Today was the second day in Verona and it was filled with a visit to a college, a company tour, and a visit to a local mall where we got lunch. The college was the first place of the day to be visited; its name is the new academy of Design in Verona and it was truly a site to be seen. Our time spent there was filled with two lectures about how the school conducts its learning with hands on projects that vary between the different design specialization majors (architecture, clothing, literature, etc.) where they work with actual companies and get real applicable knowledge about their industries. The students varied in an age range from 19-26ish depending on if they went to university first or not, but even with age difference, all their work was remarkable. It showed true creativity and talent and was a true spectacle for the eye, especially the 3-D rendered apartment for the hotel room contest. Following the tour to the college was our lunch break to the mall, which was far cleaner than any American mall I have ever seen, but still a very familiar layout to what would be expected. For lunch we had traditional Italian sandwiches with fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, and various other unfamiliar ingredients all to make a delicious sandwich.

Following this was the visit to Mero and More, another textile company with huge importance to international markets, especially those in Japan, Russia, and the middle east for fashion. They were an example of a 100% Italian fashion company that did not have a significant market in Italy, but still ran off being an “Italian” fashion company. They do everything from cutting fabric, picking designs, and finishing up prototypes for companies for display. They have 40 stores part of a fashion consortium that produces clothing for fair prices and ships across the world working with over 300 companies. It was a very interesting day of visits and exploring, but there was a heavy language barrier today where actual translation was needed and it made it somewhat difficult to follow along to learn.