I sat on the high-speed train departing from the station of Milano Centrale with destination Firenze Santa Maria Novella, where I would meet some friends who had been studying Italian in Tuscany over the summer through Yale University’s Italian Department.

I was expecting a lot of things: the excitement of seeing some of my closest friends for the first time after the end of our first year at Yale, the crowds of tourists lined up in front of the Duomo and of the Uffizi Museums in the city center and the Tuscan summer heat that would provide the perfect excuse for a gelato break.