoln International Business School, given to 100 selected students to enhance their global mindset, connect with the global community and learn from their initiatives. Our initial plan included visiting the partner universities to learn more about businesses and sustainability; however, it was changed due to heavy strikes in the UK at that time. With the effortless dedication and hard work of the Global Experience team, a new plan quickly built up with an even more interesting itinerary, and the trip started.
Our first destination was Rimini, the city is known for the sea, sand, sunny weather and tourists. You would really appreciate it if you experienced three months of cold and wet weather through the winter. And it didn’t let us down; everything was as beautiful as that. We all spent our first few hours enjoying the scenery and atmosphere, which wiped out our tiredness from long travelling.
We also visited its most famous historic site, Tiberius Bridge, a national monument showing the Romanian’s technical skills. This is astonishing to me concerning its history of thousands of years ago and the people’s skills to build them.
One thing that shouldn’t be overlooked is the “green” feature. You will encounter many trees grown alongside the streets and everywhere. They also have very few traffic lights at the crossroads as a way to save energy. If you wait in line for pedestrians, all the vehicles will automatically stop for you to cross the road. This was a surprise for me, who came from a country that had to fight with all other vehicles to cross the road.
Of course, it is Italy; we cannot skip its must-try food, pasta. And it was well deserved its reputation. We also tried Rimini’s signature dish, Piadines.
Four hundred meters away from it is the city square called Piazza Maggiore. This is the main square surrounded by several historical buildings, monuments and fountains, which altogether draw the Middle Ages features. This ambience made me feel like I travelled to that period of time.
We spent hours discovering only this amazing square before heading to Bologna University, the oldest University in the world. However, it was closed by the time we arrived, which was one of the missing pieces of the trip.
On the final day, we visited FICO to learn about their sustainability practices in food production. The tour was great, with licensed guides and a food trial.
What remains to me from the trip is “Ciao”, a strong and clear greeting word of Italian people which somehow shows their characters, the rich historical and cultural cities, the fantastic view of San Marino and the wish to one day visit these cities again.