Italy – Noah Jefferson (2024)
Clinging to the edge of a city nearly thirty miles from Venice is one of the oldest schools in the world. Padova University is home to many programs, but the one responsible for bringing together students from the continental United States and Padova is its veterinary school. For five days each year, Padova and its veterinary students host American students hoping to learn more about public health in the broader context of OneHealth in a collaborative environment. This program is known as the International Mobilization of Veterinary Students or (iMOVES) and to say that this experience was incredible is an oversimplification.
The day before the in-person component of this program officially began I was able to explore Venice with some of my TAMU classmates and our Italian hosts. There we were able to walk over the canals and take in historical sites like the unassuming Rialto Bridge and the shops that run along it. For dinner, we went back to a local restaurant in Padova where we bonded over a sampling of appetizers and pizzas suggested by our Italian hosts. Then we parted for the night.
My host lived in a town nearly half an hour from Padova commonly known as Vicenza so we started our Monday morning early. Full from a sweet breakfast, we made our way to the train station that would deliver us to our bus. The sky was slightly overcast and the wind was warm while we waited for the train to arrive on our platform.
After some time, the train arrived and we boarded. At this hour, the train was fairly empty so my host and I had the carriage to ourselves. Still, we squeezed into the same row and talked about the things we were looking forward to for the week.
Once in Padova, we hopped on a bus that would finally bring us to the school. Unlike the train, the bus was filled with students from all disciplines. Discussions in Italian backgrounded the ride from the city center to the school. Each stop that the bus made added more students and more anticipation. What did the school look like? What were the classrooms going to be like? What were the other students going to be like?
The bus deposited us in front of a series of brick buildings with beautiful grass lawns between them. Students flooded out of the bus and it was hard to stick to my host, who expertly navigated the herd. We had built time into our morning routine for delays so we had some time before class began that morning. Some of our peers seemingly had the same idea and were congregated at the cafe where we joined them over coffee.
At the cafe, veterinary students from Texas A&M, Colorado State, Penn Vet, and Kansas State introduced themselves to the Italian veterinary and biotechnology students. People from all across the world brought together over a common interest in public health. The program director and our respective faculty advisors were already at the cafe, facilitating introductions.
Then it was time for classes to begin.
We were ushered from the cafe onto the main artery of the campus. Students lounged on blankets in the grass, barely sparing our group a look as we passed by them. My host pointed out buildings that she learned in, promising to show us the barn later. Turning a corner between two large, brick buildings brought a much needed reprieve from the sun who had managed to overpower the cloudiness that had scored my commute. We stopped in front of a long classroom with many windows. The program director opened the door, beckoning us inside.
One important thing to know about Italian architecture is that many buildings do not have central air conditioning. Our classroom was no different.
The program director kicked things off with introductions and a welcome before passing things off to our first lecturer.
We learned about aflatoxin and its impact on food production, specifically its impact on seafood in the European Union (EU). When the lecture was finished, we relocated to a lab where we donned appropriate PPE and divided up at workstations. Here, our instructor guided us through the process of preparing a toxicological assay for the detection and assessment of aflatoxin in a sample. When we finished preparing our assays, we broke for lunch to give our instructor time to run the test and collect the raw data.
After lunch, we entered a new classroom. This one was much closer to the cafe and mercifully had air conditioning. Our instructor reviewed the data we collected then handed the microphone over to a new lecturer who taught us more about food safety.
At the end of that lecture, our program director stood up and talked us through the agenda for the next day. Then we were released for the day.
The plan came together almost immediately after finishing class. We would ride back into Padova and our Italian hosts would show us the architecture and sights worth seeing.
We met at a park near the city center. The park was surrounded by a moat and at its heart was an ornate fountain. Since the sun was still beaming down on us, we decided to wait for our new classmates in the shade. We sat there for a while, watching the fountain run and children play in the grass.
Slowly, our group reformed and the heat of the day was blocked out by cotton-ball clouds. One of the girls from the Italian cohort took on the role of tour guide and we were off. We learned that the sculpture busts surrounding the park’s moat depicted famous historical Italians. Some of them were hundreds of years old.
Along the tour, the sky darkened. We carried on towards a towering church. When we were less than a street away, it began to pour. Some of our more prepared peers had umbrellas and we scramble for cover underneath them. Then the wind picked up and we took up refuge near a closed newspaper stand, hoping to wait out the rain.
It did not stop. Luckily, we were right near a bar that had covered seating available so we ran there through the rain. Nearly 20 of us filled the bar as we sat at a long table reminiscent of Da Vinci. We ordered drinks and got to know each other better. At some point in the evening the rain stopped, but we stayed seated.
Conversation turned to what we could expect from our impending field trip to Chioggia, a small fishing town south of Venice. Much less historic politically, but a city of significant cultural importance to the people of Italy. Our program director had already told us that we would get to see the closed fish market in action and learn about fish husbandry, but most of us had little context beyond that.
Eventually it became time to separate for the night so my host and I began our journey back to Vicenza where we fell asleep nearly as soon as we got home. The second day began much like the first. Train, bus, coffee, lectures, and lunch in that order. Then it was time for us to depart to Chioggia.
The fish market that we visited was located at the corner of the city so the bus dropped us off right before a large bridge over the Adriatic Sea. We were lucky enough to walk over it in order to get to the market, where our guide was waiting for us outside. He talked us through some of the common species that are caught in this market as well as the clientele that this market serves.
Inside the market was significantly cooler than it was outside to better preserve the fresh catch. Coolers piled with freshly-caught fish were stacked on top of wooden pallets all along the warehouse. There were shrimp and crabs and even a few eels. Our guide talked us through the life of Chioggian fishermen and the operating hours of the market. Most markets happen in the early hours of the morning and the fish bought at these markets ends up on someone’s plate by the end of the day.
A bell clanged and the market began. Buyers swarmed the pallets, claiming containers of fish. One group of fishermen even held a silent auction for their product. In a matter of minutes, the market had ended and the fish were prepped and packed for delivery. Our guide led us back into the June heat and into a neighboring building where a lecturer from Padova waited to speak to us on fish physiology.
When the lecture ended, we were given time to explore Chioggia. Since none of us had anticipated this, we wandered aimlessly as a herd until stumbling onto a street market. Roasted nuts and pizza-by-the-slice permeated the air as schools of people weaved between the stalls. We shopped for sunglasses and shirts and magnets as we followed the crowd. Eventually we reached a pier looking out to the water where we spent the remainder of our time in Chioggia.
The next day, Wednesday, was a day of classroom learning that followed a similar formula to the others. When our lectures were over, our group decided to attempt another foray into Padova, this time hopefully without weather complications.
We met for dinner in the city. We ate pizza and debated the things we had been learning, comparing our cultural perspectives. My host did not accompany me on this meal because the Italian students had an exam on Friday and she wanted to study, but she had organized a way for me to get back to Vicenza. When dinner finished and our stomachs had settled, I made my way back to Vicenza with some students from Colorado State, whose hosts lived in Verona– the city we were visiting the following day.
The ride back to Vicenza was long and the rain had returned with a vengeance as we drove along the highway. In the backseat, us three Americans talked about our experiences so far and our respective experiences in veterinary school. Rain drops pelted the car right up until we reached my stop. I exited the vehicle, thanking the Italian students for driving me and bidding the whole car a good night.
The next morning, we packed our bags for a safari. In Italy, “zoo” is a politically-loaded word so many establishments are known as Bioparks. Verona is home to one such Biopark. For the second time, we boarded a bus and began the journey to Verona. I napped for the majority of this drive, but I was woken up when we arrived at Parco Natura Viva. We were one of the first groups to arrive, so finding the park director for our tour was simple.
The tour of the park led us through a select few of the conservation efforts like their vulture conservation project. Then we were left to wander. We saw kangaroos, tigers, komodo dragons, and live hippos too. As the morning progressed, the biopark became more and more crowded with schoolchildren, so we took a break for lunch.
After lunch, we reconvened at the zoo entrance so we could get on the bus for our drive-through safari. On the safari we saw an African gray rhino and two giraffes enjoying a more natural life without the threats of true nature. Unlike many other drive-through safaris, Parco Natura Viva does not allow people to feed the animals because that makes them less wild and more dependent on human intervention in addition to dysregulating their diet. It was amazing to see all of these animals at a distance that most people could never dream of.
The safari ended too quickly and it was time to leave, so we were given the option of staying in Verona to explore. We took the opportunity, making a beeline for a gelateria. Full of gelato, we began our walk to the Arena. The Arena is a concert venue in Italy, but it is also an ancient colosseum. Smaller than the Colosseum in Rome, but much better preserved. On our tour, the venue was being prepared for an opera concert. That blend of modern technology and ancient architecture was something really surreal.
Most people only know of Verona because of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. To honor this, there is a small courtyard tucked away with lover’s locks and a statue of Juliet. People line up for the opportunity to take a picture with Juliet. Again, our time ended too quickly and it was time to rush to the train station that would take us to our hosts for the night.
On the last day of our trip, we went to a chicken farm. Before this trip, I had not given much thought to poultry medicine, but I knew that personal protective equipment (PPE) was mandatory for farm visits. When we arrived, we were instructed to put gowns over our clothing and shoe covers for our feet. Then we were taken around the facility where they talked us through their process, their monitoring, and their biosecurity protocol before generously feeding us lunch. We thanked them for their kindness and boarded our bus for the last stage of the program– chicken necropsy.
I did not expect to enjoy that component of the experience as much as I did, but it was one of my favorite experiences from the whole trip. We were tasked with trying to diagnose the causes for what we saw in our chickens and it was fun to apply the things we’ve learned in school to real-life cases. Then, just like that, the week was over and it was time to return to America.
It may seem like this blog post spoke less and less about the day-to-day experiences as it went further along, almost like time was flying by. I tried to capture the feelings I had as each day passed, knowing my too-short time was winding down but focusing on enjoying every moment left. This week was packed with so many unbelievably amazing experiences that have already shaped the way I see my future career in veterinary medicine. Putting everything I was able to do on this trip into writing would take a novel, but I can summarize this experience in one word: life-changing. The more time that passes, the more I find myself wishing that I had tried even harder to claw as much as I could from this experience.
