Hello everyone, welcome to the blog! Some of you (my family primarily, I'm guessing) may have seen my previous travel blog, West Meets East: Looking for Byzantium in Italy. On that trip, I was traveling throughout Italy in order to find Byzantine influences on the art and architecture of the peninsula in the Middle Ages. This time, my focus is quite a bit more narrow in some respects (I'll be doing archival research for my dissertation most days), but on this blog I'll be writing about more than just dusty documents.
The title of the this blog is "Arduus Ad Sapientiam," which is Latin for "striving for wisdom" (or intelligence, understanding, or even good taste. Latin's funny that way). These varied meanings mesh well with what I hope to accomplish on this trip. I'll of course be working on my dissertation, but seeing as I'll be in Italy for 3 whole months, it seems criminal not to learn everything that I can about the food and the wine as well. This isn't my first trip to Italy, but it will be the most time that I've spent there since 2008. I'll have an apartment to myself for the duration of the trip and a car for two months, and I intend to take full advantage of these opportunities (along with the currently weak Euro!) to come to a better understanding not only of my dissertation topic, but also of Italy in general and Lazio specifically.
My hope is to update 3 times per week, once with some history (either something interesting I've discovered in the archive, or some interesting tidbits about nearby areas and towns), once with some food (hopefully highlighting local ingredients and techniques, as well as a recipe), and once with some wine (from Italy, though not necessarily from my local area. Lazio isn't particularly well known for its wines, unlike Piemonte, Toscana, Veneto, or even Sicilia). I'll be taking a multitude of pictures as well.
Starting in September, I'll be in the town of Cassino (of Montecassino fame) for 2 months, and heading to Rome for the month of November, so you can expect more updates starting in a little under a month. I may update once or twice between now and then with more plans. Thanks for reading!
