We load the suitcases and we are ready to go. The goal is not the best known, but the conditions are excellent. After a night of travel, immersed in the snow, we cross the border with Austria. Destination Graz.

The group of travelers is fun and varied: students, teachers, university collaborators and a driver. Loads of sandwiches and cameras.

We arrive in a quiet, livable and organized city, with a high percentage of contemporary architectural works and a few Italian waitresses. The hand of the architects is recognizable, the "Grazer Schule" is not part of the university program and yet knowing it seemed important for our course of study. But architecture is not the only thing encountered on this trip and neither is beer or sacher. The university centers and the tour around the city have shown us a reality that is not too far away for kilometers, but different from ours. A different culture and way of experiencing the city, history and places. The profession of the architect is also this, to find the most suitable way of living. Four days of red roofs and immense windows, an unthinkable contrast sometimes (the Italian superintendency would not agree too much) but of wonderful effect.

Napping a bit, we went home (as they always say after a trip) with a suitcase full of interesting ideas to start again and let's admit, even full of chocolate.

Erica Scalcione // Chiara Silenus

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