The first time I tasted zip lining was at Bretton Woods, NH. I loved that this experience was so diverse, offering more than just zip lines. We also encountered rappels, suspension bridges, and to end off the experience, a race where two participants zip lined side by side to see who was fastest.

For an experience unlike any other, with a knife in hand, learn to butcher a whole hog with an Italian Master Butcher. This is NOT a demonstration. This is a roll your sleeves up, elbow deep in meat kinda class, not for the faint of heart. And for those that choose, be witness to the slaughter the morning before.

 

People scream as the huge mass of bamboo poles and tissue paper plummets toward them. At the last moment, it pulls out of the dive and soars back up into the air. Everyone keeps a watchful eye on the giant kite. I’ve heard enough stories to know that these things really can hurt.

Prof. Victor Coonin has been “into” Italian Renaissance art history for his whole adult life, but the experience of doing his Masters degree at Syracuse University in Florence was unquestionably a formative one. Up close contact with original works of art allows you to live with art and understand it better.