Why Italy

A good project on Greece, Italy, or Sicily?

This sumer I will be going on a trip with teh Sudent Ambassador Program to visit Italy, Sicily, Greece, and some of the Greek Isles. We will have three more orientation meetings before going (we've already had one), and on the last orientation date we are required to present a project on one or all of these places. Some examples of topics we have been given are: An in depth look at an era, signifigant event, or person in the country/places history Enironmental issues, conseration efforts, endangered species Food Customs Clothes/Fashion Music (traditional or contemporary) Film industry Animals unique to the region Geological actiity Artwork Any help would be much appreciated!

Public Comments

1. The choice is yours, you're going to go to those places anyways, but I'd recommend Italy.
2. OK, I am Greek so I will give you some ideas about Greece. An in depth look at an era: if you choose a political/historical topic, then I suggest the rise and fall of the military dictatorship from 1967 to 74 - research on that and on one of the main events during it: the student uprising against it on November 17th 1973 which ended with the army entering the university - and the 3rd Hellenic Republic that followed it - maybe either till 1980 or till 1989. This is a hard topic though, because you will have to do a lot of reading, since you might haven't heard of these events before. Environmental issues: this summer there were some terrible fires in south Greece, more precisely in Peloponnese, which resulted in a huge ecological disaster. Money were raised in an attempt to help people that lost their homes and to reforest the area. Political issues have been raised as to what is going to happen to the burned land - parts of it might be given for touristic development and some people do not like that. Food: Greek food is really amazing (and this is an objective opinion! :-D ). Go and try a lot of different kinds and write sth on that. The mediterranean cuisine is very different from the american one - in terms of ingredients etc - and I promise you that you will love it. (This is probably the best topic! Work and pleasure combined!) Customs: virtually every place has its own customs - dances, celebrations etc. It is a very good topic to write a PhD thesis, but I wouldn't recommend it as your subject, because it would be very hard to write something which would cover this broadly. Maybe if you focus only on the customs of the places you are going to visit. Geological activity: another good topic. Greece has earthquakes frequently. Especially the south west part of it. In the last 10-15 years there were some large and disastrous earthquakes; some of the most notable were in Athens in 1999 and in Αigio in 1995 Also, there is an active volcano on Santorini which is an island (don't imagine anything breathtaking. Just some emission of sulphur and that's all. The last explosion took place in 1950). BTW Santorini is maybe the most beautiful isle, so you should definitely go there. I hope I gave you a brief idea about some of the topics.