Pollenzo: the other UNISG campus

we had our first trip today: a day trip to visit the other UNISG campus at Pollenzo which is where the three-year undergraduate, two-year graduate and the may section of our master program (will) study. it was an early start and a long three hour bus drive across a very flat landscape. Pollenzo, which is a part of Bra in Piedmont, is an adorable, picturesque village which is home to 600 inhabitants, 250 students, a hotel, a michelin-starred restaurant called guido (no, we did not eat

there), and la banca del vino (pic left) which stores cases of wine of italian-only producers as a type of historical memory. the buildings were so old and beautiful but the insides felt very modern.

we had a tour around the campus before lunch and i instantly fell in love with the library. imagine, over 12,000 books (incl. cookbooks, references, magazines,

encyclopedias) available in multiple languages regarding any subject concerning food - history, nutrition, culture, tourism, regional cookbooks, current international magazines - there wasn't enough time. i think all of us would have been happy to spend the rest of the day there. with a coffee and a large comfy couch. the rest of the afternoon was however spent listening to people who work at Slow Food Italy - the headquarters are down the street in Bra. it was interesting to hear about their jobs, especially if any of us want to have an internship with SF, but some of the information we had heard before.

i'm glad to be in colorno - pollenzo makes it feel almost like a city hA! but it would have been nice if the campuses were closer together so that we could have more interaction with the students in other programs, to have access to the library (rather than inter-library loans - i like to roam and peruse all the literary possibilities!) to go back and eat at guido and also to see what Bra is like. i thought Pollenzo was so cute, it makes me a little sad to think i might not ever go back.